A new play produced by Kali Theatre illustrates the impact of disastrous environmental damage and devastating effect on human lives by Genetically Modified seeds and Western pesticides in India.
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The government’s Central Office of Information (COI) has unveiled a roster of ethnic agencies that will be preferred suppliers in order to target British Asians through ad campaigns.

The COI spends approximately £3 million a year in trying to communicate government campaigns to Britain’s ethnic minorities.

It aims to increase effectiveness of government campaigns, tailoring communications taking account of citizens’ cultural nuances.

The list of preferred suppliers was established in 2004 following COI’s Common Good Research into communicating with ethnic minorities.
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Theatre company Rifco Arts are holding open auditions to find new singing talent. After the success of previous touring shows such as: There’s Something about Simmy, Meri Christmas and The Deranged Marriage, they are embarking on new projects and keen to find an older generation of talent.
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An exhibition to commemorate the partition of of British India, opens at Dominion Arts Education Centre in Southall this week.

Titled [PART][TION] it explores events of 1947 through the personal memories of survivors living in the UK today. The exhibition of images and oral collections hav been assembled by the Slough-based social cohesion group Aik Saath.

The exhibition is free and will run from Wednesday 30th April to Sunday 8th June 2008.
112 the Green
Southall UB2 4BQ
www.1947partition.com

The Britz team of Manjinder Virk and Rizwan Ahmed shocked the establishment by scooping the Bafta Award for the Best Drama on Sunday night, beating the highly acclaimed BBC drama Cranford.

In the summer of 2007 a farmer in southern India found a two-day old baby girl who had been buried alive. Rushed to the local hospital, she miraculously survived. But in today’s India, many other baby girls are not so lucky.

India’s Missing Girls tells the story of the thousands of girls who are killed every year - simply because of their gender. Most are aborted as soon as their sex is determined. Some are abandoned at birth, while others are killed, shortly after.
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Writing in the Independent newspaper yesterday, columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown says British Asians don’t appreciate the arts as much as they should. She added:

British Asians today still don’t get the arts, and don’t want to either. Got better things to do. They push their young people into real jobs that bring in big bucks, or at least good brides from families with big bucks. A painter, novelist, playwright, actor, cannot be admitted into respectable or wealthy dynasties – unless, of course, there is evidence of stardom.
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Jatinder Verma, founder of Tara Arts, the British Asian theatre company, observes some stirrings of interest, but largely superficial. “Over the last two decades, people have become more comfortable, and a small number from this emerging middle class are coming in. But too few are passionate about theatre or dance. There is no understanding that the arts have intrinsic value, that they tell us who we are as a society, our relationships. We have not looked to critiquing ourselves, what our place is in this country, this world. We are not yet in love with ideas.”
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“Asian kitsch has cachet now,” says one composer who wishes to remain anonymous. “The young would rather go to fashion shows than exhibitions, listen to Britney rather than Nitin Sawhney. There are, of course, brilliant individuals who will always rise, but with no blood links, cultural pathways to and from their people. We British Asian artists are lost before we were found, and I am very depressed about the future.”

Is there a hint of truth to these accusations? Are British Asians too in love with simple entertainment and not experimental enough with the arts?

Channel 4 has announced potentially far-reaching changes to its policy on diversity and tackling inequality within the corporation.

In an announcement last week it said it wanted to “extend our ability to reflect all kinds of social diversity including ethnicity, disability, nationality, regionality, age, gender and beyond”.

As part of its new strategy, the public service broadcaster will recruit a head of diversity at senior executive level. The person will lead its diversity strategy across all the organisations activities.
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The Asian Jewel Awards have signed up free-to-air channel Star TV as its main broadcast partner. The company said this week it would be televising all three regional Jewel Awards on Star Plus.

Now in its seventh year, the event aims to award high-achieving British Asian personalities in various fields. The Northern Jewel Awards will take place on 19th April at the Palace Hotel, Manchester; the Central Jewel Awards on 21st June at NEC Hilton, Birmingham; the Southern Jewel Awards on 4th October at Hilton Park Lane, London.

The Football Association is hosting an Ethnic Minority Media Day at Soho Square on April 18 which will highlight its work in areas such as Asians in Football and recruiting Black coaches. An Asian player is yet to play in the Premier League while there are just two black managers across 92 Football League clubs in England (Paul Ince at MK Dons and Keith Alexander at Macclesfield Town) so both topics are the subject of continuing debate.

The BBC’s Mark Bright will be hosting the event with Sir Trevor Brooking introducing and the likes of Brendon Batson, Hope Powell and Football League referee, Jarnail Singh, debating these issues and discussing how to take them forward for the future. There will also be a series of case studies from Asian and Black football coaches on how they carved out a career in the game, the issues they faced etc.

To attend contact Matt Phillips on: matt.phillips@thefa.com or 0207 745 4671.

The BBC Asian Network has been nominated for three awards at the prestigious Sony Radio Academy awards, it was revealed today.

Also up for nomination was Islamophonic, the Guardian newspaper’s monthly podcast on Muslim issues, produced by its religious affairs correspondent Riazat Butt.

The show initially started as a weekly project but has since been scaled down to a monthly podcast as Riazat took on more responsibilities at the Guardian.

