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SECOND ANNUAL IAAC LITERARY FESTIVAL
in collaboration with The English Department, Hunter College (West Building) at 68th Street and Lexington Avenue
OCTOBER 22-25, 2015 |
| October 25th, 2015 - 10:45 - 11:45 am |
Session 1B
Negotiating South Asian LGBT Identity
Authors: Mala Kumar, John Burbridge
Moderator: Chaya Babu
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 Mala Kumar is an international development practitioner based out of New York City. She is grateful her hard work and degrees paid off in landing her innovative jobs for some of the most prestigious institutions in the world, including the United Nations. An expert in passionately explaining what it means for her to be several kinds of minority, she is taking this novel as a primary tool for social justice, women’s rights, and so much more. When not immersed in work or writing, you can find Mala exploring NYC’s latest culinary adventure, in an intense workout at the gym (often to mitigate the effects of said culinary adventure), planning her latest international excursion, or blocking out the subtitles on the latest French film. |
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 The Paths of Marriage - Lakshmi, a bright student who grew up in poverty, marries and immigrates to the United States from India to provide a better life for herself and her family. Clinging to her cultural realities, she forces her American daughter, Pooja, into an arranged marriage, creating a rift of resentment. Pooja’s daughter, Deepa, is an out lesbian to everyone but her family. The woman Deepa loves presents an ultimatum-come out to Pooja or break up-and Deepa is forced to confront her greatest fear. Three generations of Indian and Indian-American women navigate the harsh slums of Chennai to the bustle of New York City, struggling through a cathartic generational collision to try to come together as a family. |
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 Australian-born John Burbidge has lived and worked in Belgium, Canada, India and the United States. For many years, he was communications director for an international NGO engaged in community and organizational development, before becoming an independent writer/editor. His articles on a variety of subjects have appeared in magazines, newspapers, periodicals and books in several countries. He has edited volumes on civil society, rural development and memoirs, and is the author of a biography of Australian writer, Gerald Glaskin. He lives with his husband in Washington State, USA. |
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 The Boatman - Written with passion, integrity and humour, The Boatman is packed with incident, anecdote, adventure and above all, real and memorable people. Burbridge takes hold of India as few have done before, deftly interweaving the search for selfhood with an intimate exploration of Indian life an dsociety. His story shows us how, when we dare to immerse ourselves in a culture radically different from our own, we may discover parts of ourselves we never knew existed. |
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 Chaya Babu is a writer, journalist, and activist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work, which focuses largely on race, migration, and gender and sexuality, has appeared in The Feminist Wire , Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Racialicious, and more. She is a feature writer for India Abroad, a blog editor at The Brooklyn Quarterly, an organizer with East Coast Solidarity Summer (a political education program for desi youth), and a board member of the South Asian Women's Creative Collective. She is currently working on her first novel. |
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