WELCOME to SALIDAA’s newsletter
, relaunched
this month. In this newsletter you can read the latest SALIDAA News and enjoy
our Spotlight on a different artist each month with links to the website where
you can view more of this and other collections. We also keep you In the
Picture about recent book, music and film launches. In Calls for papers you can
check upcoming events for the academic and research community. This month we’re
starting up a new rotating column called Voicebox and we invite any and all of
our subscribers to share their views on any recent event, book or film that
they have recently been inspired by.
Turning the corner of Whitechapel High Street, up Osborn Street
onto Brick Lane last Sunday afternoon, you walk straight into a home-grown
festival of food, music, fashion, film and people. Above, the sky is hot and
pure blue, the air is warm and sultry and on the street the pavements are
crowded with packed tables and busy stalls dishing out platefuls of spicy and
pungent food to people passing by. Keep walking and you see a sea of heads
behind the Truman Brewery where the Chili Film Festival is broadcasting fresh
new short films all day long and the I Love Brick Lane fashion show flaunts its
wares. Its in its 11th year but the good thing about the Brick Lane Festival is
that it isn’t trying too hard – the atmosphere is easy-going, even with the
masses of day-trip immigrants to the East End. We head on to Allen Gardens and
the music stage to hear Sonik Gurus and the Shiva Sound System and the lucky
combination of bold beats and sunshine make people get up and dance. The day
ends quickly but not before a spin around the Sunday Up Market and a visit to
Madhubon Sweet Centre for some softness and sweetness to take home.
Do you have a review of a recent event, book or film that you’d
like to share with the SALIDAA community? We invite you to sound out the
Voicebox for yourself. Write in with around 200-300 words to
sharanya@salidaa.org and let us hear your voice. Please write in before the
21st September 2006 for October’s issue.
The Singh Twins: Amrit and Rabindra K D Kaur Singh
(1966 - )
Copyright: Amrit & Rabindra Kaur Singh
Completed in 2000, this painting is a private commission which
explores the universal concept of true love as defined by two great legends
from European and Eastern cultures (namely the Persian classic Layla Majnun and
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and contrasts this with the artists' view of the
state of relationships in today's individualistic, material world.
We’d like 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 new 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.
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 21st of each preceding
month, i.e. to have your event listed in October’s newsletter, please send
information by 21 September.
Mango Shake ed. Debjani
Chatterjee (Tindal Street Press, July
2006)
Mango Shake showcases four new British Asian fiction writers,
Zorina Ishmail-Bibby, Anish Desai, Bobby Nayyar and Harpreet Singh. Debjani
Chatterjee says: “A good anthology is like a tasty kedgeree – or khichuri as we
say in Bengali. It should have a choice mix of fresh and spicy ingredients; a
colour, texture and flavour that command attention; and a delicious and
substantial content that hits the right spot in the reader. It could also be
described as a fruit cocktail or a stir-fry. This is what I had in mind for
Mango Shake, but I was looking also for a quality that would make each stand
out from the crowd – the resulting dish is these eight striking stories that
indicate such potential and talent."
Ayesha’s Rainbow by Rabina Khan (Fore-word Press, September 2006)
"Ayesha's Rainbow's strength is that it written by someone who
has lived, worked and tried to understand her community, its problems and
failures from a position of wanting to understand it with empathy" – Rageh
Omar, BBC From www.fore-word.com: “Ayesha's Rainbow by Rabina Khan is about a
young and angelic seven year old Bangladeshi girl, growing up in an
inner-London City borough, who meets her elderly neighbour, Mrs Peters, a white
woman who has lived in the East End all of her life. She is lonely and averse
to change, especially towards accepting people of a different culture from her
own. A most unlikely, yet beautiful friendship develops between them, bringing
their two contrasting families together, crossing religious, cultural and
racial barriers. Only Graham Peters, the youngest sibling, wants to take a
different path, with a view to joining a racist political party. When Mrs.
Peters is attacked in her home, a chain of emotions unfolds, affecting both
families and the rest of the community. A time for questioning loyalties,
divisions, prejudices and friendship begins, in order to discover what really
happened to Mrs. Peters and more importantly, why? The book portrays the many
issues that affect both Bangladeshi and white working class families living in
inner London, such as the closure of the docks, ‘the end of an era' for
generations of many East End families as well as early Bangladeshi migrant
workers.”
