Beauty

The Playlist Resistance

The phone was recovered from a protester detained during last month’s demonstrations in Tehran. When authorities returned it, three songs had been played on loop. Minor key. Sparse instrumentation. Vocals recorded in a bedroom, not a studio.

The authorities saw it as evidence of nothing. They returned the phone.

They did not understand what they were hearing.

The Three Songs

The first song is called “Silence in A Minor.” Four minutes. A single voice, a guitar, a cello that enters in the second verse. The lyrics are in Farsi, but you do not need to speak the language to understand what it is doing.

Beauty Is Not a Luxury

I have been told, by practical people, that beauty is a luxury. That in times of crisis – when people are hungry, when they are displaced, when they are fighting for survival – the arts are a secondary concern. Feed them first. Shelter them first. Protect them first. Then, when the crisis has passed, there will be time for music, for painting, for poetry.

I understand the logic. I reject it completely.