News

2008

July 2008: SAPAC Call for Artists: Voices of Resistance 7

SAPAC invites you to submit your work to Voices of Resistance Seven (VOR7).

VOR7 seeks to create a space for South Asian Artists to use their art as a powerful means of social commentary that empowers and transforms. VOR7 will be held Saturday, September 20, 2008 at Insight Arts on 1545 W. Morse Ave., Chicago, IL 60626.

Over the last several years, the VOR show has grown immensely. Last year, VOR was a great success - more than 250 people came to hear a variety of spoken-word and performance artists from within Chicago’s South Asian community.

This year we are looking for artist submissions that speak to VOR’s 2008 theme: The Good Citizen. We are asking for art that explores our sometimes conflicting alliances and allegiances, the realities of being a part of the South Asian Diaspora, as well as exploring issues of citizenship, power, and identity.

This year’s theme speaks to the upcoming presidential election, voting, issues around immigration reform, the realities of globalization, the effects of the Model Minority myth, and the War on Terror. We hope to feature artists that express these issues through the multiple lenses of race, gender, class, and sexuality.

We also highly encourage art that touches on the themes addressed in SAPAC’s work. For example, SAPAC is about to launch its presidential election voter registration and “Get out the Vote” campaign aimed at new immigrant voters living in the Devon Ave. area (i.e., Chicago's 50^th Ward).

As always, we want work that speaks to all of the faces, experiences and the perspectives of the South Asian Diaspora. We strongly encourage new and emerging artists to submit their work.

As always, we want work that speaks to all of the faces, experiences and the perspectives of the South Asian Diaspora.   We strongly encourage new and emerging artists to submit their work. Our venue includes space for video screenings, visual art, skits, dances, and installation work in addition to our evening of spoken word and musical performances by South Asian artists. Works should be between 3-5 minutes in length and may be subject to further time limitations.

Please download, complete and mail the call for entry below to

SAPAC
c/o Tina Yokota
600 N. McClurg Ct. #3908A
Chicago, IL 60611

or email a copy to either elaichibreath@yahoo.com or manisha.paralikar@gmail.com. The deadline for entry is August 20, 2008 

Thank you!

VOR7 CALL FOR ARTISTS & APPLICATION (.doc, 43kb)

2007

June 29, 2007: SAPAC Summer newsletter posted!

Click here to catch up on what we've been up to!

2006

Jul. 14, 2006: Press conference to Kick-off Voter Registration Campaign

SAPAC and its New Americans Vote collaborative partners held a press conference at the Indo-American Center to kick-off their 2006 voter registration and mobilization campaign. The campaign focuses on the South Asian/immigrant community in Chicago's West Ridge/50th Ward neighborhood and runs through the November 7, 2006 Election Day.

2005

Mar. 21, 2005: Chicago Public Radio's Worldview
Appearance by Nilofer Ahsan

Members of Chicago's Indo-Pak Peace and Goodwill Network, including SAPAC member Nilofer Ahsan, recounted their trip to India and Pakistan, where they met with political and business leaders to encourage the two nuclear nations to find a peaceful solution to their longstanding problems. Listen to the segment.

Mar. 21, 2005: Shabash 2.0
Chicago's Art Scene
By Sapna Gupta

With its stunning, massive skyline and sprawling suburbs, you will find in Chicago one of the largest South Asian population in North America – and not surprisingly, the metropolis is home to a vibrant South Asian diaspora arts and activist scene.  A good number of writers, poets, artists, musicians, and actors of South Asian ancestry call the city home.  At the intersection of art and activism is the South Asian Progressive Action Collective (SAPAC), where artists and activists come together at events such as SAPAC’s annual Voices of Resistance, an electric evening of artistic expression and performances held in the Spring, or to do grassroots organizing for issues ranging from immigrant rights to promoting communal harmony in South Asia.  SAPAC members are constantly presenting, co-hosting, and/or raising awareness of events and initiatives dealing with social justice and the arts on a frequent basis.  SAPAC also hosts an active listserv where members post news, commentaries, articles, and alerts about issues affecting the South Asian diaspora and the South Asian subcontinent. 

