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Oral History Interview with Shyam Selvadurai (2015)
Selvadurai, a writer and cartoonist, discusses his involvement with the Desh Pardesh festival and analyzes the deep identity politics that permeated every conversation held at the festival. He is a Sri Lankan born gay man in a festival where Sri…
Oral History Interview with Pamila Matharu (2014)
Matharu discusses the critical progressive nature of the Desh Pardesh festival, and how this was targeted specifically for a population of people of colour. Matharu also touches briefly on the intergenerational nature of the festival, and how this…
Oral History Interview with Zainab Verjee (2015)
Verjee talks about her experience interacting with the Desh Pardesh festival in the late 1990s. She was not involved directly at an organizational level, but comes from a background in community organization because of her involvement in groups such…
Oral History Interview with Michelle Mohabeer
Mohabeer discusses her experience of moving to Canada during the 1970s, when racism, sexism and homophobia were rampant. She also discusses briefly her experience as a Pakistani person in a time where Paki-bashing was common place. Mohabeer then goes…
Oral History Interview with Ian Iqbal Rashid (2015)
Ian Iqbal Rashid is a poet and writer, and one of the co-founders of Desh Pardesh. In this interview he discusses the conception of Desh, its original visions and its its manifestation into an internationally recognized event. Rashid was not involved…
Oral History Interview with Paramjit Rai (2014)
Paramjit Rai was a volunteer and co-coordinator at Desh Pardesh for a number of years. She discusses her experience as a social policy worker and academic at the festival and how this role of “outsider” informed her perspective on the festival. She…
Oral History Interview with Sharon Fernandez (2014)
Sharon Fernandez begins by discussing her various works within the people of colour community prior to the Dash Pardesh festival, with a specific goal to push women of colour’s involvement in the writing and in the community. She then discusses the…
Oral History with Punam Khosla (2015)
Punam Khosla was the coordinator of the Desh Pardesh festival from the second festival in 1991 to 1993. She headed the festival with clear political goals, which often clashed with other organizers of the event but she was not willing to compromise…
Oral History Interview with Shelly Bahl (2015)
Shelly Bahl was one of the founders of the South Asian Visual Arts Centre (SAVAC). In this interview she discusses her role in several small collectives prior to her full involvement in SAVAC, and how these collectives worked hand in hand with the…
Oral History Interview with Anthony Mohamed (2015)
In this interview Anthony Mohamed, and HIV/AIDS activist and attendee of the Desh Pardesh festival discusses several social movements that took place for the LGBTQ community from the 1940s till the 1990s. He discusses the impact of racism within the…