| Abstract: |
Few visitors can leave Sanandaj, in Iran’s Kurdistan province, without
encountering assertions that it is “The City of Music.” This scene, however,
did not exist before 2019, when the city joined the UNESCO Creative Cities
Network (UCCN) in the field of music. Since then, the local UCCN secretariat
and the municipality of Sanandaj, have tried both to promote music as a brand
for the city and to involve the public and private sectors in integrating
culture in urban development plans. In this context, some Lotis—professional
musicians who are usually recruited to play in wedding ceremonies—have made
the streets their new performance venue. After the pandemic deprived them of
their usual livelihoods performing at weddings, they began performing on
pedestrian thoroughfares and in other public, high-traffic locations. These
performance settings would seem to align perfectly with the UCCN’s agenda, yet
Lotis have also faced continued marginalization by city authorities. Drawing
on ethnographic research among Lotis, their audiences, and local authorities,
and on documentation from the Sanandaj UCCN secretariat, I argue that although
the UCCN’s partnership with Sanandaj has provided Lotis with new professional
opportunities, police control on the streets has limited these musicians’
creative abilities they are renowned for, i.e., engaging mere observers in the
process of merrymaking. By examining how Lotis have reconciled their practice
with the municipality’s strategic plans in Sanandaj, I contribute to
ethnomusicological research on interrelations between sound and public space,
as well as UNESCO intangible heritage programs. |