One mic

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Since I have been traveling almost non-stop for the last several weeks, I never got a chance to report out on the Beats, Rhymes, and Life event that I organized with some friends in Houston a couple weeks back (July 19th). As a reminder, I was trying to emulate the success of Washington D.C.’s Subcontinental Drift series by bringing some soul to the south (by getting some of Houston’s South Asian artists together for a night). I was hoping that word of mouth would get about 50 people to show up. Half an hour into the event I was sweating as only about a dozen people showed. Thank goodness for the reliability of Indian Standard Time. Well over 100 people showed on a Thursday night! The drum circle was ridiculously good and we had spoken-word pieces, belly-dancing to Dhoom 2, a comedian, and DJ Raj Swift among the acts. The lesson here is that all you need is a city and one mic. Just make it happen in your city if you really want to see something like this there. Click below for larger pics of the event:

By the way, the best part is that Roopa got over 30 people signed up that night for her cousin Vinay’s bone marrow drive. When I worked the A.R. Rahman concert in Houston a month ago we only signed up ~70 people out of a crowd of thousands. Way to represent here.
And for those of you asking…we’ll do it again.

5 thoughts on “One mic”

  2. It was! Would love to see more…I like it that we finally have our very own brown underground location.

  3. absolutely great event. mad props to abhi and his friends for putting together such a wonderful evening. the dj rocked, the drum circle was nutz, the belly dancers, drama skit, etc…you all missed a great evening ! looking forward to more !