Many SAPAC members belong to the Asian American Artists Collective, which provides a space for artists, musicians, performers, and writers to get together.  The Collective is a collaborative network where creative types, emerging and established alike, can support each other and organize shows and events to showcase their work.  The Collective has several programs: writers meet periodically through the Kitchen Poems writing circle; visual and multimedia artists get together with Project A; Asian American teens explore the intersection of art and activism with Young Asians with Power!; and the TalkBack Series provides a space for national and local artists to have a dialogue about their work. 

Formed by Collective members, Mango Tribe is an interdisciplinary performance group of women with members from Chicago, Los Angeles, the Twin Cities, and New York City.  The group has been touring continually since 2001 at colleges and universities.  Mango Tribe has several members from the South Asian diaspora, with Sarwat Rumi and Sharmili Majmudar being Chicago-based.  Sarwat is a poet, performer, singer, teaching artist, and social  justice activist who received critical raves in the Chicago Tribune for her performance at the 2004 Asian American Jazz Festival, and in 2002, shared the stage with poet Adrienne Rich at Chicago’s Guild Complex.  Her first performance was at SAPAC’s inaugural Voices of Resistance.  Sharmili is a queer Chicago-based South Asian artist and social justice worker whose writing has appeared in Contours of the Heart: South Asians Map North America, Shakti Kee Awaaz: Voices of Strength and Riksha. She has performed and read her poetry at venues in Chicago and all over the U.S., including the ArtWallah Festival.  She is a founding member of Khuli Zaban, a West Asian/South Asian lesbian, bisexual, transgender women's network. Mrs. Rao’s Growl is another performance group based out of Chicago.  It’s a group that combines performance work with video art and was founded by Indian-Filipina Sheelah Murthy and India-born and raised Anuj Vaidya (the latter has recently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area).  Sheelah has shown and performed widely and teaches at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College.  Artists from the diaspora are also involved with groups such as the Chicago Art Department, and non-profit organizations such as Street Level Youth Media, an organization that involves city youths in the arts and the media.

Artists from the diaspora are making a mark in many other mediums.  Sumakshi Singh is a Chicago-based artist who teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  She has exhibited her installations in a myriad of galleries in Chicago, in other parts of Illinois, and in several cities throughout the U.S.  Indira Freitas Johnson has been exhibiting her work in the region and internationally since the late 1980s and founded the Shanthi Foundation for Peace, a Chicago-area arts and education organization.  Several galleries have exhibited works by artists from the diaspora as well as from South Asia – and Walsh Gallery has made a habit of regularly showcasing work of contemporary artists from the subcontinent.  Chicagoan Kavi Gupta entered the art dealing field when he founded the Kavi Gupta Gallery (formerly called the Vedanta Gallery), where he exhibits contemporary art.  The Art Institute of Chicago is home to a distinguished collection of South Asian art.  Among its 35,000 objects, you will find miniature paintings from India and sculptures from the subcontinent.  The Art Institute recently hosted a landmark exhibition on Himalayan art and issued an accompanying book called Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure by visiting curator Pratapaditya Pal.  Just a block from the Art Institute and part of Chicago’s Millennium Park (a massive new outdoor public art project) is a stunning metal sculpture called Cloud Gate (some have nicknamed it “the Bean”) by London-based Anish Kapoor.  Reflecting its constantly changing surroundings, the sculpture is one of the centerpieces of the park. 

Chicago’s South Asian diaspora literary scene is developing at a fast clip.  Mary Anne Mohanraj, who will start a visiting professor appointment at Roosevelt University in Fall 2005, has a forthcoming collection of connected short stories published by HarperCollins.  In 2004, with help from SAPAC, Mary Anne helped set up DesiLit, an organization dedicated to supporting South Asian literature.  A slew of people have come together to help plan DesiLit’s Kriti – scheduled for November 2005, it’s going to be Chicago’s first literary festival showcasing the works of writers from South Asian diaspora.  The author of two collections of Urdu poems, poet and activist Ifti Nasim writes in English, Urdu, and Punjabi.  Ifti is the co-founder of Sangat/Chicago, the Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgendered South Asian support group and was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1996. He hosts Radio Sargam, a radio program on Sunday nights and was awarded the Rabindra Nath Tagore Award in 2000.  

