Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2000 13:38:25 +0600
From: radhika_gajjala <radhika-AT-cyberdiva.org>
Subject: Bolo! Bolo!



-- Bolo! Bolo! Celebrates the
Voices of a South Asian Generation

TORONTO ˆ „An Encounter in Pickled Time‰ and „Unexplained South-Asian
Phenomena‰ are just two compelling stories contained in Bolo! Bolo! A
Collection of Writings by Second Generation South Asians Living in North
America that's hot off the presses.

„Bolo! Bolo! is a unique anthology that gives readers a peek into the
lives and experiences of second-generation South Asians who have made
their home in Canada and the United States,‰ said Zenia Wadhwani, a
member of the Kitchen Table Collective, which edited the book published
by The South Asian Professionals' Networking Association. „We received
several hundred submissions that discussed a wide range of subjects. We
finally settled on a set of poems, stories, and essays which hint at the
dynamic and diverse cultural identity of second generation South Asians
in North America.‰

The Kitchen Table Collective is made up of Wadhwani, Kalyani Vittala,
Nisha Pahuja and Gurbir Jolly. They are all children of South Asian
immigrants who grew up in Canada and are now living in Toronto. As
Vittala clarifies, 'second-generation' does not refer exclusively to
those born in Canada or the United States, but also to those like her,
who immigrated during early childhood. „I've lived in the west since I
was six months old,‰ says Vittala, „but the Collective decided to
appropriate the term since there's no snappy catch-all phrase that
encapsulates us. In fact, we often feel quite invisible to the dominant
society and to ourselves - so the four of us started working on this
anthology so that people like us - South Asians who grew up in North
America - had some place to find their voice.‰

„Bolo! Bolo! contains 84 writings which illustrate some of the diverse
cultural influences and experiences that we blend into our identities,‰
says  Jolly. As Pahuja notes, Bolo! Bolo! is filled with playful images
and painful themes: „These writings make equally comfortable references
to Bollywood films, Sesame Street, and the X-Files, even as they explore
how racism in our North American hometowns and violence in our distant
ancestral homelands affects us.‰

The title of the anthology comes from and often-used colloquial phrase
in Hindi which, loosely translated, means „tell me‰.  A launch for the
new book will be held:
Sunday, December 10
Elephant & Castle, 212 King Street West, Toronto
4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Bolo! Bolo! is currently only available through contacting the Kitchen
Table Collective's Zenia Wadhwani at (905) 507-6166 or
zenia_w-AT-hotmail.com, with wider distribution planned in the coming months.

-30-

Media contact: Zenia Wadhwani at (905) 507-6166.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Radhika Gajjala
http://www.cyberdiva.org
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"We do not invent our intellectual neighborhoods...;
we consciously build them" - Alexander and Mohanty (1997)


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