Wednesday, April 14, 7 pm
The South Asian Women’s Creative Collective presents Look Left, an evening of readings featuring eclectic, left-of-center poetry and prose. Writers explore what it means to them to “look left,” whether it be traveling opposite of expectation or casting a glance out at the periphery, with works by Beena Ahmad, Sunu Chandy, Shymala Dason,Madhu Kaza, Alka Khushalani, Shivani Manghnani, and Amy Paul.
This event was curated by SAWCC board members Anjali Goyal and Anantha Sudhakar and is presented in conjunction with the current exhibition, A Wild Gander, curated by Baseera Khan.
BRIC Rotunda Gallery
33 Clinton Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Bios:
Beena Ahmad is a third year law student at CUNY Law, just about the only place on earth that she’d be willing to study the law when she could be writing poetry.
Sunu P. Chandy is an attorney, social justice activist, and poet. She has served as an attorney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) since August 1999, and prior to that she was an associate at the union-side labor and employment law firm, Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss LLP. Sunu earned her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston in 1998 and her B.A. from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana in 1994. Sunu will be starting her MFA in creative writing/poetry in Fall 2010 in NYC.
Shymala Dason is a first-generation Indian-Malaysian immigrant. Her work, often explorations of diaspora, race, identity, language, culture, and class, has previously appeared in the Massachusetts Review, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop anthology Topography of War, the Swarthmore Review, and Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine. She is a Bennington College alumna and a former NASA consultant.
Madhu Kaza was born in Andhra Pradesh, India and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She is currently an educator, writer, and artist based in New York. Much of her work is informed by her astonishment at everyday life.
Alka Khushalani was born in Bombay, India and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She has had a career in media and advertising as a project manager and producer. Her previous work has appeared in EGO magazine and the Kartika Review. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and children.
Shivani Manghnani received her MFA in Fiction from Columbia University and a BA in English Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing from Brown University. She has received residencies and grants from the MacDowell Colony, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Urban Artist Initiative/NYC grant program, and the Insituto Sacatar in Bahia, Brazil.
Amy Paul is a grant writer at the Culture Project by day. Her other affiliations include host/co-producer of Asia Pacific Forum Radio; board member of Adhikaar; and former writer/performer with Mango Tribe, an Asian American women’s theater collective. In 2008, Amy served as a project manager of Sukh aur Dukh ki Kahani (Stories of Joy and Sorrow), a domestic workers’ theater project. Currently, Amy facilitates writing and theater workshops with Adhikaar’s arts and activism group for Nepali youth.
(More information HERE.)
The South Asian Women’s Creative Collective presents Look Left, an evening of readings featuring eclectic, left-of-center poetry and prose. Writers explore what it means to them to “look left,” whether it be traveling opposite of expectation or casting a glance out at the periphery, with works by Beena Ahmad, Sunu Chandy, Shymala Dason,Madhu Kaza, Alka Khushalani, Shivani Manghnani, and Amy Paul.
This event was curated by SAWCC board members Anjali Goyal and Anantha Sudhakar and is presented in conjunction with the current exhibition, A Wild Gander, curated by Baseera Khan.
BRIC Rotunda Gallery
33 Clinton Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Bios:
Beena Ahmad is a third year law student at CUNY Law, just about the only place on earth that she’d be willing to study the law when she could be writing poetry.
Sunu P. Chandy is an attorney, social justice activist, and poet. She has served as an attorney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) since August 1999, and prior to that she was an associate at the union-side labor and employment law firm, Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss LLP. Sunu earned her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston in 1998 and her B.A. from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana in 1994. Sunu will be starting her MFA in creative writing/poetry in Fall 2010 in NYC.
Shymala Dason is a first-generation Indian-Malaysian immigrant. Her work, often explorations of diaspora, race, identity, language, culture, and class, has previously appeared in the Massachusetts Review, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop anthology Topography of War, the Swarthmore Review, and Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine. She is a Bennington College alumna and a former NASA consultant.
Madhu Kaza was born in Andhra Pradesh, India and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She is currently an educator, writer, and artist based in New York. Much of her work is informed by her astonishment at everyday life.
Alka Khushalani was born in Bombay, India and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She has had a career in media and advertising as a project manager and producer. Her previous work has appeared in EGO magazine and the Kartika Review. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and children.
Shivani Manghnani received her MFA in Fiction from Columbia University and a BA in English Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing from Brown University. She has received residencies and grants from the MacDowell Colony, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Urban Artist Initiative/NYC grant program, and the Insituto Sacatar in Bahia, Brazil.
Amy Paul is a grant writer at the Culture Project by day. Her other affiliations include host/co-producer of Asia Pacific Forum Radio; board member of Adhikaar; and former writer/performer with Mango Tribe, an Asian American women’s theater collective. In 2008, Amy served as a project manager of Sukh aur Dukh ki Kahani (Stories of Joy and Sorrow), a domestic workers’ theater project. Currently, Amy facilitates writing and theater workshops with Adhikaar’s arts and activism group for Nepali youth.
(More information HERE.)