And you can catch works by South Asian filmmakers at 3rd I - Chicago, the Chicago chapter of the national organization.  3rd I has been a hotbed of activity, showcasing short films, documentaries, and features films.  Facets Multimedia, Chicago Filmmakers, Women in the Director’s Chair, and the Art Institute’s Gene Siskel Film Center have also promoted works by South Asian and diaspora filmmakers.  The Gene Siskel Film Center also hosts the annual Asian American Film Showcase.  Besides the filmmakers who graduate from film programs at Columbia College, the School of the Art Institute, Northwestern University, and several other schools in the area, Chicago has produced several homegrown filmmakers. Ligy Pullapally completed filming Sancharram (The Journey) in Kerala last year and the film did the rounds of film festivals, winning the Chicago Award for Best Film at the 40th Chicago International Film Festival in 2004.  Satish Menon wrote and directed Bhavum in 2002 and the film has won a slew of awards in India and in the U.S.  Satish has made several short films and a documentary.  He is at work on a documentary about immigrant battered woman called Survival on the Domestic Front. 

Chicago’s vibrant theatre scene includes several theatre companies and performance troupes that promote works about Asian Americans and by Asian American playwrights.  Saving Face Theatre Council of Chicago is a collaborative network of seven theatre companies presenting diverse Asian-American experiences through the mediums of theatre and performance. The council was founded to organize and present an annual Saving Face Festival in Chicago.  Two companies feature South Asian playwrights and works about the South Asian experience.  Rasaka Theatre Company is based in Chicago and is the Midwest’s first South Asian American ensemble.  Rasaka's efforts are currently led by Executive Director Anita Chandwaney, Artistic Director Barnali Das, and Managing Director Jaya Subramanian.  Its ensemble members are part of the theatre scene in Chicago and have also performed in film and television.  Co-founded by Malik Gillani and Jamil Khoury, Silk Road Theatre Project showcases playwrights of Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean backgrounds, whose works address themes relevant to the peoples of the Silk Road and their Diaspora communities.  Chicago has an illustrious comedy scene and is the birthplace of Second City.  It is home to several comedians and sketch comedy and improv performers from the diaspora – including Danny Pudi and Ranjit Souri, who are ensemble members of Stir-Friday Night, an Asian American sketch comedy troupe founded in 1995.  Actress and comedienne Sapna Kumar calls herself “loud-mouthed, pint-sized Indian lesbian comedienne” and is a fixture of comedy clubs around the city and she regularly performs in plays and improv festivals.

Dance has a strong presence in Chicago.  Hema Rajagopalan founded Natya Dance Theatre in 1975 as a Bharatnatyam school.  The company now encompasses the school, a professional dance company that tours nationally, an outreach program, and a presenting series showcasing national and international dance talent.  Pranita Jain founded Kalapriya Dance School in 1994 and the company has evolved into the Kalapriya Center for Indian Performing Arts. Some of her recent works have combined contemporary poetry and North Indian music with Bharat Natyam movements.  Anila Sinha Foundation promotes the performing arts from northern India.  The foundation has established the Academy of Kathak Dance and Music, Kathak Nrityakala Kendra. The company has performed in the region and in Wisconsin, with dances choreographed by Artistic Director Sandhya Desai with music from composer Atul Desai. There are many schools of Bharatnatyam and classical dance in the region, and with the rising popularity of all things South Asian, mainstream venues such as The Old Town School of Folk Music now offer Bharatnatyam and Bhangra classes. 

Chicago holds an exalted place in the pantheon of architecture – and surprisingly (but perhaps not surprisingly), a local South Asian who made a huge mark in the field was… an engineer!  Fazlur Rahman Khan worked closely with architects in the Chicago office at famed architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (also known as “SOM”), where he was the only engineering general partner at the time.  His innovations in the structure and design of tall buildings have changed the skylines of cities by making the construction of tall building economically feasible and by allowing their shape to finally evolve beyond a bulky, box-like structure.  He helped design the 110-story Sears Tower and the 100-story John Hancock building in Chicago His views on architecture are quoted in a plaque at Chicago’s Onterie Center (another notable building he helped design): “The technical man must not be lost in his own technology. He must be able to appreciate life; and life is art, drama, music, and most importantly, people.”

Mar. 15, 2005: Asia Pacific Forum Radio
Appearance by Sapna Gupta

SAPAC member Sapna Gupta discussed the goals of the Coalition Against Genocide on the Asia Pacific Forum on New York City's WBAI 99.5FM. Listen to the segment.

