Visions and Voices: Mehfil Massive Response

       This evening I had the privilege of attending a Visions and Voices event titled Mehfil Massive: South Asian Religions Remixed Through Poetry and Music.  This performance featured five different performances all featuring a poetry reading paired with a musical performer.  Although all different, each performer talked about life as a member of a South Asian culture, whether it be Indian, Pakistani, etc, the event brought together all different cultures located in South Asia.  In connection to our class, I thought this event served to generalize South Asian cultures.  Although the performers were recognized for each of the differing ethnic and cultural backgrounds, the host of the show seemed to group all of these cultures together using stereotypes.  Given some was meant as humor, but the hosts continual generalization of the different cultures of South Asia seemed to stereotype the religions of South Asia.
       The event also explored the ethnic identities of many different South Asian religions and cultures.  Multiple performers particularly Tarfia Faizullah and Brooklyn Shanti focused on the struggle of being from South Asia and the obstacles they must overcome because of their culture.  This struggle to find ethnic identity reminded me of both our 140 class as well as AMST 274 because we have focused so much on what ethnic identity is and how it is formed.  Faizullah and Shanti's performance touched on how both the physical display of their ethnicity as well as how institutions determined their life chances in regards to hunger and poverty growing up.  Clearly they overcame and are now performing beautifully the struggles and triumphs in finding their ethnic identities.
     Overall I thought the event featured very talented and diverse performances, yet seemed to generalize the religions and cultures of South Asia.  If I were to make suggestions on how to improve the show, I would order performances based on the religion and culture they feature and emphasize this fact to the audience.  Then I would tie the overall message of each performance together by celebrating each religion and culture for their differences and similarities, in both practice and their appearance in the performances.