Salidaa Newsletter
05/03/2007

WELCOME to SALIDAA’s March newsletter. Find out the latest in SALIDAA News . Check out an invitation for a new blog in the Voicebox , and see the Spotlight on featured artists. Get In the Picture about recent book and film releases and browse the March Events Listings . View information for students, researchers, academics and arts practitioners in Calls for papers /Opportunities .

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Big Brother: return of the 'racial' real? An invitation to contribute to darkmatter - a new online blog-journal: www.darkmatter101.org What does the recent response to the events in the UK Celebrity Big Brother say about the state of local/global race, gender and class relations? Is Reality TV the political unconscious of the everyday? Are Channel 4 and Endemol responsible for 'race relations'? Does the 'victory' for the Bombay cinema star Shilpa Shetty indicate the triumph of anti-racism and/or multicultural neo-liberalism? Is the 'exotic beauty' of the middle-class Indian femininity the new Orientalist discourse of contemporary geo-politics? Are the white working class the new pathologised racial underclass?
These and many other questions are raised by the Big Brother event. You are invited to contribute towards the first special issue of a new online blog-journal darkmatter. A project committed to producing incisive post-colonial cultural critique in a world of information banality and cultural mediocrity.
Contributions of 500-3000 words in whatever genre or form are welcome. Please send pieces for this first issue to us by 26 March 2007.
If you would like further information see about the special issue contact us directly via email at editors@darkmatter101.org

Do you have a review of a recent event, book or film or an idea or debate that you’d like to share with the SALIDAA community? We invite you to sound out the Voicebox for yourself. Write in with 200-300 words to sharanya@salidaa.orgsharanya@salidaa.org and let us hear your voice. Please write in before the 21st March 2007 for April’s issue.

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Kuljit Bhamra teaching young student – Photograph, mid-1990s
Kuljit Bhamra (1959 - )
Copyright: Tony Saunders
This black and white photograph was taken during the mid 1990s at a workshop held at Middlesex University, of which Kuljit Bhamra is an alumnus of. The photograph depicts Bhamra teaching a young student to play the tabla.
Click here to see the Kuljit Bhamra Collection

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Researcher’s Directory: We aim to provide a forum for ongoing engagement with our collections, and invite all those interested in South Asian Diaspora literature and arts to contribute to a Researcher’s Directory that will appear on our website. The list may be used as a point of contact for those interested in debate, discussion and collaboration with others and it will foster a research community around the SALIDAA digital archive. If you are interested in being included in the directory, please send your name, affiliation, areas of research/interest, and email address to sharanya@salidaa.org.uk.

Forthcoming Events: If you would like the SALIDAA Newsletter to list your forthcoming events please email sharanya@salidaa.org with all details including Event Title, Dates and Times, Location, Description (max. 200 words), Admission Fees. Please notify us about your forthcoming event by the 25th of each preceding month, i.e. to have your event listed in April’s newsletter, please send information by 25 March.

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Writing Sri Lanka: Literature, Resistance & the Politics of Place by Minoli Salgado
(Routledge, December 2006)
Focusing on ways in which cultural nationalism has influenced both the production and critical reception of texts, Minoli Salgado presents a detailed analysis of eight leading Sri Lankan writers - Michael Ondaatje, Romesh Gunesekera, Shyam Selvadurai, A. Sivanandan, Jean Arasanayagam, Carl Muller, James Goonewardene and Punyakante Wijenaike - to rigorously challenge the theoretical, cultural and political assumptions that pit 'insider' against 'outsider', 'resident' against 'migrant' and the 'authentic' against the 'alien'. By interrogating the discourses of territoriality and boundary-making that have come into prominence sine the start of the civil war, Salgado works to define a more nuanced and sensitive critical framework, that actively reclaims marginalized voices and draws upon recent studies in immigration and the diaspora, to reconfigure the Sri Lankan critical terrain.

Mosquito by Roma Tearne
(Harper Press Fiction, March 2007)
Mosquito is the first novel by Roma Tearne who came to England at the age of 10. Tearne is also a visual artist currently based in Oxford who will be exhibiting at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford this month. The exhibition will include the paintings seen in the endpapers of Mosquito. The novel is story of love, loss and war, set in Sri Lanka, London and Venice. When author Theo Samarajeeva returns to his native Sri Lanka after his wife's death, he hopes to escape his gnawing loss amidst the lush landscape of his increasingly war-torn country. But as he gives himself up to life in his beautiful, tortured land, he also finds himself slipping into friendship with an artistic young girl, Nulani - a friendship that gradually blossoms into love. Under the threat of civil war, as the quiet coastal town fills with whispers and suspicions, their affair offers a glimmer of hope to a country on the brink of destruction.

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Auditions for Indian/Bollywood dancers, Dancing Nikita Company , Featherstone Sports Centre, 11 Montague Waye, Southall, Middlesex
The Dancing Nikita Company are holding auditions for advanced level dancers of ANY ethnic origin to join their Bollywood dance troupe. Previous Indian/Bollywood dance experience is ideal but not necessary for the audition as we will train successful participants. Details of the audition are as follows: Date: Sunday 11th March 2007. Venue: Downstairs studio, Featherstone Sports Centre (next to high school), 11 Montague Waye, Off Western Road, Southall, Middlesex (near Southall train station). The audition process will consist of: Between 2-2.30pm, each dancer will individually present their own dance piece for 2mins of their strongest technique. In this piece we will be looking for rhythm, timing of the candidate, projection of movement, clarity of movement, energy, stage presence and expression. Successful dancers will be asked to stay for the workshop. Workshop will be a 15min session from 3pm where you will learn Kathak, Bollywood & Modern dance movements. We will be testing your pick up skills according to the pace that we teach our choreography. You will be asked to then leave the room and wait in the reception area for 15-20mins whilst the judge(s) decide. You will be brought back in small groups to be told the verdict. Dancing Nikita Company Tel: 07904 075144. E-mail: admin@dancingnikitacompany.com www.dancingnikitacompany.com
Auditions: 11 March 2007, 14:00-15:00

Indicorps Fellowship Programme, 2007-2008
Are you a changemaker? Are you committed to improving the lives of others? Do you believe in leading with integrity? Do you have the passion and motivation to inspire an entire community?
Can you be the change you wish to see in the world?
Indicorps is a programme designed to allow talented young people of Indian origin the opportunity to dedicate a year of their lives to empowering communities in India. Successful applicants will be partnered with grassroots NGO’s to find sustainable solutions to some of India’s most pressing problems such as education, public health and civic engagement.
There is no such thing as a typical project, just as there is no such thing as a typical Fellow. Indicorps team members come from all religions, backgrounds and experiences. They are united by their commitment to working towards a common vision of a better India, and are motivated to do everything they can to create sustainable change in the communities that they serve.
For more information, including how to apply, please visit www.connectindia.org.uk/indicorps and http://apply.indicorps.org/
Or write to info@indicorps.org.uk
Deadline: 01 April 2007

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Please note: This archived version of the SALIDAA newsletter does not contain the monthly events listings. If you would like to be signed up to receive the full newsletter please email sharanya@salidaa.org.uk.

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