In just a couple short weeks, I will be traveling to Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan and Nashville’s newest sister city.
For Nashville’s Kurdish community, clothing and culture are interwoven
For Nashville’s Kurdish community — a people whose culture has historically come under fire — clothing is a tangible way of preserving their traditions.
A new wave of Kurds fleeing Turkey bring their own sound to Music City
Nashville has the largest Kurdish population of any city in the U.S., and most are from the Iraqi region of Kurdistan, also known as Bashur. They arrived in waves starting in the 1970s, with the largest influx prompted by Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaigns in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
What is a ‘sister city’? Nashville prepares for cultural exchanges with Erbil, the capitol of the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
A partnership roughly a decade in the making is about to become official: Nashville and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, are in the homestretch of formalizing a relationship as “sister cities.” Erbil would become Nashville’s tenth sister — a designation that involves travel, cultural and professional exchanges.
Connecting Nashville to the world with Sister Cities Nashville
Have you met Nashville’s sisters? Sister cities, that is. If you didn’t know, the long-running Sister Cities Nashville program has formal partnerships with nine — and soon to be 10 — international cities.
Protests in Iran hit home for Nashville’s Iranian and Kurdish communities
In Nashville, the Iranian and Kurdish communities have held several demonstrations in solidarity with the protests in Iran in an effort to raise awareness of what’s going on. Many still have family in Iran and worry for their safety. In this episode, we’re joined by members of the local Iranian and Kurdish communities to hear about their concerns.
Curious Nashville: How the city became a destination for Kurdish families, and how the community is evolving
You may be aware that Nashville is home to the biggest population of Kurdish people in the United States — Kurds, who are considered the largest ethnic group in the world without a sovereign state. But one Curious Nashville listener asked how Nashville came to be such a destination for Kurds. The answer is multi-layered.
From Kurdistan to Nashville
In this episode, we’ll unpack how Nashville became a destination for Kurdish refugees starting in the late 1970s and then hear from local Kurds about their future hopes and ambitions for their community.
Nashville’s Kurdish community celebrates Newroz with thousands attending the first new year event since the pandemic began
As thousands of Kurds gathered to celebrate Newroz, marking the new year, on Sunday, Mayor John Cooper announced that he had signed a declaration making March Kurdish Heritage Month in Nashville.
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