2004

Dec. 15, 2004: Garam Masala
On The Move Column: Workers’ Rights and Building International Solidarity
By Maneesha Bidani and Amisha Patel

Two weekends ago, labor and community activists in Chicago got a chance to meet the real face of globalization, when visiting delegates from the New Trade Union Initiative ( (NTUI) in India held a series of events to engage local leaders in dialogue around the issue of “offshore sourcing” to India.  Many issues were debated during this year’s presidential election, but the language of outsourcing dominated how Americans talked about the economy. 

On the one hand, we understood the emotions of people like the woman in St. Louis who asked the candidates exasperatedly what they intended to do about jobs moving overseas to “places like India” - because in fact we share those concerns knowing family members, neighbors and friends who are out of work and looking for employment here.  On the other hand, we also identified with India’s developmental needs, knowing that there is still a long struggle ahead before Indian workers will be able to leverage globalization in a progressive and dignified way.

So when Jobs with Justice, a national organization that unites labor, community and student organizations around issues of social justice, announced that delegates from the NTUI, an emerging federation of left-democratic, non-party affiliated trade unionists, would be stopping in Chicago, we were thrilled with the opportunity to reach out and start doing some real education about India in the communities where we work. 

It was a powerful experience to sit in the room with American workers, hard pressed by the loss of jobs in their industries, and listen to Ashim Roy and V. Chandra speak about the reality of the “miracle” jobs being created in India.  Ashim Roy, President of several unions representing more than 20,000 workers at General Electric in Gujarat, talked about the heightened pressure placed on Indian workers.  While each customer service representative in the United States would get about five minutes to complete a call, an employee at an Indian call center run by the same multinational would be expected to complete a call every one minute.  These are some of the reasons that turnover in that industry is actually very high, with about 60% of the employees leaving after one year.  If these were indeed “dream jobs”, Ashim asked the audience, why would so many young people leave after only one year?

Few people here in the U.S. realize the context in which Indian workers live. Faceless and unknown Indian workers have become an easy scapegoat for the anger of American communities experiencing job loss.  But as Chicago labor activists heard first hand about the struggles that Indian workers are facing with their new multinational employers, that resentment was visibly eased and a new understanding of common issues started to emerge. 

V. Chandra, a dynamic woman trade union leader representing nearly 50,000 coal mine workers from collieries in the Central Coalfields around Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, broke down the reality of outsourcing.  For every two jobs that leave the U.S., she explained, it is actually only one job that gets created in India because the Indian workforce is expected to work longer and harder.  The global net loss of jobs is where U.S. and Indian trade unions’ common struggle lies. 

Chandra and Ashim shared information about labor struggles in India and dialogued with American workers, immigrant rights advocates, and community leaders here in Chicago.  These events brought together South Asians, other Asians, Latinos, African Americans, and Whites from different generations, to learn from each other and strategize joint work.  They also met with activists from across the country in town for the U.S. Labor Against the War conference, attended a protest at a local Dow Chemical Board Member’s house on the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Disaster, met with local women labor leaders, shared organizing principles with Chicago-based organizers, and even hung out at a Funkadesi concert, a local band that integrates Indian music with reggae, funk, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. 

As South Asian women who have been involved in the trade union movement here in the U.S., the last few years has brought a bittersweet mix of opportunities.  We’ve been able to connect with working-class South Asian Americans, helping our own community see that they deserve a living wage, a voice on the job, and the same rights as their “American” counterparts.  But it is sad that most wealthy South Asians remain silent around the struggles of South Asian factory workers, retail employees, laundry workers, and other low-wage workers in America. 

Ironically, the anger and blame targeted at us all for the loss of U.S. jobs is bridging this class divide.  India conveniently serves as a scapegoat for U.S. workers’ economic problems.  There is little knowledge among the mainstream American public that the majority of Indian workers still make their living in rural areas and in the informal sector.  What does a few thousand call center jobs, or even tens of thousands of call center jobs, mean in a country where forty percent of the population fall below the poverty line and cannot meet a basic diet of 2,400 calories a day? 

Throughout these events, it was clear that our various communities need and want to communicate with each other, and that working people of all nationalities have much in common.  As Ashim stated, “The companies create insecure jobs at near-poverty level wages with inhuman working conditions. We want to work with our sisters and brothers in the U.S. and elsewhere to prevent exploitation and guarantee jobs with fair wages and human dignity for all.”

