The SWANA Center brought music and dance from the Southwest Asian and North African regions to the Sacramento State library quad at its first-ever SWANA Festival on April 15.
The festival celebrated cultures from the Southwest Asia and North African community with traditional music, dance, sweet treats and henna tattoos.
The SWANA Center opened in the fall of 2024. The purpose for the SWANA Center is to offer the students of this region cultural events, academic services and a sense of welcoming.
Sahar Razavi is the director of the Iranian and Middle Eastern Studies Center and faculty adviser in the Southwest Asian and North African Center.
Razavi said that, according to students from the SWANA region, faculty and staff from that part of the world are often historically underrepresented in universities in the United States.
“The first SWANA festival [is] very exciting for us to be able to highlight these voices and amplify these cultural aspects that I think a lot of people are familiar with in passing but not necessarily educated about,” Razavi said.
Razavi said the festival was not just for SWANA students but for the whole campus community.
“I think the more we have educational and celebratory events like this, the more we are fostering connections,” Razavi said. “In my opinion, the Sac State student body wants those connections and just doesn’t have enough opportunities to make them.”
Marwa Ahmed, a history adjunct faculty lecturer was at the festival swaying to the music and enjoying traditional treats. She said she wishes for the festival to help students learn that they are all connected to one another.
RELATED: GALLERY: Students come together for annual Out of the Darkness Campus Walk
“I teach a lot of the cultures that are covered today in SWANA,” Ahmed said, “I teach the history of ancient Egypt. Experience is very much comparable everywhere, and we have so much in common with one another.”
The SWANA Center brought in performers led by Narian Assadi, a musician who used to study music at Sac State.
“Performing outside of the Iranian community has a very special feeling for me because I’ve been playing Iranian music for the last 10 years and [am able to] pass this culture to the next generation,” Assadi said.
The performers played an Iranian drum called a daf, which created a sound that filled the festival and brought the spirit of dance to festival attendees.
Sac State students Mashale Rahmani, Henna Sandhu and Wazma Rashedy said they enjoyed their time dancing and celebrating a sense of unity at the festival.
“I think it’s a great sense of inclusion, and it feels very welcoming,” Rahmani said. “It’s a great way to have representation of different cultures, so everyone feels like they’re included.”
Sandhu said she feels as though it is not always possible to outwardly celebrate her culture. She said the festival helps her feel seen as a “different” student, with the political climate in the SWANA region right now.
“It’s really cool that we’re over here doing a Palestinian traditional dance, and they’re okay with that,” Sandhu said.
Rashedy said the purpose of the festival is to show other students what Middle Eastern or North African cultures are like instead of them making assumptions.
“It is really eye-opening to bring cultural awareness to campuses, especially because it teaches students,” Rashedy said. “Showing [them things] like cultures, dances and little small, traditional things that we can all learn from and we can all enjoy together.”
Razavi said the SWANA Center opened this school year, and she is excited to serve not only SWANA students but any student who is interested in the region.
Razavi said the SWANA region is an area of the world that is worth celebrating and an integral part of our campus culture.
“We recognize each other not only in spite of but because of those differences that we are willing to see, recognize, celebrate, amplify, embrace, protect, ” Razavi said. “We protect each other not because we’re similar – although sometimes we are – but because we care about each other.”
