Author Archives: Taz

About Taz

Taz is an activist, organizer and writer based in California. She is the founder of South Asian American Voting Youth (SAAVY), curates MutinousMindState.tumblr.com and blogs at TazzyStar.blogspot.com. Follow her at twitter.com/tazzystar

Eteraz’s Children of Dust: Review [Part 1]

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Ali Eteraz is a name well known to the blogosphere, and of course, Sepia Mutiny. A Pakistani-born Muslim American, lawyer, writer, and activist, Ali’s writing has often been quoted here at Sepia Mutiny, and this Oct 13th Ali’s highly anticipated memoir Children of Dusthits a bookstore near you.

Children of Dust: A Memoir of Pakistan is a about a Pakistani male’s journey of autonomy set against the backdrop of global Islam and located deep inside Pakistan’s colorful but thus far neglected international diaspora. The timely piece of literature provides an engaged look at the pain, pathos, and laughter among Muslim-American lives otherwise obscured by abstract ideas such as “the clash of civilizations” and “the war of ideas.” … With gentle self deprecation Eteraz tells the story of every young person trying to figure out what they believe about religion, people, and life.[harper]

I’ll admit it, I opened the pages to Children of Dust with reluctant apprehension. But from the first page, Ali reels you in to a tale, beautifully prosaic, human, and intelligent. Intertwined with Islamic scholarship, youthful eagerness, self-effacing arrogance, defeated hopefulness, and sardonic humor, Children of Dust presents the struggles of a youth being raised Muslim and American and all the issues that come with it. The words are brilliantly laced, and easy to read. I found the book difficult to put down, staying up all night with a cup of chai engrossed in the adventure of Ali’s life. There was more than a few times where I verbally exclaimed or laughed at what I was reading. Continue reading →

There Once Was a Man From Tajik

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Whaaaaat! Watch and be amazed.

Who is this Tajik Jimmy from Russia?

The rise of Mr. Allaberiyev, widely known as Tajik Jimmy, a migrant worker in a provincial Russian stockroom who delivers astonishing renditions of Bollywood musical numbers, is one more testament to the strange power of the Internet. A little more than a year after one of his performances was filmed by a co-worker with a cellphone and posted online, Mr. Allaberiyev cannot walk through a crowd in the Russian capital without being stopped by fans.nyt

I once had an older Vietnamese colleague sing me a Bollywood song, a remnant from her childhood of being raised in Vietnam before she escaped. I was stunned that Bollywood had reached so far in such a restrictive country. Seems like Bollywood to Russia took a similar path. Continue reading →

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Meetup Hits Bean Town

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bostonSkyline.jpgWhy, hello Boston. Home of Haaaarvard, Dunkin Donuts, Jhumpa Lahiri and the Red Sox. And brown people. Boston is home to plenty of South Asians.

How is it then that Sepia Mutiny has never hosted a Boston Meetup?

It’s about time to flip the script. So how about it? Let’s all get together for Boston’s first ever Sepia Mutiny Meetup?

Join Ravi, Phillygrrl and Taz Friday, September 25th for the best brown event to blast Boston. I’ll be visiting from LA, Phillygrrl is flying in specially from Philly, and Ravi is the ‘local’ hosting it all. It will be a first meetup for Phillygrrl and Ravi, and I promised them I’d make it just as good as the ones I’ve hosted in the past. Bostonians, don’t let me down.

  • DATE: September 25th, Friday
  • TIME: 5:30pm – 8:00 pm
  • WHERE: All ages dessert spot, Finale in Harvard Square
  • RSVP: In the comments below. Leave your e-mail address so we can contact you if things change.

Mmmm, chocolate. And brown people. Can’t wait. The location is tentative – we were looking for a place to congregate around happy hour time that would also be all ages. We also are not sure if they will take reservations for bigger parties. We chose Harvard Square area to accommodate students. If you have another location that you’d like to suggest, please drop it in the comment section as well. I also kind of wanted to check out DJ Kayper later that evening.

Don’t be skerred. Meetups are fun. You get to meet new people, make new friends, and I may even turn on Sepia Destiny full force so you can get a date out of it. Meetups are open to everyone – from the adamant commenter to the quiet lurker. ALL are welcome! COME! Continue reading →

Red Baraat: Bhangra, Brass and Bringing It

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Bumping beats to rearrange heart beats, Red Baraat is “Hoi, hoi-ing” into the hearts of people across the nation. Established in 2008, this nine member New York City based “dhol ‘n’ brass band” has quickly risen to the top in the ‘world music’ circuit (and wedding circuit) of the NYC area. Red Baraat is now taking it outta The City with their first new album, Chaal Baby, set to drop January 2010 and a Midwest tour scheduled in Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago for Sept 17th – 20th. Never to fear, New Yorkers, Red Baraat isn’t leaving without a special show for you on Sept 11th at 92YTribeca w/ Nation Beat.

