Our Stories
An Introduction to South Asian America
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Our Stories Companion Website
Ch. 1 Ch. 2 Ch. 3 Ch. 4 Ch. 5 Ch. 6 Ch. 7 Ch. 8 Ch. 9 Ch. 10
Chapter 8: Arts & Popular Culture

Explore this chapter:
• South Asian American Literature
• From Hooghly to Mississippi to Harlem
• Desi Basketball Diaries
• Film and Cinema
• South Asian Americans in Hollywood
• Theater in South Asian America
• “Nehru Suits Are What’s Happening”
• Dhan Gopal Mukerji
• The Ali Akbar College of Music
• Fazlur Rahman Khan

South Asian American Literature
By Neelanjana Banerjee
Page In the book For further exploration
272 Further Discovery Explore the 1977 New Yorker special fiction double issue.
273 "Jhumpa Lahiri" Inset Read the rest of Jhumpa Lahiri's "My Two Lives" for Newsweek.
274 See the image in SAADA's Road Trips Project.
276 See the image in SAADA's First Days Project.
277 Further Reading Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture by Gaiutra Bahadu
277 Further Reading Humanimal: A Project for Future Children by Bhanu Kapil
277 Further Reading Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice by Kazim Al
277 Further Reading Migritude by Shailja Patel
From Hooghly to Mississippi to Harlem
By Vivek Bald
Page In the book For further exploration
279 "Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America" Inset Vivek Bald, Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America
281 Read more about Rudresh Mahanthappa and SAADA's "Revolution Remix" concert in Britt Robson's "The Duality of Displacement" published in TIDES.
281 "Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa" Inset Read the rest of Britt Robson's "Dual Identities: A Conversation with Jazz Soulmates Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa" for Pitchfork.
282 Further Reading Naresh Fernandes, "The Indian Who Discovered Ella," Taj Mahal Foxtrot blog
Desi Basketball Diaries
By Stanley Thangaraj, with Akshat Tewary and Vasef Sajid
Page In the book For further exploration
284 "Sonia Raman" Inset Read the rest of Sonia Raman's interview with Scott Cacciola in "She Thought the Grizzlies Wanted Hiring Advice. They Wanted Her." for the New York Times.
287 "South Asian American Olympic Gymnasts" Inset Read the rest of Nirmal Mulaikal's "A Pommel Horse, Masala Macaroni, and an Olympic Dream" for The Juggernaut.
288 Further Reading Dhingra, Pawan. 2020. Hyper Education: Why Good Schools, Good Grades, and Good Behavior Are Not Enough. New York: New York University Press.
288 Further Reading Shankar, Shalini. 2019. Beeline. New York: Basic.
288 Further Reading Stanley Thangaraj, Desi Hoop Dreams: Pickup Basketball and the Making of Asian American Masculinity
288 Further Reading Stanley Thangaraj, Constancio R. Arnaldo Jr., and Christina B. Chin, Asian American Sporting Cultures
Film and Cinema
By Jigna Desai
Page In the book For further exploration
290 Discover more about D'Lo and SAADA's celebration event for DJ Rekha's Basement Bhangra.
292 See the image in SAADA's Road Trips Project.
293 Further Reading Jigna Desai, Beyond Bollywood: The Cultural Politics of South Asian Diasporic Film
293 Further Reading Anupama Jain, How to Be South Asian in America: Narratives of Ambivalence and Belonging
South Asian Americans in Hollywood
By Shilpa Dav
Page In the book For further exploration
298 "The Problem with Apu" Inset Read the rest of Philip Deslippe's "Beyond Apu" in TIDES.
298 "The Problem with Apu" Inset Discover more about SAADA's Beyond Apu screening and community conversation, including other audience responses.
299 Further Reading Shilpa Dav, Indian Accents: Brown Voice and Racial Performance in American Television and Film
299 Further Reading Dorothy B. Jones, The Portrayal of China and India on the American Screen, 18961955
Theater in South Asian America
By Neilesh Bose
Page In the book For further exploration
301 See the image in SAADA's archival collections.
302 "Disgraced" Inset Read the rest of Charles Ishwerwood's "Beware Dinner Talk on Identity and Islam" for the New York Times.
303 Read the rest of Anantha Sudhakar's "From Partition to the Present: An Interview with Artists Nadhi Thekkek and Rupy Tut" in TIDES.
"Nehru Suits are What's Happening"
By Meenasarani Linde Murugan
Page In the book For further exploration
307 "Nehru Jackets" Discover Nehru Jackets, the debut mixtape of Himansu Suri from the group Das Racist.
308 See the image in SAADA's archival collections.
308 Further Reading Discover more about the sari in South Asian America in Aimee L. Hamilton's "How to Drape Your Sari" published in TIDES.
Dhan Gopal Mukerji
By J. Daniel Elam
Page In the book For further exploration
310 See the image in SAADA's archival collections.
312 "Initiation into America" Inset Read more from "Initiation into America" reprinted in TIDES. and from Mukerji's whole 1923 memoir, Caste and Outcast.
312 "Pashmina" Inset Read the rest of Nidhi Chanani's interview with Pooja Makhijani in "Nidhi Chanani's Graphic Novel Pashmina' Is Part of an Important New Genre" in Electric Literature.
313 Further Reading Read more from J. Daniel Elam's "Reading a Friendship: Dhan Gopal Mukerji and Jawaharlal Nehru in the Archives" in TIDES.
The Ali Akbar College of Music
By Sarah Morelli
Page In the book For further exploration
315 "Sahebjan" Inset Sweating Saris: Indian Dance as Transnational Labor, by Priya Srinivasan (Temple University Press, 2012)
318 Read the rest of Jon Pareles' "Asha Puthli, an Indian Singer Who Embraces Countless Cultures" for the New York Times.
320 Further Discovery Discover more about the Ali Akbar College of Music at aacm.org.
Fazlur Rahman Khan
By Yasmin Sabina Khan
Page In the book For further exploration
322 See the image in SAADA's archival collections.
324 See the image and read more from Dashini Jeyathurai's "The Barbour Scholarship: Early International Presence at the University of Michigan" in TIDES.
326 Further Reading Engineering Architecture: The Vision of Fazlur R. Khan (2004).
326 Further Discovery Discover more about Fazlur Rahman Khan in SAADA's archival collections.
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