I’m putting together the…

I'm putting together the program for Saturday's afternoon event at the Hothouse, which promises to be fabulous. You should all come. But I find that I'm having a funny reaction. I know the work of these talented S. Asian artists, and some of them write sexy, some of them write confrontational, some of them write angry. Which is all great, but I'm having to restrain myself from asking them to please, perform something tame and G-rated on Saturday. 'Cause, you know, my parents will be in the audience.

Heh. It's actually probably much better if my friends do go over-the-top sexy or whatever, since it's undoubtedly good for my parents to see that I'm really not the only S. Asian girl doing this kind of thing. But still, I have this impulse to ask them to tone it down. An impulse I am firmly squelching.

Here's a preliminary program -- still getting some of the details together. The whole thing shouldn't take more than an hour and a half, leaving plenty of time for socializing and book signing afterwards:

• "Oceans Bright and Wide", part 1, by Mary Anne Mohanraj, from Bodies in Motion
• Poetry by Nilofer Ahsan
• Sitar/Poetry by Nikhil Trivedi/Sarwat Rumi
• "Taxi Driver Auntie", nonfiction by Sachin Waikar
• "Dheem", traditional kathak dance performed by Sadaf Ahmad
• excerpt from "Rajni Loves le Cancan" by Sapna Gupta
• an excerpt from "The Masrayana" by William Kovacsik, performed by Bobby Zaman and Kamal Hans of Rasaka Theatre
• Fiction by Angeli Primlani
• Mirna dances Bollywood-style
• Sharmili (with partner) performs a piece
• "Oceans Bright and Wide", part 2, by Mary Anne Mohanraj, from Bodies in Motion