Vancouver's Indian Summer festival tells tales of war and peace

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      We’re in the midst of the summer festival season. One of the biggies in July is Indian Summer, which runs until next Saturday (July 15) at several venues.

      While the name may suggest that it’s focused on the Indian subcontinent, it’s actually much broader than that, bringing together artists from North America and Asia in a musical, literary, culinary, and visual smorgasbord of creativity.

      Here are five highlights:

      Saxophone great Ernie Watts will share the Orpheum stage with South Indian violinist L. Subramaniam.

      Here Is Where We Meet

      Saturday (July 8), Orpheum 

      It’s an unprecedented local opportunity to hear two musical maestros come together to offer a memorable evening of classical Indian music and American jazz. Legendary South Indian violinist L. Subramaniam will be joined by Grammy-winning tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts, along with several other musicians, in downtown Vancouver’s finest concert hall. Subramaniam has collaborated in the past with Yehudi Menuhin, Stéphane Grappelli, and Stevie Wonder; Watts has played with the Rolling Stones, Thelonious Monk, and Frank Zappa.

      M.G. Vassanji is a two-time winner of the Giller Prize.

      In-Between Worlds

      Wednesday (July 12), Ismaili Centre in Burnaby

      Lovers of literature won’t want to miss two-time Giller Prize winner M. G. Vassanji. The author of such novels as The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, The Gunny Sack, and The Book of Secrets has also won a Commonwealth Prize and a Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction. It’s all the more remarkable when you consider that the Kenyan-born writer specialized in nuclear physics before moving to Canada in 1978.

      Anvita Abbi is the honorary director of the Centre for Oral and Tribal Literature.

      Dying Words

      Next Thursday (July 13), Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at SFU Woodward’s

      Indian linguist and scholar Anvita Abbi has conducted extensive research into the six “language families” across India. She’s spent an enormous amount of time studying dying languages in the Andaman Islands and also worked with the Haida to help preserve the Masset dialect.

      New York illustrator and writer Molly Crabapple offers an alternative take on global affairs.

      Graphically Speaking

      Next Friday (July 14), Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at SFU Woodward’s

      Graphic journalist Joe Sacco and artist and writer Molly Crabapple are known for their alternative American viewpoints on world affairs. In the past, Sacco has addressed such topics as the treatment of Palestinians in the Middle East and the war in the former Yugoslavia. The widely travelled Crabapple is the author of Drawing Blood and has a breadth of experience in various art forms, ranging from burlesque to illustrations to performance art. Her drawings and other works of art have appeared in Vanity Fair, Vice, the Paris Review, and a book by Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi.

      Delhi-born Bif Naked will join four other speakers at the Vogue.
      Carolina Turek

      5 X 15

      Next Saturday (July 15), Vogue Theatre

      Crabapple, musicians Bif Naked and Talvin Singh, novelist Kamila Shamsie, and poet and author Carmen Rodriguez will each speak for 15 minutes, followed by an evening of music. Ottawa’s “funniest dyke”, comedian Kalyani Pandya, will MC the event.

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