Revisiting Revolutionary Temporalities
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LOCATION: Earl & Jennie Lohn Policy Room (7000), SFU Harbour Centre
RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/revisiting-revolutionary-temporalities-tickets-2004328460380
FIFTH ANNUAL PROFESSOR CHINMOY BANERJEE MEMORIAL LECTURE IN ANTI-RACISM
*Reception to follow*
The annual commemorative lecture is cohosted by the Institute for the Humanities, the Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation, West Coast Coalition Against Racism (WCCAR), and South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD).
In this talk, Dr. Ajay Bhardwaj will discuss Prof. Chinmoy Banerjee’s life and work in the historical context of the revolutionary upsurges of the long sixties in the imperial core. He will emphasize anti-colonial solidarities forged among radical left movements and organizations of Third World immigrants, Indigenous communities, and Canadian New Left. Drawing on curated footage from Chin’s interview for his work-in-progress documentary, A Single Spark on the Indian People’s Association in North America (IPANA), Bhardwaj will present, in Chin’s own words, his journey towards left radicalism. Deeply contemplative and infused with subtle humour, Chin’s recollections of personal experiences and political events traverse an epoch in which power was being challenged and contested everywhere. According to Chin, this was the broader context in which a “dislocated and destabilized subject finds the possibility of reidentification and reorientation.” Bhardwaj will evoke an embodied sense of these struggles and solidarity playing excerpts from songs on the three LPs of revolutionary music produced by IPANA, two of which were made in Vancouver in collaboration with the Indian Workers Association, Great Britain, and the third in Montreal.
Close comrade and friend Harinder Mahil will share memories of his lifelong association with Chinmoy Banerjee, and Rea Chatterjee will reminisce about her granduncle.
With musical performance by Sejal, a violinist, singer, and songwriter originally from Surrey BC, and now based in Nanaimo. Using her vocals, violin, and loop station, she crafts layered and lush vocal and string arrangements, drawing inspiration from western classical, folk, jazz, r&b, soul, and pop music. Her songs range from bright and joyous, to dark and introspective. Sejal sings about hope, anger, grief, joy, and revolution!
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ajay Bhardwaj is an academic and documentary filmmaker. He is a recipient of the Public Scholars Award at the University of British Columbia, where he completed his PhD on South Asian left-wing cultural activism in the Long Sixties in British Columbia. His doctoral documentary, When the Tide Goes Out, accompanying his dissertation, was screened at AAS 2024 Film Expo and is available at https://cinemapolitica.vhx.tv/products/when-the-tide-goes-out. During his postdoctoral fellowship at Simon Fraser University’s Institute for the Humanities (2022-2024), Bhardwaj researched a new archive of South Asian diasporic activism by the Indian People’s Association in North America (1975-1987)—a collective of progressive activists, writers, artists, musicians, and allies in the Canadian New Left. His ongoing documentary project, A Single Spark, combines text, multimedia archives, and oral histories to foreground the world-making features of IPANA’s activism. Bhardwaj is also co-editing the special issue 14.2 of Verge: Studies in Global Asias, titled The Cultural Labor of Internationalism: Reorienting Solidarities in Times of Struggle.
RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/revisiting-revolutionary-temporalities-tickets-2004328460380
FIFTH ANNUAL PROFESSOR CHINMOY BANERJEE MEMORIAL LECTURE IN ANTI-RACISM
*Reception to follow*
The annual commemorative lecture is cohosted by the Institute for the Humanities, the Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation, West Coast Coalition Against Racism (WCCAR), and South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD).
In this talk, Dr. Ajay Bhardwaj will discuss Prof. Chinmoy Banerjee’s life and work in the historical context of the revolutionary upsurges of the long sixties in the imperial core. He will emphasize anti-colonial solidarities forged among radical left movements and organizations of Third World immigrants, Indigenous communities, and Canadian New Left. Drawing on curated footage from Chin’s interview for his work-in-progress documentary, A Single Spark on the Indian People’s Association in North America (IPANA), Bhardwaj will present, in Chin’s own words, his journey towards left radicalism. Deeply contemplative and infused with subtle humour, Chin’s recollections of personal experiences and political events traverse an epoch in which power was being challenged and contested everywhere. According to Chin, this was the broader context in which a “dislocated and destabilized subject finds the possibility of reidentification and reorientation.” Bhardwaj will evoke an embodied sense of these struggles and solidarity playing excerpts from songs on the three LPs of revolutionary music produced by IPANA, two of which were made in Vancouver in collaboration with the Indian Workers Association, Great Britain, and the third in Montreal.
Close comrade and friend Harinder Mahil will share memories of his lifelong association with Chinmoy Banerjee, and Rea Chatterjee will reminisce about her granduncle.
With musical performance by Sejal, a violinist, singer, and songwriter originally from Surrey BC, and now based in Nanaimo. Using her vocals, violin, and loop station, she crafts layered and lush vocal and string arrangements, drawing inspiration from western classical, folk, jazz, r&b, soul, and pop music. Her songs range from bright and joyous, to dark and introspective. Sejal sings about hope, anger, grief, joy, and revolution!
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ajay Bhardwaj is an academic and documentary filmmaker. He is a recipient of the Public Scholars Award at the University of British Columbia, where he completed his PhD on South Asian left-wing cultural activism in the Long Sixties in British Columbia. His doctoral documentary, When the Tide Goes Out, accompanying his dissertation, was screened at AAS 2024 Film Expo and is available at https://cinemapolitica.vhx.tv/products/when-the-tide-goes-out. During his postdoctoral fellowship at Simon Fraser University’s Institute for the Humanities (2022-2024), Bhardwaj researched a new archive of South Asian diasporic activism by the Indian People’s Association in North America (1975-1987)—a collective of progressive activists, writers, artists, musicians, and allies in the Canadian New Left. His ongoing documentary project, A Single Spark, combines text, multimedia archives, and oral histories to foreground the world-making features of IPANA’s activism. Bhardwaj is also co-editing the special issue 14.2 of Verge: Studies in Global Asias, titled The Cultural Labor of Internationalism: Reorienting Solidarities in Times of Struggle.
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Where is it happening?
515 West Hastings Street , Vancouver, BC, Canada, British Columbia V6B 5K3
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Host or PublisherInstitute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University
