Theatre is a shapeshifting experience – for performer, stage, and audience alike. The stage and the rituals of theatrical placemaking can, in a moment, create startling intimacy or vast distance, can evoke sudden memory, while calling to possible alternate futures. Join contemporary playwrights Rohit Chokhani, Paneet Singh, and Renae Morriseau, whose works transcend conventional understanding of placemaking in theatre by shapeshifting stages, gymnasiums, halls, and even homes. The conversation is moderated by Anoushka Ratnarajah, playwright, performer and Artistic Director of Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Event Presenting Partner: Vancity Supporting Partner: Museum of Vancouver

Indian Summer Festival Podcast

Tiffin Talk: All the World’s a Stage

Clothing, storytelling, expression and identity have always been woven together. In South Asian culture, and in Indigenous Turtle Island, clothing and regalia are crucial forms of cultural and personal expression, exploring the beauty, story, spirit, and belonging. In both cases, the history of colonization and industrialization has had long-lasting and destructive effects on traditional ways of making and wearing textiles. What we see now is a resurgence. Contemporary Indigenous and South Asian fashion mix modern day glamour, high regalia and street styles, raising up clothing as an art form and a statement. Join acclaimed Musqueam weaver and knowledge keeper Debra Sparrow in conversation with Nep Sidhu, artist and creator of the clothing line Paradise Sportif. Moderated by Mita Naidu, this talk will examine philosophies of contemporary regalia, fashion, and adornment, and what it means to walk in our finest. This talk is curated by Joleen Mitton, founder of Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week. TIFFIN TALKS: A LUNCHTIME IDEAS SERIES Tiffin Talks is a five-part ideas series showcasing a diverse group of thought leaders, artists, innovators, and changemakers, gathering to share ideas and a meal together. Every Tiffin Talk features South Asian and Indigenous people in conversation with each other on a wide range of topics.  Event Presenting Partner: Vancity Event Supporting Partner: Museum of Vancouver

Tiffin Talk: Walking in Our Finest

Eden Robinson is a Haisla/Heiltsuk author who grew up in Haisla, British Columbia. Her first book, Traplines, a collection of short stories, won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1998. Monkey Beach, her first novel, was shortlisted for both The Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction in 2000 and won the BC Book Prize’s Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Her novel Son of a Trickster was shortlisted for The Giller Prize. Her latest novel is its sequel, Trickster Drift. Listen to our new podcast episode with Eden Robinson on ‘Tricksters Forever’ Event Presenting Partner: SFU Library Supporting Partners: SFU Publishing and Hari Sharma Foundation In association with 5x15

Eden Robinson on ‘Tricksters Forever’

Pico Iyer is one of the most revered and respected travel writers alive today. An essayist for Time since 1986, he has travelled to over 170 countries and is a regular contributor to The New York Times, Harper’s and more than 200 other newspapers and magazines worldwide. Listen to our new podcast episode with Pico Iyer on ‘Matters of Life and Death’. Event Presenting Partner: SFU Library Supporting Partners: SFU Publishing and Hari Sharma Foundation In association with 5x15

Pico Iyer on ‘Matters of Life and Death’

As Executive Director of the Angus Reid Institute, Shachi Kurl can be found offering analysis on CBC’s “At Issue,” Canada’s most-watched political panel, in the Wall Street Journal, the New York times, the Globe and Mail, and on the editorial pages of the Ottawa Citizen, among other places. At the Institute—Canada’s non-profit foundation committed to independent research —she works with public opinion data to further public knowledge and enhance the national understanding of issues that matter to Canada and the world. She spent the first part of her career as political reporter and holds a degree in Journalism and Political Science from Carleton University. Kurl is a recipient of the prestigious Jack Webster Award for Best TV Reporting. Along with former Australian and UK Prime Ministers Julia Gillard and Margaret Thatcher, she is an Alumnus of the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program. Her expertise has been sought by policymakers who have invited her to testify before parliamentary committees at the House of Commons. Event Presenting Partner: SFU Library Supporting Partners: SFU Publishing and Hari Sharma Foundation In association with 5x15

Shachi Kurl on ‘I Know What You Think About Immigration’

Kamal Pandya was one of the stellar speakers at 5x15 in Vancouver, hosted by Indian Summer Festival. Kamal Kalyani Pandya is a comedian and writer who is proudly mediocre. Though he catapulted to fame in his short lived role as the secret love child of the “Cosby Show’s” Claire Huxtable and “Family Ties'” Elise Keaton, it was his scandalous departure from “The Bachelorette,” after an unfortunate pani-puri incident, which returned him to the spotlight.  His greatest pleasure has been hosting 5×15 at the Indian Summer Festival. When not watching YouTube, Kamal spends his time begging his endocrinologist to make him look like ISF's Artistic Director, Sirish Rao, as he pursues medical gender affirmation. Event Presenting Partner: SFU Library Supporting Partners: SFU Publishing and Hari Sharma Foundation In association with 5x15

Kamal Pandya on ‘Sometimes Y: How the British Stole My Gender’

Pulitzer Prize nominee Deborah Baker takes us back to the moment when America’s edgiest writers looked to India for answers as India looked to the West. In 1961 Allen Ginsberg, ecstatic sensualist and the voice of a generation, left New York by boat for Bombay. Baker follows Ginsberg and his companions as they travel from the ashrams of the Himalayan foothills to the opium dens of Delhi and the burning pyres of Benares. They encounter an India of charlatans and saints, a country of spectacular beauty and spiritual promise and of devastating poverty and political unease. The fifteen months he spent in India had a lasting influence on Ginsberg and on American counterculture. The trip not only changed his life, it helped spawn generations of hippies, hipsters, writers, artists, rock-stars and soul-searchers. This is the story of a search for God, for love, and for peace in the shadow of the atomic bomb. It is also a story of India – its gods and its poets, its politics and its place in expanding the possibilities of the western consciousness. Deborah Baker was in conversation with Charlie Smith, Editor of The Georgia Straight. Ideas Series Sponsor: Creative BC Supporting partner: Hari Sharma Foundation

