Browse by author: Manan Desai
What B.R. Ambedkar Wrote to W.E.B. Du Bois
In 1946, Dalit leader B.R. Ambedkar corresponded with prominent African American intellectual and activist W.E.B. Du Bois. Here's what they wrote to each other.
A Letter Home from Bellingham
A.W. Mangum was working in Washington in 1907, when a "riot" against the South Asian laborers in the local milltown broke out. He recorded his impressions in a letter to his mother a few days later. Here's what he had to say.
Infecting Angel Island
On April 22, 1913, two brothers – Sant and Tulsi Ram – arrived in San Francisco via the S.S. Mongolia, after leaving their home in Ludhiana, Punjab. Tulsi was immediately admitted into the country, but his brother Sant was "excluded and deported." Learn why.
Interview with Mandeep Sethi
For years now, Bay Area hip hop artist Mandeep Sethi has been performing as SETI X, bringing his music to audiences from the Bay Area to Bombay. Sethi took some time from his busy schedule to chat with SAADA about his life as a performing artist, his childhood influences, and the surprising way that Black Sabbath’s Paranoid changed his life.
Interview with Chee Malabar
Over the past decade, Chee Malabar has been steadily recording albums of politically charged and reflective hip hop. In this interview with Tides he discusses his latest album, The Beautiful, Rowdy Prisoners.
An Interview with Hari Kondabolu
Hari Kondabolu has quickly emerged as one of the generation's sharpest comics on the illogic of race, xenophobia, and representation. He chatted with SAADA about growing up in Little India in Queens, performing "the accent," and how Paul Mooney helped him find his comedic voice.
Stagecraft: An interview with Anish Jethmalani
Actor, director, and co-founder of the Rasaka Theatre Company, Anish Jethmalani spoke with SAADA about the growing presence of South Asians in American theater and makes the case for Chicago as the best place for theater in the country.
An Interview with Jôher Coleman
Those of us who grew up in the 80s might remember the character Jawaharlal Choudhury played by Jôher Coleman on Head of the Class . Jôher spoke with us about the challenges and surprises that came with being the first South Asian character on an American sitcom.
Waiting for the Prince
A radio show from the 1940s revolves around the mysterious appearance of a "Hindu miracle man"
Early footage of South Asians in the United States
When a Japanese-American farmer commissioned a film crew to capture his California home and farm, he unwittingly also documented some of the earliest footage of South Asians in America.