Think Globally, Act Locally
On social media, the Iranian diaspora, and learning to ask for things at 44.
You’ll notice I’m showing up a little more on social.
I’ve started a daily practice of recording and sharing a daily sunset video. I’ve had a few false starts in this practice. While deep in an extended period of ultra solitude and in writing mode, I hit moments where I wanted to connect with my people and found that the introvert friction made it a little harder. Also I really struggled with how much I want to contribute to this social media machine. I have it to thank of a great deal of the community I have but it also has crossed the tipping point in the amount of harm it has caused. Where I’m at with it currently is to see it as like SDG&E or any other service provider; I don’t like the monopoly but I’m not fully ready yet to fully pull the plug and go off grid. So, for now, I’ll play along and do so with very intentional containers and constraints.
One of those personal guard rails for me is that I avoid DMs and Messenger. If we’re friends, you have my number. If you’re a client, you go through the proper channels via my website contact page, business email, or my booking manager. I try to minimize the amount I’ll allow social media’s intrusive pings and bings and notifications to affect my mental health.
What I do want is to connect with my people more, to keep ya’ll in the loop on what’s been going on, and to utilize the machine to do some ever-so-slight good in a world very much on fire.
And when I feel like the machine is draining me too much, I’ll take a few steps back for a little while. Boundaries, MF! ;p
Speaking of attempting to have a better relationship with systems and machines I’ve not historically been nuts about… I’m finally starting to get into the money side of the arts.
The amount of pro-bono work I’ve done, as an artist, cultural architect, and photographer, has been enough to buy me good will for the next couple of decades.
I think.
I hope.
I’ve always jumped head first into being of service without thinking twice about the money. But I’m now making a shift. It would be impossible to reprogram my brain at 44 to cease being service forward and purpose first. But I am adding a layer of getting more comfortable with money, and truly believing that my presence and leadership in the world is valuable to a lot of people, artists and capitalists alike.
I am educating myself more on grants and have been building out the business back end of my creative work. The perfect opportunity to practice all this has come up as I’ve been working with North Park Music Fest this year, helping to secure sponsorships to support a great event which is focused on supporting the arts in my home town.
Speaking of home… Sometimes I worry that my not consistently posting about Iran may lead folks to think that I’m indifferent. I’m keenly aware of world events. I can’t not be. What most of you see on the news sometimes lives inside of me at all times. Iran sits in my thoughts every day, and has been long before most Americans could even point it out on a map. My family has been glued to the news about Iran not just for the past few weeks, but for the past 47 years.
Many Iranians in the diaspora have historically seemed to me to have leapt to the extremes of the spectrum, either glued to the news and obsessed at all times with Iranian politics or kinda detached and swimming in Gucci and Chanel and BMWs. The former might’ve just developed an addiction to the trauma. The latter have perfected performative passion and public grand standing. Persians who’ve never even been to Iran are having quite the moment on TikTok. Just add “Iranian diaspora” in your post and you’ll get a ton of views. But I digress…
My takeaway from this upbringing has been the opposite of the extremes which I’ve observed. My belief is that the best way we can contribute to the world is to focus on our long term purpose. The ocean currents shift, but steady we keep. I’ve put it a lot of work to develop this tiny megaphone I’ve duct taped together and this little bit of good will I’ve generated in my community and my following. I consider very carefully how I activate it. My life’s mission is to foster what I call Artist Consciousness. I thrive on being a unifier and a source for grounding. I feel most at home when protecting, serving, and guiding artists. My ideal world is effortlessly pluralistic and my roll, as I see it, is to help amplify the voices to contribute to the kind of reality I most wish to see. In many ways, I feel like I’m still that little boy in Tehran, sitting with all the grownups at the card table, and simply feeling elated at seeing a big group of people with diverse personalities just getting along. I want to help the world just get along. It’s a tall order. But it’s what I’ve been doing and what I plan to continue doing while I inhabit this human body. When I think about posting a hot take that will for sure get a ton of views, I’ll ask myself: Is this gonna help the world get along better? Is it going to help me get to that destination I’ve been seeing for the past decade? Am I modeling the nuance and intentionality I wish to see more of in the world?
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Some of the more firey Iranians, I think, might see my focusing on supporting a local music festival as frivolous. I see is as the next move on the greater path. Instead of those two extremes, I think (I hope) I’m continuing to walk the middle way, towards a place where I’m in an even better position to support my people, particularly the artists. We don’t hear anywhere near as much as we should from Iranian artists in the diaspora. I have opinions about that, but I won’t get into that here. For now, lets just focus on this next step.
I want to connect with more folks who are interested in financially supporting the arts. Folks in positions to either personally fund art projects and events or those in decision-making rolls at companies who have budgets for sponsorships. I’m also learning more about grants. Turns out there’s money out there for this all this community building and crap I’ve been doing for the past 20 years.
Who’s in my corner?
There is no roadmap to what I’ve been building and it can get really freaking lonely out here. If any of what I’ve written inspires in you any suggestions, thoughts, or ideas, I want to hear them. If you want to introduce me to anyone, I want to meet them. I’m in this for the long haul. If you’ve read this far, even if we’ve yet to meet, you’re probably in this with me as well.
If this landed, share it with one person. If you want to support the work in other ways — photography referrals, direct patronage, or just spreading the word — it's all at arashafshar.com/kanye.
