Kurdish Alevi Music and Migration

with Ozan Aksoy

hosted by Chris Gratien and Ceren Erdem

The songs and melodies of the Turkey's Alevi communities derive from a long history of song-making in Anatolia that is embedded in local geographies and indelibly tied to notions of worship and belonging. So what happens when, through migration and media, that music enters entirely new contexts? In this episode, we sit down with ethnomusicologist and musician Ozan Aksoy to discuss his research on Kurdish Alevi music in diasporic contexts and hear him perform some of his favorite selections live in the OHP studio.

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	Ozan Aksoy holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from CUNY, Graduate Center, where he is a postdoctoral fellow at the Middle East and Middle Eastern Center. He is also currently an instructor at New York University’s SPS-McGhee Division. (see academia.edu)
	Chris Gratien is a doctoral candidate at Georgetown University researching the social and environmental history of the Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East. (see academia.edu)
	Ceren Erdem is a curator based in New York and Istanbul. She received has an M.A. in Modern Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies from Columbia University an MFA from Sabanci University, Istanbul. She has curated online projects and publications, and onsite exhibitions in New York, Istanbul, and Seoul.

Episode No. 187
Release Date: 19 March 2015
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Editing and Production: Chris Gratien and Seçil Yılmaz
Music performed by Ozan Aksoy (track list below)
Bibliography courtesy of Ozan Aksoy

TRACK LIST

Ne Ağlarsın Benim Zülfü Siyahım
Cektirme Cefalara
Axbaba
Mehmet Ali Ağıtı
Ori Mazin
Isırgan Otu

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Click here for a reading list on Kurds in the Ottoman Empire prepared by Heather Hughes

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