Bruce Springsteen. Joan Baez. Taif Jany?
Some of the world’s top performers gathered recently to help celebrate in song Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday with a big bash at Madison Square Garden.
Jany ’12 wasn’t among the glitterati at the Garden; instead, two days earlier, the Iraqi refugee got to sing with the renowned activist and folk singer at the Beacon Sloop Club on the Hudson River.
Jany led Seeger and the audience in a special rendition of “This Land Is Your Land,” the classic Woody Guthrie tune Seeger helped make popular. Jany and some friends had reworked the lyrics when he and his family fled to Syria from Baghdad about three years after the U.S. invaded Iraq.
This land is your land, this land is my land
From old Ramadi on to Baquba
From the Zahko Mountains to the Basra waters
This land is made for you and me
Jany, a biology major who hopes to be a cardiologist, is finishing up his first year at Union after arriving on campus as part of the Iraqi Student Project. The College is among the first 14 schools to participate in the project, which helps refugees attend U.S. colleges.
The project supports two of Union’s key strategic objectives, diversity and internationalism. As an ISP member institution, Union waives tuition, room and board for a qualified student, while volunteers raise money for air fares, books, course materials and miscellaneous expenses.
A number of students and faculty, including Naazia Husain ’08, Darcia Datshkovsky ’10, and professors Eshragh Motahar (Economics), Andrew Feffer (History and Film Studies) and Daniel Mosquera (Modern Languages and Literatures), organized fundraisers and offered other support to Jany. Local community organizations also have pitched in.
Jany, 19, admits he had never heard of Seeger when he got a call from Andrew Courtney, a documentary filmmaker whom Jany met in Syria. Courtney, a friend of Seeger’s, invited Jany to the birthday party in Beacon to talk about the ISP.
“I didn’t expect to sing,” laughed Jany. “They kind of forced me to do it.”
Seeger seemed moved by the sing-along, particularly when Jany presented him with a copy of the special lyrics as a birthday gift. Afterward, Jany received his own gift, when Seeger leaned into his ear and serenaded him with a familiar Lebanese song.
In Arabic.
“I was shocked that he knew it,” said Jany. “It was very nice.”
To watch a video of Jany and Seeger, click here.