Cultural Appropriation and Assimilation in the New Global Context

This event is part of the 2020 Revolutions International Theatre (and Music!) Festival, put on by our friends at Tricklock Company.

Register for the event and we'll send you updates if there are any schedule changes, as well as info on future free programs and other events around Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

Having an understanding of Cultural Appropriation, Assimilation and Appreciation will help us to contextualize the way we interact with other cultures. Tourism, business practices, food, fashion, festivals, concerts and consumption on social media have far-reaching consequences on global communities due to America's cultural and economic dominance in the world.

This panel will address the complications facing presenters in choosing an International artist, and the crucial impact those choices have on various communities.  We will address the delicate balance between the need for commercial viability, community impact, and representation when choosing artists and promoting events. The panelists will discuss the differences between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation as a way to understand the various stakes involved in selecting an International artist. As diaspora becomes a more common lived experience for people around the world, the importance of using terminology that reflects the nuances of cultural fluidity, becomes tantamount when categorizing music and artists. Presenters will take away a questionnaire, terminology sheet, and viable guidelines of assessment in relation to genre, community perception, the foregoing impact, and artistic/social/political relevance, in order to guide them when choosing an artist. 

For more than a decade Niyaz, featuring Loga Roman Torkian and Azam Ali, has stood at the forefront of the global music tradition by seamlessly blending ancient Sufi poetry and folk songs from the Middle East to India, with rich acoustic instrumentation and state-of-the-art modern electronics. Niyaz has released four best-selling and critically acclaimed albums, and are committed to creating music with a deep social message aimed at uniting people from different cultural and religious backgrounds through our shared humanity. Guided by the mystical poetry of legendary Sufi poets and the ancient wisdom of traditional folk songs that impart the beauty of ethnic and religious minority groups in Iran and its surrounding regions in Middle East, Niyaz steps into a future that is ancient, inviting listeners to embark upon a philosophical quest into the human depths with a message of hope against injustice and oppression, a universal tribute to beauty, cultural and spiritual diversity, freedom and dignity for all.