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Book, Bangla and Bangladeshi community in New York

Book, Bangla and Bangladeshi community in New York

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Bangladeshi community abroad indeed like to celebrate cultural events as long as it has the native vibe of Bangladesh. Organized by Muktadhara Foundation, the International Bangla Festival and Book Fair was such an event for Bangladeshi community living in New York City. Held in Jackson Heights from May 20 to 22, 2016, the three-day event was lively, colorful, festive and attended by thousands of people. Bangla Book Fair, started in 1992, was a tiny and modest event but as the Bangladeshi community has grown, the celebration has transformed into a bigger event with kind of festival flavor. This year it was the 25th anniversary of the fair. Authors and book publishers participated from Bangladesh and India, therefore, it was international in essence.

Writers, publishers, cultural personalities related with Bangla language and literature attended the festival. Mayor of NYC and other elected officials sent their welcome messages. The festival started with a colorful parade from Diversity Plaza at 7 pm on Friday. The parade, participated by over hundreds of people, ended at the PS 69 – the venue for rest of the event. The festival was opened with ribbon, balloons, candlelights and Bangla literary celebrities present at the stage.

Program Schedule of Bangla Book Fair

Day 1: FridayDay 2: SaturdayDay 3: Sunday
  1. Parade from Diversity Plaza
  2. Formal opening of the fair
  3. Speeches of the invited guests
  4. Opening dance
  5. Honorary reception of Dr. David Nalin
  6. Event for new generation
  7. 25 years 0f Muktadhara: a retrospective
  8. Music of Ferdous Ara
  1. Child and youth competition
  2. Writer, reader, and publisher: face to face
  3. Book of the year: discuss on new books
  4. Self-written poem reading
  5. For would-be writers: tips from editors and publishers
  6. Face of Bangladesh in the USA: a discussion
  7. Folk tradition of Bangladesh: discussion and songs
  8. Cultural program
  9. Books of the new generation
  10. Why do I write?
  11. Social responsibility of writers
  12. Sitar playing
  13. Woman as a writer: uneven playing field
  14. Poetry is my worship
  15. Raft of music: songs by invited singers
  16. Guest singer of the evening
  17. Magic of rhyme: reading and discussion
  18. Book fair: Dhaka, Kolkata, New York and Berlin
  19. Our Rabindranath
  20. Genocide 1971: discussion
  1. Children’s competition
  2. Best child artist: prize distribution
  3. Self-written poetry
  4. Poetry recitation
  5. Is television a hinder to spread Bangla culture? – a discussion
  6. New books
  7. Channel I/Muktadhara book fair literature prize
  8. Abar asibo fire: poetry of Jibanananda Das
  9. Hirodoye Rabindtanath
  10. Raag and raginee: use of raag in Rabindranath’s song
  11. Democracy and development: open discussion
  12. Folk song
  13. Raft of music: songs by invited singers
  14. Face to face: discussion
  15. Songs of Nazrul
  16. Reception of Selina Hossain
  17. Thanksgiving
  18. Guest singer
  19. Breakfast and meeting of writers
  20. Workshop on Nazrul’s songs
  21. Book introduction
  22. Little magazine: an evaluation
  23. Remembering Khasruzzaman Chowdhury

What the Bangladeshi community got?

A lot of fun, utility and sense of belonging. Thousands of Bangladeshi community members converged at the book fair in three days. There were book, food, cloth, jewelry, art, not-for-profit business vendors at the event. The most crowded places were women’s clothing booth. Then food stalls. Cloth and food sellers were busy almost all the time. People browsed and bought books from 17 participating booksellers. Got autographs from authors, received samples from Bangladeshi food importer, talked about course and career with the tech company, stopped by at art vendor’s and non-profit organization’s booth. People also talked to authors, took pictures, enjoyed music and dance, listened to discussions, met friends and families, exchanged greetings. The most popular attraction – the cultural event in the evening – was full of audience. It was a great festival atmosphere.

Children’s program was elaborate and a good source of inspiration for Bangladeshi parents. Bangladeshi children, from 5 to 16 years, competed in five categories and won prizes.

