Category: News

Co-sponsored by the Asian Studies and Asian American Studies Programs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Jaggery: A DesiLit Arts and Literature Journal launched this week.  Edited by Mary Anne Mohanraj and a vast team of talented writers, scholars, and artists, Jaggery features literature, art, reviews, and essays about South Asian culture, narratives, and histories.  The inaugural issue of Jaggery features Rita Banerjee’s review of Kazim Ali’s wonderful collection of personal essays, Fasting for Ramadan.  Excerpt from the review: “In this collection, Ali’s essays range from detailing his struggles with staying active and inactive during the Ramadan period, to his relationship to the exterior world and his own body, to beginning to understand the outline of his own spiritual life…What makes this collection of essays especially exciting is the way in which Ali confronts his own body and his relationship to religion and spirituality. Below the surface of the daily accounts there is a startling and uneasy confrontation with one’s own mortality, which Ali at first acknowledges quietly and then begins to own during the course of his abstinence and fasting…This “animal fear of being alarmingly present in the corporeal body” is the anxiety that lurks beneath Ali’s essays as he journeys through the worlds of hunger, abstinence, and reflection…”    You can read the full review of Ali’s text here.

Rita Banerjee will introduce and lead the discussion for Satyajit Ray’s 1958 film, The Music Room (জলসাঘর), on November 11, 2013 from 6-8:30 pm for the Institute for Indology and Tibetology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.  The screening will take place in Seminar Room 427 (Ludwigstr. 31, Munich).  The screening is part of the course Bengali 1: Introduction to the Bengali Language & Art House Film at LMU.  Anyone interested in Bengali Cinema or South Asian Art House Film is welcomed to join the screening.  With The Music Room (Jalsaghar), Satyajit Ray brilliantly evokes the crumbling opulence of the world of a fallen aristocrat (the beloved actor Chhabi Biswas) desperately clinging to a fading way of life. His greatest joy is the music room in which he has hosted lavish concerts over the years—now a shadow of its former vivid self. An incandescent depiction of the clash between tradition and modernity, and a showcase for some of India’s most popular musicians of the day, The Music Room is a defining work by the great Bengali filmmaker. [From The Criterion Collection]

Rita Banerjee will introduce and lead the discussion for Ritwik Ghatak’s 1960 film, The Cloud-Capped Star (মেঘে ঢাকা তারা), on November 4, 2013 from 6-8:30 pm for the Institute for Indology and Tibetology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.  The screening will take place in Seminar Room 427 (Ludwigstr. 31, Munich).  The screening is part of the course Bengali 1: Introduction to the Bengali Language & Art House Film at LMU.  Anyone interested in Bengali Cinema or South Asian Art House Film, is welcomed to join the screening.  The Cloud-Capped Star centers on the story and hardships of Nita, the female protagonist, who is the sole breadwinner of a refugee family from East Bengal living in the suburbs of 1950s Calcutta. Her family exploits her while caring little for her own personal dreams, hardships, and losses. Her anguished cry, “দাদা, আমি বাঁচতে চাই (Brother, I want to live)” is one of the most well-recognized lines from Bengali film.

Rita Banerjee, Diana Norma Szkolyai, Gregory Crosby, and Leah Umansky are featured in the new issue of Emergency INDEX: Documenting Performance Annually, for their 2012 Performance of the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Literary Cabaret.  Emergency INDEX, Volume 2 includes contributions from artists, poets, scholars, activists, advertisers, computer scientists, theater ensembles and filmmakers presenting more than 300 performances made around the world in 2012.  Volume 2 Editors: Yelena Gluzman, Sophia Cleary; Associate Editors: Andrew Ross, Michael Newton.

This is a bible of performance art activity. And if you are, like I am, a believer in performance art and the value of this ephemeral art activity to change the hearts and minds and consciousness of people, then you need to have this bible in your life. —Martha Wilson

Emergency INDEX, Volume 2 is now available for pre-order.

Rita Banerjee, Lisa Yarger, Chantal Graham, and Emily Phillips have helped organized a literary reading for 100,000 Poets for Change in Munich Germany on September 28, 2013 at 7 pm.  As poets and artists gather around the world on Sept. 28 to promote meaningful social, environmental, and political change, The Munich Readery, together with local writers of color, seeks to create a safe place where poets and artists who identify as black and/or people of color feel emboldened and empowered to share their creative expressions as well as their experiences of everyday racism. Various mediums, including theater, song, dance, written prose and poetry are gladly accepted.  This event will be a celebration of art, an evening of reflection, and a call for change. For more information or to sign up to participate, send an email to store@themunichreadery.com.