Nov. 5, 2004: India Abroad
Students catch election fever
By Arun Venugopal

Like the rest of the country, young Americans have been mobilized by such issues as the war in Iraq, the state of the economy and the job market, says Arun Venugopal

‘Make room at the polls,’ the ad reads. ‘More than 20 million are coming.’

The picture below shows an endless ocean of young people, arms thrust into the air in a triumphant display of solidarity. If the full-page ad for MTV, run in the New York Times just days before the election, is to be believed, youth have returned to the political process in a very serious way.

But it’s not just MTV who’s making the claim. A poll by the Pew Research Center at the end of September found that 85 percent of young voters were planning to vote November 2, up from 67 percent in 2000. It also said the percentage of young voters registered to vote was at its highest in 12 years. And officials in many states have publicly noted unprecedented levels of voter registration among young voters.

Like the rest of the country, young Americans have been mobilized by such issues as the war in Iraq, the state of the economy and the job market, as well as more immediate ones like tuition rates and the much-rumored military draft. But they are also the beneficiaries of a massive and sophisticated campaign by various groups to ensure that people get registered and to the election. Over 1.2 million voters have been registered by Rock the Vote and 800,000 by Declare Yourself, many of them by downloading voter registration forms from the internet. More crucially, perhaps, the New Voters Project has registered hundreds of thousands of young voters in swing states such as Iowa, Oregon and New Mexico, which may completely throw off pre-election predictions.

South Asian students, 20-somethings and youth groups have been just as caught up in the action, mobilizing young people to simply vote and in some cases, doing whatever it takes to get their candidate into office.

When contacted over phone, University of Michigan senior Shiny Mathew was standing in the middle of her Ann Arbor campus, at an outdoor area known as the Diag. There, she surveyed her peers as part of a multi-city project for South Asian American Voting Youth.

“Among the South Asian community, the vast majority — over 95% — are registered and they pledge to vote on Election Day,” said Shiny, who also participated in numerous voter registration drives.

Just then, she turned to an Indian-American student, Gaurav, and heard him list his top three campaign issues: immigration, the environment and fiscal issues. She then watched as he filled out a survey asking him whether he was eligible to vote, whether he was registered, and if he’d pledge to vote.

“He put ‘Yes’ next to all of them,” she said, pleased. On a campus the size of Ann Arbor’s, such efforts — even when targeted at the South Asian student population alone — can yield substantial results. South Asians, by Shiny’s estimate, comprise five to eight percent of the 35,000 students on campus. And judging by surveys so far, healthcare issues such as rising insurance costs and Medicare are crucial for them, but more than anything, it’s the war in Iraq.’ “They’re saying they’re opposed to the war,” said Mathew.” They feel it’s taking away resources that could be spent here in the United States, on education, healthcare and domestic issues.”

Across the country, Akash Kuruvilla, another SAAVY fellow, was surveying students at the University of Florida-Gainesville. After SAAVY asked him to register local voters, in August, he turned to his fraternity brothers at Sigma Beta Rho, a national South Asian fraternity, and suggested they get involved. They proceeded to create a new post, National Voter Registration Chair, which Kuruvilla himself filled, and spread the program to all 23 colleges where the fraternity operates. “They’re utilizing their contacts, and getting the job done,” said Kuruvilla of his frat brothers. “The next phase is Get out the Vote. It’s no good to have people registered if they’re not voting.”

According to SAAVY National Coordinator Tanzila ‘Taz’ Ahmed, the organization registered 2,500 South Asian voters over a ten-week span, and expects to turn out twice as many to the election. At one of its locations, the University of Georgia at Athens, students are actually renting vehicles to drive voters to the election.

But college campuses weren’t the only places where youth activists were going.

“I registered a lot of young voters at rock concerts in Chicago,” said Ramona Gupta, of the South Asian Progressive Action Collective, “and the energy there was always amazing. People were excited to register to vote. I didn’t see the stereotypical ‘young voter apathy.’ These kids understand what is at stake with this election, and they want their voices to be heard.”

In Ramona’s experience, the “large majority” of young voters she encountered were vying for Kerry, the result of the war and job losses that either they or their parents had suffered. Another big issue was the military draft, something the Bush administration has flatly denied would happen under its watch but which has received considerable media play in recent weeks.