Event: Book launch Dates: 15
September 2006, 19:00 Location: Borders, 203 Oxford
Street, London Pratibha Parmar's debut feature film
Nina's Heavenly Delights opens September 29th across the UK
A romantic comedy, written by Andrea Gibb and starring Shelley
Conn and Laura Fraser, about life in a Scottish town where Nina’s (Conn) family
owns an Indian restaurant. After years of estrangement, Nina returns to
confront old histories and new surprises and attempts to save her father’s
failing restaurant by winning a local curry competition. Director Pratibha
Parmar says, “The title of the film actually comes from my sister, Nina, who
once owned a catering company called, Nina’s Heavenly Delights. So that’s how
those different personal elements came together. Ultimately it’s a film about
family, food and love, all themes that I am interested in." The film also
features Art Malik (Holby City), Raji James (Eastenders), Ronny Jhutti
(Eastenders, Bollywood Queen) , Veena Sood (Touch of Pink) and Atta Yaqub (Ae
Fond Kiss). 14 year old Zoe Henretty debuts as Priya Shah, Nina's younger
sister.
Rishi Rich – “The Project” (2Point9 Records, August
2006)
Rishi Rich releases his eagerly anticipated debut album “The
Project” through 2Point9 Records. Shortly after joining 2Point9 Records in
2003, Rishi formed the Rishi Rich Project, a collective aimed at showcasing new
artists. With “The Project” Rishi's trademark fusion of bhangra, traditional
Indian music and urban beats has been extended to take in dancehall, reggaeton
and soca, alongside lyrics in Punjabi, Hindi, French & English, on what is
a distinctly international album.
A conference titled
‘Mutiny at the Margins’ New
Perspectives on the Indian uprising of 1857’
will be held in
Edinburgh, Scotland, in July 2007 (dates yet to be confirmed). The conference,
marking the 150th anniversary of the Indian Uprising will be organised by the
Centre for South Asian Studies at University of Edinburgh. The ambition is to
bring together British and Indian scholars with an interest in developing new
approaches and exploring new perspectives on this seminal event. The organisers
invite expressions of interest from anyone wishing to attend, contribute to or
host panels. For further information contact either Dr Crispin Bates,
Crispin.Bates@ed.ac.uk or Dr Andrea Major. andrea.major@btinternet.com
Workshop: ‘21st Pakistan Workshop: "Competing
Narratives’, Rook How, Lake District, 11-13 May 2007.
The 21st
Pakistan workshop will take place at Rook How in the Lake District from 11th to
13th May 2007.This workshop was founded to bring together anthropologists and
sociologists whose research involved Pakistan, Pakistani diaspora and South
Asian Islam. However, this workshop has also attracted scholars and researchers
from a broad range of disciplines including historians, political scientists,
economists and applied social scientists. In the recent years, the themes have
also included Gender studies, Health studies, History, Literature, Religious
studies and Management studies. We particularly welcome postgraduates from UK
and abroad who are working in similar subject areas and wish to receive a
friendly feedback from our group of academics and participants. This workshop
has also emerged as a joint platform for new (including postgraduate students)
and established scholars. It provides them the opportunity to get acquainted
with each other in order to motivate and inspire people working in common
fields of interest. This workshop is therefore normally kept small and intimate
with a group of 25 or less people.
The total cost of the Workshop will be £65-70 approximately for
those staying at the Rook How (this includes Workshop registration, reception,
breakfasts, Pakistani lunches, teas and coffees). A registration fee £30 for
the Pakistan Workshop 2006 should be paid either by cheque (payable to ‘The
Pakistan Workshop’) posted to Marta Bolognani, Department of Sociology and
Social Policy, Leeds University, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS2 9JT, UK, or through
Paypal. Due to limited places, we highly recommend an early registration. You
can register by contacting the workshop organisers: • Marta Bolognani, School
of Sociology and Social Policy, Leeds University, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS2
9JT, UK, Email: splmb@leeds.ac.uk • Nukhbah Langah, School of English, Leeds
University, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS2 9JT, UK, Email: dr.n.lit@gmail.com For
further information go to the URL http://psg.anthropology.ac.uk/workshop2007/
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
