A who’s who of South Asian artists, writers, journalists, filmmakers and intellectuals will soon arrive in the Bay Area for a weekend of conversations, art and poetry. The South Asian Literature and Art Festival gets underway at Stanford University Sept. 28–29 with a theme of “Plurality in Community.” That means the festival won’t shy away from complex topics such as caste, class, gender and borders “to understand,” as the event proclaims, “how individuality and collectivity can coexist and collide.”
This year’s keynote speakers include filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, who directed some of India’s most popular romantic films of the 2000s and 2010s. He made a comeback this year with the Netflix biopic Amar Singh Chankila, about the slain Punjabi singer whose murder remains unsolved.
Pakistani artist and professor Salima Hashmi will speak about her decades of efforts to unearth the work of overlooked female artists. Indian Parliament member and author Dr. Shashi Tharoor and Booker Prize-nominated Sri Lankan novelist Shehan Karunatilaka will also give keynote addresses.
The weekend also includes panels on a wide range of topics such as “South Asian Voice in an American Newsroom” (which features the Alameda-based host of NPR’s Here and Now, Deepa Fernandes), culinary panels such as “Tapestry of Taste” and “Blow Cold Be Cool: Ice Cream Panel,” and philosophical and spiritual discussions such as “Being Human: The Inner and Outer Journey.”
Book signings, poetry open mics and art exhibitions will punctuate the 22 discussions planned for the weekend, organized by Art Forum SF and the Stanford Center for South Asia.
“Here in the Bay Area, South Asians are definitely seen as the tech or the math people,” Ambika Sahay, executive director at Art Forum SF, told KQED last year. “We wanted to showcase through the SALA Festival that culture, art and literature is also very viable. And there is space for that within the South Asian community — and that South Asian community is doing a lot.”