On Election Day, Ramona, 27, and other members of SAPAC are headed for the 50^th ward of north Chicago, an area that encompasses Devon Avenue and Gandhi Marg, the largely South Asian enclave. “Our goal on Election Day is to get 2,500 new voters to the election,” she said. “We will be canvassing door-to-door, making sure to visit each home 2-3 times over the course of the day and to leave door-hangers that list each resident’s polling place. We will concurrently run a phone bank to make sure these same people get two calls that day. We will also have drivers available to drive voters to the election, bilingual volunteers helping us communicate with our voters, and election watchers to collect data on which of our voters have cast their ballots. Overall, we will need about 100 volunteers to reach our goal. I'm so excited about it that I even recruited my mother, a newly naturalized US citizen and first-time voter, to volunteer with us on Election Day.”

While Ramona and others involved in election efforts have tried to temper their partisan convictions for the greater cause, some young activists embraced campaign work for the first time. Amit Patel, a student at Stanford, was in Spain last year when he noticed a pattern in the headlines coming from the US. President Bush, he recalled, was breaking all campaign fundraising records.

“I thought it was disappointing to know that corporate and partisan interests would again have such an influence in the political process,” said Amit.

When he returned to Stanford the next semester, he watched as Senator Kerry won the Democratic primaries. Then, with the support of his friends, he launched the idea of a National Service Day for Kerry, in which student supporters of the candidate would put their enthusiasm into social service.

The idea spread to other universities, and by October 23, when the day actually took place, 52 colleges were involved.

At the University of Puget Sound, in Washington, one group of students planted 200 trees and restored a run-down park. At Texas Tech in Lubbock, another group helped repair local schools and provided assistance to a food bank. And in northern California, students from Stanford helped build homes for low-income families in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity.

“I wanted to show they can participate in the political process and make their voice heard,” he said.

On the question of fundraising, Amit thinks Kerry is less beholden to corporate interests; many of his recent contributions, he points out, are smaller and have come via the internet. And he thinks he will have a more nuanced foreign policy than President Bush.

Whether it comes to mounting national debt or the war, many of the most pronounced issues of the campaign bear heavily on younger voters, in his opinion.

“The decisions made by our president will decide what place in history we have to assume,” he said.

His sobriety is shared by other Democrats like Anant Shah, an employee of the Centers for Disease Control who has been phone banking, canvassing and organizing rallies for the Kerry-Edwards campaign in Atlanta. In Shah’s opinion, civil liberties have been severely impacted under Bush.

“Now you look at examples of people at Guantanamo Bay being held for years without being charged, which just scares me,” said Shah, who interned at the Indian American Center for Political Awareness in 1999. “As a young citizen who’s been to countries like India and seen the corruption, now to see the same issues in our country, shows me how far from reason and fairness we’ve come around issues like the Patriot Act. Due process is at stake, it really is.”

In contrast to her Democratic peers, University of Minnesota senior and Bush supporter Rohini Khanna is more positive about the war and its long-term impact.

“People are upset about Iraq but they forget about Germany and Japan and how it took five years to reconstruct,” she said from her home in Edina, Minnesota.

While acknowledging that everything hasn’t gone according to plan, she pointed to the steps that have been taken en route to an Iraqi democracy.

She also is more upbeat about the job market, as are her classmates.

“They’re extremely confident,” Rohini said. “We have a lot of companies coming to recruit, including Ford and local companies. I don’t see students stressing out. It’s more like ‘Which job do I want?’ That whole idea of a jobless recovery, while it may be true in the numbers, it’s not really true in the people I interact with, day to day.” She simultaneously took issue with some of Kerry’s proposals, namely his healthcare plan. “Kerry’s healthcare plan isn’t going to work,’’ she said.

In recent weeks, Rohini and her 15-year-old brother, Rohun, have been busy preparing campaign literature for distribution. They’ve also helped with Bush and Cheney rallies. Although a poll by the local paper, the Star Tribune, forecast an easy Kerry victory — something that confirmed for her an extreme liberal media bias – she said people were leaning toward the President. Living as she does in a fairly white community, she knows few Indian Americans who are Republican. Often gets shocked looks when she mentions her party affiliation. “People say, ‘What? You’re of color and Republican?’” she said, with a laugh.

If anything, she thinks people — Indian Americans included — need to move beyond color lines as thinking of community issues is not only outdated but counterproductive. “I think it’s about time for the second generation to get out of the mind frame that we need to be ‘the Indian vote,’’ she said. ‘If we want our needs to be met, we should realize our needs are individual needs.”

