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The Glass Room: Four Poets Regale The Spinning Wheel
NEWS REPORT
The aptly named Glass Room of Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum was the venue for yet another ‘first' in the Sikh world - a ‘kavi darbar' (poetry reading) by poets, Sikh and non-Sikh, who write poetry on Sikh subjects ... in English!
It was part of the sumptuous feast laid out by The Seventh Annual Spinning Wheel Film Festival last weekend (September 25 - 27, 2009) in Toronto, Canada.
Each of the four poets who read from their respective works are established and published writers, and have already made their mark in the mainstream world of letters. They have ventured into Sikh subjects because of their own Sikh heritage (Jaspreet, Rishma and Sharanpal) or have found interest and meaning in things Sikh (Michele).
JASPREET SINGH
He is the author of two award-winning books, Seventeen Tomatoes (a collection of linked short stories) and Chef (a novel). His essay 'Hotel Leeward' appears in the anthology Cabin Fever: Best New Canadian Non-Fiction (Thomas Allen, 2009).
RISHMA DUNLOP
She is Associate Professor of English and Co-ordinator of the Creative Writing Program at York University, Toronto. With six books of her poetry behind her, her work was recently included in a special edition of The Literary Review titled Unmapped: The Indian Poetry Issue. Earlier, she was one of the poets covered in Red Silk: An Anthology of South Asian Canadian Women Poets. Her radio play, The Raj Kumari's Lullaby, was produced and broadcast by CBC Radio; it is expected to be turned into a short film.
SHARANPAL KAUR RUPRAI
She is completing a PhD in the Department of Humanities at York University, Toronto, having earlier obtained her Master's in English from the University of Calgary. She is published poet; her work has been included in two anthologies, Exposed and Red Silk: An Anthology of South Asian Canadian Women Poets.
MICHELE GIBSON
She is a social worker based in Guelph, Ontario. She's written poetry since childhood, and is now a regular poetry contributor to sikhchic.com.
　
[Their readings at the Festival will also appear on the pages of sikhchic.com.]
September 30, 2009
Conversation about this article
1: Satinder Kaur (Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.), September 30, 2009, 11:47 AM.
More, more ... we need more of this. Hope other communities will pick up on this and provide local platforms for our youth to express themselves through the poetry that utilizes their own lingo and idiom.
2: K.R. (U.K.), October 01, 2009, 8:51 AM.
I personally feel that non-amritdhari Sikhs somtimes feel they can't outwardly express their feelings for their faith and hence a gap between Gursikhs and non-Gursikhs is widening. I'm really glad that such avenues and opportunities are now available. I really hope this new positive direction Sikhs are taking gets bigger and bigger. Does anyone know if 'The Spinning Wheel' has come, or is coming to the U.K.?
3: Jasbir Singh Sethi (Houston, Texas, U.S.A.), October 08, 2009, 11:45 AM.
Congratulatons to each of the four poets! This is certainly an extremely needed platform/forum, to engage our future generation, to listen to them, encourage them - outside the four walls of our gurdwaras which are becoming virtual closed-chambers, painfully suffocating to the youth and their creativity.
4: Arunjit Singh Qaumi (Brampton, Ontario, Canada), October 10, 2009, 12:51 PM.
Most of the treasures of the world are resting below the earth, we dig them and then enjoy their splendour. Sitting in the Glass Room and listening to the diamonds of Sikh poetry coming from Jaspreet, Rishma, Sharanpal and Michele, was an elevating experience. They took us deep into the realms of our faith and then opened us to the immense aura of Ik Onkaar as described by Michele in her golden words.