Middle Easterners united by music

Even the most apathetic media consumer has probably heard something about a conflict in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians. The phrase “Peace in the Middle East!” was on the lips of just about every rapper in the U.S 10 years ago.

The upcoming United by Music event, to be held Friday, May 25, seeks to elide the obtuse politicking and faceless media positioning to bring people together under something they can agree on: damn fine beats.

Organized by Portland State’s Arab Persian Student Organization and Jewish Student Union, the party will feature a masquerade theme, Middle Eastern food, an all-night slide show of cultural sights, and opportunities to meet representatives from the various Mideast student organizations. The highlight of the evening will be DJ Prashant from Mumbai, India.

Prashant calls himself a DJ, but he’s so much more. Prashant doesn’t so much just spin records as throw a dance party that involves dance lessons, emceeing, live singing and performances.

“It’s pretty much like being in a Bollywood show,” he said.

While he spins primarily Bollywood and bhangra (Punjabi club music) at his regular “Jai Ho” events, his record collection and dance skills span the map from India to the Middle East, Greece, Latin America and these shores.

Emon Ghassemi, president of APSO, said that Prashant was ideal not only because of his wide popularity and his ability to bring many cultures together under a wide musical umbrella, but also because he is a neutral ground for Middle Easterners. He said that they’ve been sending him playlists of Iranian, Arab and Hebrew songs.

Prashant said he plans on spinning a variety of genres at the event and that, depending on the mood, he might give a Jai Ho dance lesson. “Jai Ho” is the name of Prashant’s weekly Indian-style dance party.

“It’s an ice breaker really. Often people have a tendency to be like, ‘Oh my god, I’m not going to go up on the floor and dance.’ It’s not what every average person does. I feel like dance lessons offer a way to be engaged,” Prashant said. “I myself learned dance from seven different languages and genres, so I know how to Samba, I know West African, Latin dances, hip-hop.”

Prashant, professing a sincere belief in the unifying power of music and dance, believes that they operate on a higher level and speak a universal language that everyone can understand.

Max Werner, co-president of the JSU, said that the dance party concept grew out of the wildly popular Stand Up for Peace comedy event that various Middle Eastern student groups held last year. He expects the event to draw approximately 400 students. They feel that this event is less overtly political than Stand Up for Peace and that it’s about more than just Jews and Arabs. It is about Middle East outsiders getting to know each other, too.

“We’re not here to teach Middle Easterners about the Middle East because they already know,” Emon said. “Our goal is to get the outsiders to come and see that Middle Easterners really can work together.”

Werner described the problem of cultural and political understanding—and the dance solution—thusly:

“It’s always like, ‘You’ve got to show a united front’…And I say, ‘First of all maybe we should take the focus off of that because, if we don’t talk about it for one minute, the world is not going to end. Why can’t we have something that’s not so politically charged? Let’s get together and hang out and get to know each other first.’”