Sept. 25, 2004: Chicago Tribune
CAMPAIGN 2004
Groups try to inspire U.S. Asians to join vote
By Sarah Frank - Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Asim Mishra spends a lot of his time talking to new Asian-American citizens, trying to persuade them to vote. Again and again, he runs into people from countries where democracy was a sham and who are reluctant to make the trip to the voting booth.

"Many South Asians have not been involved in the voting process because it's possible in [their home countries] that their vote meant very little," said Mishra, 30, a leader of the Chicago-area chapter of the South Asian Progressive Action Collective. "We say to them, `Yes, you have been discouraged . . . but if we get involved in the process, we can change that.'"

The reluctance of some Asian-Americans to vote in the U.S. is seen by Asian-American leaders as a frustration and an opportunity. In an election marked by a strikingly small number of undecided voters, a poll released last week shows that about 20 percent of likely Asian-American voters are undecided, twice the national average.

Community leaders are pushing hard for Asian-Americans to become more politically active. At the same time, they are appealing to candidates to pay attention to what they call a voting bloc up for grabs in a tight election.

"Both the Democrats and Republicans say they are looking, turning over every rock, to try and find that undecided voter," said David Lee, executive director of the non-partisan Chinese American Voters Education Committee. "Here we are, serving up a large bloc of undecided voters, but no one is listening."

One reason this bloc might be getting less attention is that Asian-Americans are far from being a monolithic group.

On issues such as foreign policy, the economy and the outsourcing of jobs Asian-Americans have varied opinions depending on their ethnicity, said Tuyet Le, executive director of the Chicago-based Asian American Institute.

For instance, the poll released last week by New California Media, a group representing more than 700 ethnic news organizations nationwide, found that voters of Chinese, Asian Indian and Korean descent were the strongest opponents of the Iraq war. The poll also found a majority of voters of Vietnamese and Filipino descent thought it was "right" to go to war.

As for candidate preference, about 43 percent of those surveyed said they support Sen. John Kerry and 36 percent back President Bush.

In 2000, 55 percent of Asian-Americans voted for Democrat Al Gore while 41 percent voted for Bush.

The largest Asian-American groups, those of Chinese and Indian descent, overwhelmingly support Kerry, according to the poll. But the same survey found Bush has a strong lead among more conservative Vietnamese-American and Filipino-American voters.

The poll, which surveyed 1,004 Asian-American registered voters likely to cast ballots Nov. 2, was conducted Aug. 19-29.

With the possibility that the election could be decided by a few percentage points, the number of undecided Asian-Americans--about 580,000 voters, according to the poll--should not be neglected, said Sandy Close, executive director of New California Media.

Sept. 13, 2004: Chicago Tribune
Voters pursued in ethnic enclaves - Activists see power on immigrant laws
By Oscar Avila - Tribune staff reporter

From Indian women on Devon Avenue to Mexican-American students in Pilsen, political veterans and first-time activists are launching the most ambitious get-out-the-vote blitz ever by Illinois immigrant advocates.

Organizers plan to send out about 1,500 volunteers, akin to precinct captains, to mobilize 50,000 Chicago-area voters who have identified immigration reform as a key issue.  The non-partisan New Americans Vote initiative hopes to convince politicians that there are votes to be won by supporting loosened immigration laws, even though a sluggish economy and terrorism concerns have made that a tough sell.

Organizers said the first step is motivating naturalized citizens who might be voting in their first elections.  "Part of our mission is making this issue real," said John Kohlhepp, an Illinois campaign veteran hired by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights to run the project.

"As soon as you can connect the policy debate to something they care about, we believe people will vote." Organizers are employing sophisticated tactics common to political machines, including a combination of voter rolls and census data that will help identify precincts with large ethnic populations.

Project officials also will use computer programs that can take voter rolls and pick out names that are likely of Hispanic, Korean, Arab and Chinese derivation. Volunteers will spread the message by phone or in person on Election Day--in at least a dozen languages--to encourage prospective voters to get to the polls.

Because immigrants have such varying backgrounds, the campaign will tailor sales pitches to each group. Hispanic immigrants, who represent most undocumented immigrants, will hear about the need for a legalization plan. Arab-Americans will will be told about the need to protect civil rights in the fight against terrorism. Asian-Americans will hear about ways to end the lengthy backlogs for legal immigrants so they can bring relatives into the country.