Haven’t heard the sounds of Red Baraat yet? Well you can check out their YouTube videos and, exclusively for Sepia Mutiny readers, you can download their track Balle Balle for FREE. Right here. If you enjoy the track, you can go to www.redbaraat.com and download a ringtone of Chaal Baby as well. That’s right, I pull strings for you. Because I love you.

<a href="http://redbaraat.bandcamp.com/track/punjabi-wedding-song-balle-balle">Punjabi Wedding Song (Balle Balle) by Red Baraat</a>

Enjoy the track as you listen to my interview with drummer Sunny Jain and trumpeter Sonny Singh as they talk about music, fusion, inspiration and more.

1. How would you describe Red Baraat’s music?

Sunny: Well, the sound of the band is based on acoustic instruments bringing a powerful primal sound: dhol, percussion, sousaphone and several horns. While the foundation is North Indian Bhangra, there is a multitude of musical elements clashing together, such as funk, hip-hop, go-go, rock, jazz, Latin. Also, there’s a good deal of vocal interaction with the audience, from Punjabi singing, to English rapping, to group call-and-responses.

Continue reading →

Border Patrol Hassles the Well Rested

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seal_customs.jpgOn a recent road trip from L.A. to Austin, my car was pulled over and hassled by the Border Patrol. By “hassled”, I mean that our car was questioned for longer than a normal amount of time which I simply attributed to the fact that the car was full of colored hair Muslim punks. We were allowed to pass without getting out of the car or a dog search. It was confusing too, since we weren’t crossing any national borders, we were just close to the Texas and Mexico border.

My “hassled” is nothing compared to the detention that Hamdan Yousef experienced at the Canadian border. He has a fascinating narrative on it over at Huffington Post.

I was returning home on a Sunday evening from a leisurely drive to Canada two weeks ago, and the Customs and Border Protection officer in the booth had a blank look on his face…Moments later, my car had been surrounded by heavily armed agents dressed in black and I was being asked to hand over my keys and step out of my vehicle.

I had entered the legal netherworld of the border, and it would be an experience to remember.[huffpost]

Yousef is detained and questioned while his car is searched. He eventually gets frustrated and goes up to the counter to figure out what is going on. Continue reading →

The Desi Girl Dilemma

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eye cream jar.jpgThis morning I experienced a personal mini-crisis. When I went to apply my eye cream, specially purchased on my last trip to India I realized – I had just run out. It was like one of those scenes in a movie where time stood still and zoomed in close on the empty container.

Desi girls are brown. Which means that our skin has a high level of pigmentation, unlike the pigmentation of the majority of girls in America. This means that there are probably a few common experiences that we share. At some point in our teenage make-up experimentation stage we were told to purchase the generically colored “tan” foundation and/or concealer despite it not matching our skin tone at all. We wore a ghastly bright red lipstick because someone said it looked good with our skin. Finally is the struggle to find the perfect eye cream to battle those undereye bags that a large percentage of South Asian women are genetically predisposed to and that none of the products sold here cater to.

East Asian women have Shiseido. Ambi is a line of product catering to women of color for lotions and creams. But the Desi girl doesn’t have much else, and a walk through CVS or Sephora or Nordstrom’s makeup counters is liable to give me a panic attack.

Never to fear. In my panicked frenzy this morning, I stumbled across two blogs to the rescue: An Indian’s Makeup Blog and The Indian Make-Up Diva.

Here’s what I love about the blogs: 1) These are Desi American women writing the blogs, so all of the products they use can be found here. 2) They try and review the products with a Desi girl slant. 3) They give easy to understand instructions on how to put on make up. 4) They are written with wit and charm. Continue reading →

Swedish Pakistani Music

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There’s an interesting documentary that was posted over at MTV Iggy of Victoria Bergsman, front woman of The Concretes and female vocals to Peter Bjorn and John’s song ‘Young Folks.’ In her latest project, Victoria goes to Pakistan to record music.

Under the moniker “Taken By Trees,” her second solo album is a blend of floaty, Northern European vocals and the traditional sounds of Pakistan. Bergsman said she went East because she is a “fan” of Sufi music and a lover of such artists as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.[MTV Iggy]

They set up a makeshift studio in the Lahore home of their hotel owner. [T]he electricity would go off for an hour every third hour. That was the least of their problems. Bergsman and Soderstrom had to pretend to be married in the traditionally patriarchal society. She also had to convince the local musicians that a woman could run a recording session. [NPR]
There is some language in the documentary that I find problematic (“Pakistan was more mysterious” or “people all over, miserable, dirty, poor, dead animals”), though overall her soft lilting voice tempered her words significantly. But what compelled me to bring this dialogue to Sepia Mutiny was an offline conversation with musician friends. MadGuru, who had just returned from collaborating with local musicians in Pakistan for his animated short Gul, stated:
“I think it’s really cool that she went there and recorded her music, but she seems really clueless about how the traditional music there is improvised and played/recorded live…I had music recorded in Pakistan last summer myself, so I do know how frustrating it can be to try and figure things out, but at least one should go to a place to record the music they play, with some knowledge of what it is instead of expecting the whole world to play like session musicians at a studio and think they lack talent if they don’t.”
Continue reading →