Tight Schedule

Although most of the Bangladeshi community members attended in the evening to enjoy cultural programs, the organizers have filled two days with lots of events. On Saturday, 20 events were packed into 13 hours in two rooms – the main auditorium and ‘Deepon’ room (a room named after Faisal Arefin Deepon). Sunday was even more tightly filled, 23 events were scheduled from 11:00 am to 11:30 pm. To finish all the events the organizers had to keep a tight grip on timing. In some segments, moderators literally pressed speakers to finish their talk in seconds – which is an utterly impossible task for Bangladeshi people.

  • 32 participants were given 60 minutes for the ‘Book of the year: discussion on new books’ to read and talk about their books
  • 30 poets got 75 minutes to read their own poems, including moderator’s introduction
  • 33 poets were given 75 minutes to read their self-written poetry
  • 12 writers were given 30 minutes to introduce their new books

Perhaps these tight scheduling and high-pressure segments were designed to exercise brevity and precision talking as well as just to introduce writers and showcase their works only!

Bangla book fair sign in other languages
Bangla language needs other languages to spread its root

Room for Improvement

Bangladeshi community in New York truly enjoys the Bangla book fair a great deal. It is especially popular among the first generation Bangladeshis and their families. It brings back memory and nostalgia of Ekushey Book Fair in crowded Dhaka city. Muktadhara Foundation has worked tirelessly to organize the annual showcase of Bangla literary works from Bangladesh, India and beyond. The fair has also enhanced the cultural vitality of Bangladeshi community at the backdrop of New York City’s rich and vibrant multicultural environment. However, the Bangla book fair can be improved substantially in content and management. Aside from previous suggestions, here are some more recommendations:

  • The Bangla book fair was organized in Jackson Heights, one of the most diversified neighborhoods of New York City. Other ethnic communities were curious about the event but had no clue what was going on? Displaying signs in Spanish, Arabic, Korean, Chinese language could have been a great idea!
    Displaying signs in Spanish, Arabic, Korean, Chinese language could have been a great idea.
  • Book fair can be more diversified by adding more interesting and modern ideas. The event was filled with too many items related to song, dance, Rabindranath and Nazrul. Some discussion on blogging, filmmaking, spreading science, making a podcast, utilizing technology, using social media, reading e-books could have been added. There was even no discussion about blogging or bloggers!
  • Young second generation Bangladeshi writer participation was almost none. In recent years, some non-resident Bangladeshi writers are actively writing: Tahmima Anam, Zia Haider Rahman, Abeer Yusria Hoque, Tanwi Nandini Islam, Javed Jahangir, and others. On Saturday, only two people briefly talked about Books Of The New Generation – both are from old generation!
  • Organizers can give more attention to floor plan for booths, better signs and directions, better audio/sound system, typo-less or correctly spelled program guide, etc.
  • The website of the foundation has no information about how many publishers/writers attended the fair, how many books were sold, what was the most popular book, who sold the most books, who own the children’s competition, program details of the event. Actually, only a few photos were posted online after the event, nothing else!
  • Organizers can improve the image and management of Bangla book fair by collecting comments, suggestions, recommendations from the visitors (suggestion box)! There was no way to give any feedback on the event onsite! Bangladeshi community in New York can help improve the image, the quality and the direction of Bangla book festival by engaging more into the process in future.
International Bangla Festival & Book Fair, NYC

Bangla Festival & Book Fair in NYC

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Bangla Utshob and Boimela
Bangla Utshob & Boimela

Muktadhara Foundation organized a 3-day long International Bangla Festival & Book Fair at the William Cullen Bryant High School of Long Island City from June 13 to 15, 2014. According to the organizer, it was their 23rd Bangla Book Fair. The fair was attended by many people, mostly of Bangladeshi origin. Some attendees were from West Bengal part of India and some from Europe. Hence, it was international in nature.  The objectives of the fair 2014 was “to project the cultural heritage of Bengali to expatriate Bangladesh and West Bengal and other communities living in the North America. And to build a sustainable link between the expatriate Bengalis and the land where they or their ancestors were born in field of information exchange, literature, culture & business.”

