Alia Jeraj

ALIA JERAJ 

Alia Jeraj (she & they) is a performer, writer, and educator in the Twin Cities. With a background in Western classical singing, Alia has shifted their musical focus towards learning the languages, folk songs, love songs, and hymns of her South Asian ancestors. When not singing, writing, or working to subvert mainstream education systems, you can find Alia curled up with hot chai and a book, or somewhere surrounded by trees.   

MANGO SONGS
Directed by Aamera Siddiqui 

In Mango Songs Alia explores memory loss. From the intimacy of witnessing their dad’s Alzheimer’s, to the memory loss that happens when families move across oceans and adopt new languages and customs, Alia asks, “How do you find a memory everyone has forgotten?” Mango Songs follows the beginning of her journey of (re)membering / (re)learning. 

Mango Songs includes the following pieces of music, along with original songs and improvisations: 

L’ho Perduta from Le Nozze de Figaro, Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte, 1786
Eji Darshan Diyo, Sayeda Imam Begum, ~1860
Prabhu Ji, Ravi Shankar, 1997
Parvata Taaraa, Suresh Dalal (1932-2012)  

I would like to express deep gratitude to all my teachers, and especially to Preeti Gujar and Ritika Ganguly, who have helped me find my voice in these songs.