Stanford University will telecast live selections from global 100,000 Poets for Change readings on September 28.  For live telecast information, please see the 100TPC Website.

On August 4, 2013, SpokenWord Paris hosted their monthly open mic (scène ouverte) at Au Chat Noir (76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011).  Rita Banerjee, Diana Norma Szokolyai, Jessica Suzanne Reidy, Tiffanie Williams, and Elissa Lewis were featured readers courtesy of the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop annual Yoga & Writing Retreat at the Chȃteau de Verderonne.  David Barnes hosted a lovely evening of poets, performers, musicians, dramatists, and comedians!  The theme for the evening was “beggars,” and Rita Banerjee read “The moon had jackknifed,” “Sleep,” “Ilha Formosa,” and “Georgia Brown” from her work.  SpokenWord Paris also celebrated the launch of their new literary magazine, Bastille.  Check out the new writers’ scene in France!

The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop and Armchair/Shotgun, an excellent literary magazine from New York, were recently featured in the Summer 2013 “Consume” issue of Digital Americana for their radio-play performance of “Roy Rogers: The Missing Atomic Scientist”:

This double issue of includes much more content than 99¢ should allow—moving from the intimacy of boiling bones to a mother’s honey, to a series of visual poems from the prolifically avant-garde Richard Kostelanetz, and much more.  Included in this is also the second installment of our author self-interview series (made possible by the lovely and gracious novelist, Ashley Warlick), as a well as a Consumed series of original illustrations from contemporary Seattle artist, Levi Hastings. And we’re also proud to have published a new piece of multimedia: the audio to a full-length radio drama featuring American icon, Roy Rogers (which was performed brilliantly by a full ensemble cast).  We also continue our investigation into the convergence of literature and media with an interview with the winner of the 2013 Transmedia Project of the Year. And after seeing what this type of multimedia future holds, we can assure you that there will definitely be no shortage of things to consume or create—only the further blurring of the lines that separate the things we consume from the things that consume us.  Radio Drama Credits: Gregory Crosby, John Cusick, Cayla Buettner, Diana Norma Szokolyai, Jonah Kruvant, Max March Steinman, J.E. Reich, Dennis Shafer, Eck Sierra, Jake Rudin, Cambridge Writers’ Workshop, Armchair/Shotgun

http://thedigitalamericana.com/issues/index.html

Amethyst Arsenic, a wonderful magazine published out of Somerville, MA, and edited by Samantha Milowsky, Sam Cha, and Jade Sylvan, recently published the poem “America Ode” by Rita Banerjee in their Summer 2013 issue.  You can read and listen to a recording of the poem here: http://www.amethystarsenic.com/issues/3-2/rita-banerjee.php

Come join the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop for our second annual writing retreat in France. This year, we will stay at the Château de Verderonne & take classes at a lovely and spacious 17th century manor house on the grounds of the château.  A French chef will prepare all of our meals on site, and we will dine together in the large kitchen or on the terrace. Enjoy walks through the museum at your leisure, take refuge writing in the drawing rooms, or relax in the sprawling gardens.  Writers Diana Norma Szokolyai and Rita Banerjee will be your guides and help you create the space you need to nurture your writing projects. Certified yoga instructor and visual artist Elissa Lewis will guide participants in daily yoga and meditation exercises. The retreat is tailored for allowing participants to relax and access their creative process. We will offer the following options to those electing to participate: craft of writing seminars, creative writing workshops, manuscript review, yoga, meditation, French conversation groups, fine art workshops, and excursions to Paris, Chantilly, and nearby medieval towns.  Apply by June 30, 2013: cww.submittable.com

More Information: Poets & Writers * Cambridge Writers’ Workshop

On March 4, 2013, VIDA: Women in Literary Arts published the 2012 VIDA COUNT which cataloged the number of women writers being published in the nation’s top literary, journalistic, and academic periodicals.  You can read more about their findings and assessments by Amy King here: http://www.vidaweb.org/vida-count-2012-mic-check-redux

Also in VIDA news this week, writers Rita Banerjee and Diana Norma Szokolyai are featured guests on HER KIND, a blog powered by VIDA: Women in Literary Arts.  Check out their interview, “Community as Cathartic: A Conversation with Rita Banerjee and Diana Norma Szokolyai,” which was moderated by Rosebud Ben-Oni.