The festival brought together plenty of Bangla writers, readers, poets, artists, reciters, musicians, book publishers and spectators. The event was full of programs – general discussion, literary discussion, QA session with writers, song, dance, drama, recitation, children’s essay competition, youth forum, photo exhibitions, writer’s corner, short film, etc. Different programs were held in various parts of the venue – some event space were given names like Ali Anowar Room, Salman Khan Room, Aminul Haque Room, etc. There were also book stalls, cloth and jewelry stalls, food stalls, NGO stalls, and other kinds. A nice souvenir was published and a program leaflet was always available to pick up.

It was a festive, hectic and inspiring event. I went there last two days to enjoy and observe the festival. The list of guests and programs can tell that it was quite a big event. Organizing such an event successfully was certainly not an easy job! A big congratulation to organizers, sponsors, attendees, participants and all interested parties. It was better than a great festival.

Some discussion on technology, sports and more spotlight on youth forum could have been given!

I ventured different parts of the event and enjoyed them. I, however, also expected a bit more futuristic flavor from the festival. Felt that the festival was kind of past oriented. Here is my two main observations (and suggestions):

  1. The festival was full of programs but there was no science/technology related discussion of any form! Why not, who knows! Today, our life, ‘liberty’, literature, language, likings inundated by so many technological innovations (facebook, twitter, sms, apps, robotics, vr, etc). When we are gradually moving from writing to typing, typing to touching, touching to gesturing, and gesturing to ‘thinking’ – hundreds of topics can be think of to discuss about related to science and technology. Let’s do a quick, fun exercise about possible topics: (Again, this is just for fun)
    • ‘The Face of Bangla e-books’,
    • ‘Internet and Bangla Language: Today’,
    • ‘Possibility of a Bangla Bing/Google’
    • ‘One and Unified Bangla Typewriter’,
    • ‘Publishing Top-notch Online Bangla Newspaper’,
    • ‘Bangla Language: Year 2100′,
    • ‘Self-publishing Technology and Bangla Book Publishing’,
    • ‘Moimonshingho Gitika and the Psychology of Bengali’,
    • ‘The Science of Charchapod‘,
    • ‘Neurology of Language: Bangladesh Perspective‘. (ok, time’s up)
  2. Out of the all the programs, I enjoyed youth forum the most. Ok, I would not say it extraordinarily fancy and fantastic but it was very dynamic, hopeful, energetic and in English. This 2-day youth program was “designed, coordinated, conducted and presented by second generation Bengalis“. Young Bangladeshi-Americans presented and discussed various topics about entrepreneurship, politics, importance of volunteering, first generation immigrant experience, history of Bangladesh, making film in USA, community connection through photography, response to domestic violence, etc. Even with poor audio system, and hard to show their slides (due to bright light in the room), the youth presenters tried their best to make it interesting, informative and engaging. The discussion was entirely in English, which was natural and a right thing to do. While adults were debating whether new generation Bangladeshi-Americans should learn Bangla to be a Bengali, in the next room, the young’s were busy presenting their ideas in English in full swing. Unfortunately, not enough first generation audiences were there to listen to them! A meaningful dialog/conversation between the first and the second generation immigrants about how to represent Bengali could have been arranged! What the new generation of Bangladeshi-Americans think of the Bengali culture remained unknown!

Other observations where things can be done differently:

  • Photo exhibition of Bangladesh Liberation War 1971 on the 2nd floor was an excellent inclusion. This should have been given more highlights. I almost missed it! Photo exhibition of Pavel Rahman was also interesting and maybe bit nostalgic for adult-enough Bangladeshis. It could have been displayed in a corner by creating a little more appropriate atmosphere.
  • Organizers can utilize internet to provide more information. Few simple spelling mistakes on the home page could be avoided where ‘New York’ became ‘Ney York’, ‘Bengali’ became ‘Benglai‘, etc. (Now, I am concerned about my mistakes!)
  • The event is over now. If someone need information about this festival (writings/pictures/videos) in coming years, how will they get them? Archiving the program of the event is an important work that can be done.
  • Next time, maybe a big prominent display at the venue entrance with clear directions of the room, programs, time etc. can be displayed; audio system can be improved, etc.

Lastly, looking beyond the limit is like loving the limitless – this occasion was a good practice of that. Thanks again, for organizing such a wonderful event.