BBC Asian Network has been nominated in the Digital Station of the Year category. Its Asian Nation project has been nominated for a Community Award and its documentary on ‘Britain’s Missing Girls’ is up for a New Feature Award.

The Sony Radio Academy awards will take place on May 12 in central London.

A new festival dedicated to pan-Asian culture will be part of the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year. Dubbed ‘InvAsian’, it is a partnership between production company clubWest and Tartan Silk Public Relations, with events taking place in the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh’s Quincentenary Hall.
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Wrier and former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg was awarded the ‘Published Writer of the Year’ award at the Muslim Writers Awards event last week.
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This July sees the launch of the third annual Britdoc Festival and we want you to be a part of it. With the world’s most influential documentary movers and shakers coming to Keble College, Oxford we are now open for film submissions in both the shorts and feature competitions.

The festival celebrates homegrown talent by screening the 10 best British feature documentaries (over 70 mins) from the past 12 months.

Organisers are looking for films that explore the world we live in and the people we share it with, and say they are always keen to see experimentation. Over the last two years Britdoc has presented award winning films as Nick and Marc Francis’ Black Gold, David Singleton’s In the Shadow of the Moon, Paul Taylor’s We Are Together, Kim Longinotto’s Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go, and Ben Hopkins’ 37 Uses For a Dead Sheep.

Apply here: www.britdoc.org

The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore was inspired directly by Alice in Wonderland and Western opera when he wrote the dance opera Tasher Desh - a satirical portrayal of a society ruled by strict conventions.
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This week Slough sees the launch of the annual film festival Same Difference. The previously acclaimed event opens on Wednesday and is organised by the group Aik Saath.

The Same Difference Film Festival seeks to challenge, inspire and educate people using film. It premieres with on 2nd April with ‘Sukkar Banat’ (Caramel) at the Empire Cinema, Slough.
For the full programme visit: www.same-difference.org.uk

A new series of films at Asia House in London will showcase films by women from around the world.
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The annual Muslim Writers Awards will take place this Saturday, 29th March, at the ICC in Birmingham, to celebrate the breadth and quality of British Muslim literary talent. Now in its second year, the event is being supported by the Prime Minister’s office and will be broadcast on Islam Channel.

MWA 2008 will recognize the work of 26 writers across eight categories, with the ‘Writer of the Year’ award presented by Jermaine Jackson at the event.
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London based Asian pop band Trickbaby is releasing its next single, Fighter, on 28th April. Their second album, Chor Bazaar, releases on 12th May through Wrasse Records, part of Universal.

Based around the song-writing partnership of Saira Hussain and Steve Ager, the band came to prominence a few years ago with their debut album Hanging Around.

They have made two videos to coincide with the release. Fighter is made in the form of an animated video, while Nine Parts Of Desire is produced by Ramesh Sippy (director of the Bollywood blockbuster Sholay), directed by his son, Rohan, and stars Abishek Bachchan as Saira’s love interest with Priyanka Chopra as her love rival.

The band recently performed live at the UK Asian Music Awards. at the Royal Festival Hall in London and they will opening for Rachid Taha and friends (a mini Africa Express) at London’s Jazz cafe on April 14th and 15th.
www.trickbabymusic.co.uk / www.youtube.com/trickbabymusic

Acclaimed Channel 4 drama Britz won the award for Best Drama Serial at the Royal Television Society awards last week. The two-part programme starred Manjinder Virk and Riz Ahmed in lead roles.

Britz is also nominated at the BAFTAs and the Broadcast Press Awards.

Also winning that night was the children’s comedy series My Life as a Popat, which features the antics of a young Asian boy and his madcap family. Among others, that features Shaheen Khan and Kulvinder Ghir as the parents.

The review is coming soon! Click on each thumbnail for the full image.

Saqi and Arts Council England (ACE) are hosting a celebration of the their Positive Action Trainee (PAT) scheme at the London Book Fair this year. Speaking at the event will be Simon Juden from the Publishers Association.
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Channel 4 drama Britz has been nominated for a Royal Television society (RTS) award within the Best Drama Serial category.

Starring Rizwan Ahmed and Manjinder Virk, it was a two-part thriller about a brother and sister, British-born and Muslim, who are pulled in different directions by their conflicting personal experiences in post 9/11 Britain.

Children’s drama My Life as a Popat is also nominated for that category. The awards will be presented on 19th March at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London.

The annuals Birds Eye View film festival returns this year to shocase the best work from women filmmakers all over the world. It will feature over 70 events including screenings, workshops and parties at 7 London venues including the ICA and BFI. Two screenings are from India this year.
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The UK Asian Music Awards takes place later this week at the Royal Festival Hall on 6th March. The event will be hosted by actress Preeya Kalidas and Mumbai based B4U presenter ‘VJ Sahil’.

Awards will be given on the night for: Best Album, Best Act, Best Female Act, Best Underground Act, Best Video, Best International Act, Best Newcomer, Best Producer, Best Club DJ, Best Urban Act, Best Radio Show and Best Website. Special awards on the night include Commitment to the Scene and Outstanding Achievement.

Organisers say the winners will be determined by public voting that took place through their website. Continue reading…