Kalpen Modi At Your Service

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Kal Penn and Obama.jpgKal Penn e-mailed me this week. That’s right. THE Kal Penn. When I went to check my personal gmail account two days ago there was an e-mail from “Kalpen S. Modi” sitting in my inbox. I gotta admit. I got slightly Desi girl giddy.

Dear Friend [he called me friend!],

Last month, President Obama unveiled United We Serve, an extended call to service challenging all Americans to help lay a new foundation for growth in this country by engaging in sustained, meaningful community service.

To encourage participation in service this summer and beyond, the Serve.gov website features a volunteer matching platform called All For Good that allows people to search for volunteer opportunities based on location and interests … The Administration is seeking to further engage the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and amplify outreach efforts in the cause of volunteerism.

Kalpen Modi, Associate Director, White House Office of Public Engagement

I shortened the letter a bit, and as you may have guessed, it was a mass e-mail Kalpen sent. Not a personal one to me. All the same, the e-mail basically told me two things. 1. Kalpen Modi is now officially working in the White House. 2. Kalpen Modi might actually be doing some real work for the AAPI community. How could I tell? On Thursday’s conference call presenting the campaign to community leaders, Modi hosted it. Quite professionally. And nary a pot reference. Continue reading →

Cancer Disparities in the Community

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Saath_SACflier01.jpg If you are in Southern California this weekend, I highly recommend stopping by USC to check out the following conference on cancer in the South Asian community.

According to the California Cancer Registry, the top cancers affecting South Asians in Los Angeles include breast, colorectal, corpus uterine, ovarian, thyroid, prostate, lung, leukemias and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Recent research conducted by Saath …has uncovered very low screening rates among South Asians for top cancers affecting them. As a result, Saath, with its goal to collaborate with communities to improve the health of South Asians, has developed programs to increase awareness and screening in the community and support those who are affected by cancer. [pakistanlink]

Health disparities for the broader Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities are relatively stark and it’s not surprising to hear that in the sub-ethnic group of the South Asian American community that the disparities are just as striking. These disparities often revolve around issues of access to screening or lack of education which is also related to a need for in-language resources and culturally competent providers. Saath, a Los Angeles based non-profit organization, focuses their work on researching and outreaching to assist South Asians afflicted with cancer.

What exactly are the cancer disparities? Well this is the tricky part – there hasn’t been much research done on cancer in the South Asian American community. In my opinion, a large reason why there hasn’t been targeted research is because the standard traditional research methods is not able to a) capture the sub-South Asian categories properly or b) capture a statistically significant sample population i.e. the “n”. This is the perpetual catch-22 cycle when it comes to researching our community – how to develop research using both culturally relevant and statistically significant methods that doesn’t compromise the integrity of the research. Continue reading →

Up the Taqx Near You!

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The Kominas Summer 2009 Tour Promo.jpg The Taqwacore punks are back. And this time, they’ll be coming to a punk rock venue near you.

South Asian Punks THE KOMINAS (Boston) and SARMUST (DC) are embarking west on a three week tour to bring decimation along the I-80 and I-10. Also joining them will be Propaganda Anonymous, whose undefeated free styles occupy a gray area between rap, and punk rock. They plan to raze venues through New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Utah, Nevada, California, Texas, Mississippi, up through to Virginia, Philly, and finally to New York and New England. These will be the first performances west of Chicago.[diy]

The national tour starts July 22nd in New York City, and they will weave themselves (in a hybrid vehicle, mind you) through the rest of the country through August 15th. A different show in a different city every night – the Taqx boys are going hard and with a heart on for the environment too. What exactly can you expect at this show? Watch below.

The above is a short film that follows the writer Michael Muhammad Knight (whom Amardeep’s written about) and the Taqwacores bands from their 2007 East Coast Tour to Pakistan and back to the U.S. for some early 2009 shows. It gives you a flavor for what to expect on The Kominas Summer 2009 Tour.

Formerly of Diacritical, Omar Waqar (seen in above video) currently runs Such Records. His new project Sarmust will also be joining the tour.

Sarmust is a twisted splicing of anarchist sufism and indie-punk, masterminded by award winning sitar player Omar Waqar. A longtime stalwart of the DC hardcore scene, his music has become the bridge between discord and simple harmony.[diy]

Continue reading →