Aar Manta cancels visit to Mankato due to visa delay

Faculty and students had incorporated musician into their classrooms

Aar Manta was scheduled to visit and perform in Mankato Oct. 1-7, but will no longer be visiting Minnesota due to a delay on his visa.

Manta told the StarTribune, “It’s extremely disappointing for my band and me to lose weeks of work that we meticulously planned for months,” Aar Maanta said in a written statement. “I was shocked to be singled out and discriminated against by the consulate, despite my influential work, clean record, integrity, and goodwill missions with international bodies like the U.N. It is heartbreaking to know that systematic discriminatory rules like the ‘Muslim ban’ put into practice in this day and age are affecting not only me but people in far more vulnerable situations.”

Dr. Jameel Haque, professor of history, and Dr. Danielle Haque, professor of English, have incoorporated Aar Manta’s music as a focus of study for part of the semester.

Their classrooms will now be affected in on way or another and prevent students from the exposure to Manta’s culture.

“For my own students of global literature, there are few opportunities to hear artists from other parts of the world, let alone to have the rare chance to craft and ask questions related to their own studies of history, literature, and politics,” Haque said.

Dale Haefner, performance series director and music industry studies professor, thought it would have been immensely beneficial to share his talents with the community.

“During this time of world-wide turmoil, I feel something is lost if we are not linking to and sharing with other world cultures.”