The Beats in India, with Deborah Baker

Are we deranged? Acclaimed Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh argues that future generations may well think so, given our imaginative failure in the face of global warming. In this special presentation, Ghosh charts the complicity of fiction in shaping the priorities and consumer choices of the world we have created. Listen to a conversation between Amitav Ghosh and Am Johal, Director of SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement and ISF's Vice Chair. Event presenting partners: SFU Vancouver Campus, SFU Public Square and SFU Woodward's Ideas Series Sponsor: Creative BC

Amitav Ghosh on ‘The Great Derangement’

What does it mean to be alive? And how do we hold onto the beings we love, even though we know we and they must come to an end one day? Thinker, writer, and world-traveller TED favourite Pico Iyer has spent his life answering the great questions of humankind. Pico, a friend and biographer of the Dalai Lama, has the gift of finding and cultivating stillness in the whirlwind of our times. His landmark TED talk on the art of stillness reminds us that true wisdom lies not in knowing everything, but learning to accept and find beauty in how little we can truly know. With his latest book ‘Autumn Light’, Pico brings us a lyrical meditation on the impermanence of life. Following the unexpected death of his Japanese father-in-law, Pico undertakes a life-affirming investigation into the human condition, inspired by the wisdom of the cultural traditions of his adopted country of Japan. With this book and this talk, Pico reminds us never to take the people and things we hold dear for granted. Pico is in conversation with Vancouver-based writer and editor Anna Ling Kaye. Event presenting partner: Kahn, Zack, Ehrlich, Lithwick Ideas series sponsor: Creative BC Supporting Partners: David Lam Centre for International Communication and Hari Sharma Foundation

Pico Iyer on Love, Life, and Mortality

This episode is called “Literary Changemakers”, Chelene Knight of Growing Room Feminist Literary Festival invites Jónína Kirton, and Joanne Arnott to partake in an intimate chat about their own experiences in the Canadian Literary Community. They will discuss what it’s been like navigating a male-dominated literary scene while raising families, working, writing, and creating mind-blowing work. Learn how they demanded space, took it, and continue to hold it. Tiffin Talks at ISF2018 was supported by Vancity. Special thanks to our major partners Simon Fraser University, Langara College and Creative BC, our media partners The Georgia Straight, CBC, and Spice Radio, and our funders Government of Canada, City of Vancouver, Vancouver Foundation, British Columbia Arts Council, and Business for the Arts.

Literary Changemakers

This episode is titled “Architecture as an expression of Empathy or Affluence?”. BV Doshi, the Indian architect, and winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2018, famously argues that architecture should be informed not by aesthetics of affluence but by an aesthetic of empathy. Four presenters speak to this provocation from their positions of design, advocacy, intervention, and public service. Ayme Sharma moderates this session featuring Marianne Amodio, Luugigyoo Patrick Stewart, and Andy Yan.  Tiffin Talks at ISF2018 was supported by Vancity. Special thanks to our major partners Simon Fraser University, Langara College and Creative BC, our media partners The Georgia Straight, CBC, and Spice Radio, and our funders Government of Canada, City of Vancouver, Vancouver Foundation, British Columbia Arts Council, and Business for the Arts.

Architecture as an expression of Empathy or Affluence?

Dayanita Singh’s Museum Bhavan helps us reimagine what a museum is. The museum as an institution holds memory; what memories, and for whom? What would a museum without walls look like? How ought pieces that were historically stolen be engaged with now? What is the museum’s role in educating new migrants in this specific place? Join three brilliant cultural producers who are engaging/disrupting/rearranging in varying and strategic ways with the changing role of museums in society. Laura June Albert moderates ‘New Museology’ featuring Shaheen Nanji, Jordan Wilson and Marika Echachis-Swan. Tiffin Talks at ISF2018 was supported by Vancity. Special thanks to our major partners Simon Fraser University, Langara College and Creative BC, our media partners The Georgia Straight, CBC, and Spice Radio, and our funders Government of Canada, City of Vancouver, Vancouver Foundation, British Columbia Arts Council, and Business for the Arts.

New Museology

Human beings have spent several centuries in the pursuit of truth, through science, philosophy, art and journalism. Where does that leave us now, when truth seems to be of little importance to the stories we hear, spin, share and react to? What is the difference between fake news, plain old lies and BS, and what is the future of truth? This topic is all the more urgent given the current situation in India, where two prominent journalists are facing multiple online death threats because of inflammatory fake news attributed to them. Moderated by Peter Klein of the Global Reporting Centre, this amazing group of journalists discusses the future of journalism and truth in an era of manufactured information. Featuring Dionne Bunsha, Jagdeesh Mann and Wawmeesh Hamilton. Tiffin Talks at ISF2018 was supported by Vancity. Special thanks to our major partners Simon Fraser University, Langara College and Creative BC, our media partners The Georgia Straight, CBC, and Spice Radio, and our funders Government of Canada, City of Vancouver, Vancouver Foundation, British Columbia Arts Council, and Business for the Arts.

Fake News, Lies, and Bulls**t

Weekly episodes of talks recorded at Indian Summer Festival, a contemporary multi-arts festival

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Indian Summer Festival Podcast

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