Persian Parade (past & present)

Last week, I went to the Persian New Year Parade with my friend, Shirin. The parade runs down Madison Avenue, and infamously occurs one month late of the actual new year. It's always a fun, if not, an emotional experience, especially when the Iranian national anthem starts playing and a flurry of voices are singing to it in unison, waving the Persian flag. These are the moments where I feel strangely between worlds, displaced and saddened. But then dancers and "Baba Noruz" come traipsing down the street with lively and colorful costumes, and everyone is clapping, and we are shaking our shoulders to the music.

This year saw a ton more people than years past. I was happy to see this, as more Iranians are coming out for this year after year. This year they even had a disco party in the fountain "pit" at Madison Square Park. It was great to see!

I took out some drawings I'd made of the parade from 2009, and made a few more from this year. They focus on the people's nationalism and pride. The people waving their flags always makes it seem like an uprising of a kind, but a positive one, reasserting identity.