South Asian Literature and Art Festival 2024
September 12, 2024
September 28-29, 2024
11:00 am -7:00 pm
Encina Commons, Stanford University
Ticket Price: $50 day pass $90 Two-day pass
The South Asian Literature and Arts (SALA) Festival is ArtForum SF’s annual production co-hosted this year by the Stanford Center for South Asia at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, showcases contemporary literature and art from South Asia. The theme for this year is Plurality in Community and each day brings fresh delights to illustrate this theme. Now in its fifth year, SALA 2024 presents artists from India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the Caribbean, including, but far from limited to Gazelle Samizay, Ashwini Bhatt, Namita Paul and Renluka Maharaj and Al-An deSouza. An example of the vast diversity and plurality profiled is seen through Maharaj’s works which concentrate on the women who came to Trinidad and Tobago from India and their stories of what they carried and retained.
Key speakers include Ms. Salima Hashmi, once a Professor of Art at the National College of Art Lahore and then the dean of the School of Visual Arts at the BeaconHouse National University in Lahore. She has fused activism with her compelling drive to encourage the young female artists in Pakistan. She is the daughter of the famed poets Ahmad Faiz and Alys Faiz, and the lives of her parents have left an indelible impression on both her activism and her art.
Other key speakers include Booker prize winner, Shehan Karunatilaka along with one of Bollywood’s most successful directors, Imtiaz Ali, who will relate details of his long engagement with Romance and its interpretation in several successful movies, and India’s Member of Parliament, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, formerly a member of the U.N., and prolific writer, will be in conversation with Dr. Dinsha Mistree. Dr Tharoor is known to have very strong and heterodox views on Indian and Diasporic politics and cultures, which it will be the audience’s privilege to share.
Rekha Rodwittiya, one of India’s most eminent feminist artists, leads us through the Environment and Natural Habitat that inspires Aniket Bhagwat’s vision of habitat and ecosystem. Chef Suvir Saran arrives at SALA to engage with Ferose V.R. to discuss the wholesome humanism of Ferose’ life and the defining focus of Saran’s. Saran will also moderate another session of the cuisines of the subcontinent that inspired Heena Patel, Keith Saracin, and Srijit Gopinathan.
The island of Sri Lanka comes to us through the works of Shehan Karunatilaka, its most recent Booker winner, Shyam Selvadurai, and V.G. Ganeshanathan, the recent award winner.
The Bay area is represented by Moazzam Shaikh, Anita Fellicelli, Anup Judge, and Nayomi Munaveera. There is Deepak Ramola discussing the unthinkable, happiness without stock options; also the first female Police officer from the state of Bihar, Ms. Manjari Jaruhar discussing her career; and Vikram Chandra, author of Sacred Games.
The tech entrepreneur Arjun Bhagat pivots with a spiritual journey, while there will be a panel recalling the Partition.
Pulitzer-winning poet Vijay Seshadiri is in conversation with fellow-poet Shikha Malviya, revisiting his fifty-year-long attachment to his part of the world.
Panel discussions will highlight Literature, Art, Epicurean, Cinematic, Journalism, Social Issues & Mental Health in the South Asian context. Carefully curated artisans exhibit their wares of original paintings, jewelry, weaves, clothing, accessories, and coffee! Look for Maujh, surMeyi, Hastakar, kaapus, Lavica, ReSa, Kivvi, Hyperbole, fyoli fyoli, and weaves by Sampoorn