In the 50th Ward, volunteers recently studied maps of precincts over samosas and mango shakes at a restaurant on Devon Avenue. Lakshmi Rengarajan and Mohammadbhai Sheikh illustrate the technique of teaming up ethnic community leaders and first-generation Americans savvy in politics.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Rengarajan, 28, grew up in the suburbs and has little connection to the East Indian enclave of Devon Avenue. But the freelance journalist is skilled in U.S. politics and is a veteran of a progressive group focusing on Asian-American issues.

By contrast, Sheikh is still learning about America in his citizenship class at the Indo-American Center. But the 72-year-old Indian immigrant knows these streets and their people, alternating his words among Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu and English.  On this night of door-knocking, the two came up empty: no voters registered and only a handful of signatures of support.

Rengarajan remained hopeful. "This work is important. There is a feeling that something has to change with the immigration system," she said. 

Dale Asis, executive director of the Coalition of African, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois, said immigrants have traditionally been the foot soldiers, not the leaders, in organized political movements.  His coalition, based in the Ravenswood neighborhood, started the "After Citizenship" project this month that offers a 12-week course in Centro Romero in Edgewater about complex political skills.  Asis said his group wants to avoid the "fill the bus" model, "where we pack in people behind the speaker at the press conference. Sometimes it feels like immigrants are just used as props."

With sharp divisions over the Patriot Act and proposals to legalize undocumented immigrants, both parties are making immigration a campaign issue.  The liberal advocacy group, Center for Community Change, is organizing the New Americans Vote project in Illinois and other states.  Officials with the Washington-based group said the Illinois project, which includes a leadership institute for community activists, is the most ambitious. Illinois organizers have already registered about 17,000 voters this year.

On the other side of the issue, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) has founded a political action committee, Team America, to support candidates who want stricter enforcement of immigration laws.  The immigrant voting bloc continues to grow. According to census data, the number of naturalized citizens in Illinois 18 and older increased 43 percent between 1990 and 2000, to about 580,000.

In the 15 targeted neighborhoods and suburbs, organizers will complement national debates with local flashpoints, from affordable housing in Uptown to a backlash over a proposed Orland Park mosque.  People are beginning to open their eyes," said Carlos Sanchez, who is working with Casa Mexiquense to mobilize naturalized citizens in Waukegan.

Aug. 20, 2004: The Indian Reporter and Garam Masala
SAPAC Registers People to Vote at India & Pakistan Independence Celebrations
By Lakshmi Rengarajan

CHICAGO - AUGUST 14-15, 2004.  Community volunteers registered over 100 new voters at this weekend's Indian Independence celebration.  The registration efforts were spear-headed by SAPAC (South Asian Progressive Action Collective), ICIRR (Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights) and the Indo-American Center.  College students, educators, senior citizens and young professionals made up the group of volunteers that mingled with the large crowds at the Independence Day Mela in Warren Park to register eligible voters.

SAPAC was also part of an Independence Day Parade float.  The float collected community groups working for communal harmony in India.  Building Bridges and SAGAR (South Asians Group for Action and Reflection) were among the groups that sponsored the float.  During the parade supporters chanted phrases such as, "Democracy, Pluralism and Peace for India."  Signs read, "Respect Human Rights," and "Many Voices, One India."

However this weekend's voter registration push was not the first time these volunteers have been getting the word out.  For the past several weekends they have worked to register the South Asian community by walking the Devon Business district.  And last weekend the same volunteers accumulated over 70 voter registrations at the Pakistan Independence Celebration.  Voter registration efforts will continue until October 5th.  Upcoming plans include a trip to the taxi stands at O'Hare airport and a presence at the opening of the new Gurdwara on Devon. Volunteers will continue to attend other community events to ensure that all eligible individuals are registered and ready to exercise their right to vote on November 2nd. [Note: Lakshmi is a SAPAC member.]

Jul. 11, 2004:  Chicago Public Radio
Radio Stories—Crossing Communal Divides in India
Appearance by Shashi Menon

Chicago Public Radio invited community members to hear radio stories regarding communal tensions in India and the Diaspora and then participate in a community dialogue.  SAPAC member Shashi Menon participated in a panel looking at how South Asians in the Diaspora are engaging around issues of communalism. 

Listen to Voices from Hyderabad, the radio series on communalism by Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ 91.5 FM).