All right, stop whatcha doin’, ’cause I’m about to ruin the image and the style that ya used to.
New York City-area Mutineers (and all those green-tinged brown people who, like me, wish that they were): cancel your weekend plans. These are better, I PROMISE.
The South Asian Woman’s Creative Collective is sponsoring some temporary nirvana this Friday through Sunday, as they present M I X E D M E S S A G E S, a sepia-colored festivus for the literary-minded rest of us at Marymount Manhattan College. It’s their fourth conference, so you know it’s going to be as smoove as I am when slightly tipsy.
A three-day series of readings, panels and workshops, “Mixed Messages” will explore non-mainstream genres, highlight writers who use new media, and focus on writing communities. [SAWCC]
Not one, but TWO Mutineers will be there: Amardeep is moderating Friday night’s reception and I’m speaking on a panel on Sunday afternoon. Details for both of those chunks o’ heaven are below, the entire schedule (which I demand you peruse, because it’s THAT hot) is available here.
Friday, May 19: Kick-Off Reading and Reception 7PM, $15
Amitav Ghosh (Incendiary Circumstances, Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
Vijay Seshadri (The Long Meadow: Poems, Graywolf Press, 2005)
Sara Suleri Goodyear (Boys Will Be Boys: A Daughter’s Elegy, University of Chicago Press, 2003)
Moderated by Amardeep Singh (Assistant Professor of English at Lehigh University)
Sunday, May 21: 3PM-5PM, FREE Panel Discussion: Mixed Messages: South Asian Literature and New Media
Anna John (SepiaMutiny)
Ravi Shankar (editor of DrunkenBoat.com)
Yesha Naik (podcaster and performer)
Ram Devineni (filmmaker and publisher of Rattapallax Press)
Amitava Kumar (Husband of a Fanatic, New Press, 2005) (moderator)
For you bargain-minded desis who noticed the wee $15 cost for Amardeep’s sure-to-be fantastic event– just know that breakfast on both Saturday and Sunday are free, as are most of the other activities during the day. Que bueno el deal-o, as the President would not say.
I just feel sorry for our rock star of a guest blogger Neha; the poet whom she profiled here, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, is part of Sunday night’s showcase of brown female writers, so I’m sure she wishes she could attend. I could go on and on and tell you more tantalizing tidbits, like how long-time mutineer Pooja Makhijani helped put this phenomenal weekend together AND is a part of the first panel on Saturday (South Asian Youth Lit), but I don’t want to rub it in for those of you who can’t go. We’ll take plenty of pictures for you, how’s that? Not good enough? Um…well, this is awkward. May I suggest an eleventh hour road trip? Even with painful gas prices, it would be totally worth it and really, how many things can you say THAT about these days?
Kaavya, Kaavya, Kaavya!
SAWCC is honored to have both A N N A and Amardeep as part of our fourth festival.
A few updates: Our night of dance and music features Bharatanatyam dancer Malini Srinivasan accompanied on piano by Ilari Kaila; a tabla solo by Sejal Kukadia; and a piano solo by world-renowned conductor George Mathew. (George was blogged about on SM here.)
Sunday night’s showcase with feature: Beena Ahmad, Shahnaz Habib, Alka Bhargava, Sejal Shah, Yesha Naik, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Kavita Mokha, and Sheba Karim.
And… there are only a few spaces left in both the screenwriting master class with Sabrina Dhawan (of Monsoon Wedding fame) and food writing workshop with master chef Vikas Khanna, New York Times writer Julia Moskin, and cookbook author Ramin Ganeshram. (Julia’s work has been blogged about on SM, too!)
For more details, visit Screenwriting Workshop and Food Writing Workshop.
/end shameless, shameless plug
Sorry to miss this, but nice Digital Underground reference. 😉
I have NO idea what you’re talking about…all my shit is original, yo. 😉
I’ve been poking around this blog for about 2 months, increasingly impressed at each visit by the candor, passion, courage and insights. I just got tingles pulsating through me reading the intro to Pooja’s anthology Under Her Skin and reliving some of my own happy/sad childhood memories. So, thanks, to the bloggers, posters, links to other wonderful brownness that has helped the apprehensive brown girl in me shine a lil brighter.
The SAWCC festival sounds fantastic. I will definitely stop by to support.
Oh shucks, ya done gone made me right jealous, mami. I’ll keep doing my humpty hump here in the bunker, just passing time till the pictures come out.
o mein Gott. ANNA’s going to be there, and Amardeep, and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (hell yeah, I totally copy-pasted that rockstar-ish name), and there’s going to be tabla, dammit! TABLA! And free beakfast. FREE. Ahhh, why am I in California right now? I am so green-tinged. I’d try the 3,000-mile, eleventh-hour road trip, but, alas, with gas prices as they are, I’d probably be so financially wiped out that I’d never be able to muster the gas funds to return to CA. Then again, you make setting up permanent residence in NYC sound hella good, Anna.
Espressa, your comment made my very difficult day.
Sacrificing almost two years of sleep/spare time for this unpaid-part-time job? So worth it, for results like that. I hope I get to meet you at SAWCC this weekend.
please some body ask Amitav Gosh about the ending of his novel glass palace… What the hell was the with the sexual prevertedness of geriatrics you know the bit where they get their dentures locked ?
I’ll be there, coyly willing to reveal myself if you know the password:
Kaavyasucks!, I mean, SepiaRocks!Amazing group! I wish I was in New York on Sunday to attend Vikas Khanna workshop. I have attented his event and cooking demo once, he is a darling. I also wanted to meet amardeep. My bad luck, maybe next time. Good Luck, what a group! hope its not raining!
good luck SAWCC. South Asians are HOT now