it’s around 11pm in nyc, i’m about to hit the town, hot 97 on the radio, kanye is sitting in with flex for a session, sounding strong too. before i head out, i had to let you know about two incredible events, both stretching over the days of this weekend, both dear to my heart. one hip hop, one indian.

the thing about smita patel is not only is she fine, but she was the female protagonist that steered the ship of the under studied indian new wave cinema movement. the indian new wave movement toed a brilliant line between abstraction from formulaic narratives and centering stories of the untouchable and female oppressed. i was in india when smita patel died in 1986; a tragic, early death that rocked the nation. but her art lives on, and the mahindra indo-american arts council film festival is doing a bad-ass retrospective of her work that deserves to be seen. including the revolutionary film, manthan (the churning): “based on a true story of a milk cooperative that led to an economic revolution in rural Gujarat, the film was financed by 500,000 members of a farming cooperative, each of whom donated one or two rupees to assure the film would be made.” dope. here’s a link to the MIAAC film festival: http://miaacfilmfest.org