Music of Resistance: Benefit for Iranian Civil Rights

Online, March 1, 2010 (Newswire.com) - On Saturday, March 6th, the internationally acclaimed broadcast The Week in Green with Hamid Dabashi will hold a benefit concert at Santo's Party House in New York City to support the weekly webcast covering Iran's civil rights movement.

The benefit concert, scheduled to run from 7pm - 11pm, will feature a headlining performance by the renowned Iranian hip hop artist Shahin Najafi. Born in Iran, Najafi immigrated to Germany after facing pressure from the Iranian government to remove the political messages from his music. Upon moving to Germany, Najafi originally began performing with the group Tapesh 2012, before leaving to pursue a solo career. His first solo album Illusion was released in 2009 to widespread critical acclaim.

Two other Iranian bands, The Yellow Dogs and Hypernova, will play their unique styles of indie rock earlier in the evening. The Yellow Dogs formed in Tehran, Iran in 2006 as part of the city's burgeoning underground indie rock scene that was documented in the acclaimed feature No One Knows About Persian Cats. Hypernova, also originally formed in Iran, have been featured in stories by MTV, The New York Times, and NPR among others for their progressive and energetic music and live performances.

The Week in Green with Hamid Dabashi airs weekly 10-minute episodes with the latest news from the Iranian civil rights struggle and nuanced analysis of the issues facing the movement with leading scholars, artists, and activists. The program has received over 100,000 hits on YouTube, in addition to thousands more on various reformist sites affiliated with the movement, and it has received favorable coverage on PBS, the BBC, and CBS, among other outlets. This is the first benefit concert the show's producers have organized.