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    Write on

    Global stars and best sellers headline 3-day Houston cultural 'bonanza' of literature and film

    Holly Beretto
    Sep 14, 2023 | 9:43 am

    Literature lovers are going to swoon over this weekend's JLF Houston, a three-day event September 15 to 17, with happenings at Asia Society Texas, the University of Houston, Rothko Chapel and the Eternal Gandhi Museum. Back for its sixth annual outing, the Houston event brings an array of high-level creative talent to the Bayou City.

    "This weekend JLF Houston brings to our city world-class writers as well as spotlighting Houston's own artists," Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, the best-selling author of The Mistress of Spices and The Forest of Enchantments, and a teacher in the University of Houston's highly regarded creative writing program, tells CultureMap.

    "The festival enriches our cultural landscape with multi-cultural discussions ranging from India's freedom struggle and how it affected women to current-day challenges in Ukraine to cutting-edge astronomical discoveries. I hope Houstonians will make full use of this the-day bonanza, which also presents music and film and is followed each day by receptions where one can chat up-close with the presenters."

    Look for an opening reception Friday evening at the University of Houston, which follows the festival's kickoff panel, "Ukraine: The Cost of War."

    Saturday, September 16 is a day of presentations, panels, readings and discussions by some of the greatest names in books in movies. Taking place at Asia Society Houston and hosted jointly by Inprint, Asia Society and Teamwork Arts, the event is modeled after India's Jaipur Literature Festival, one of the world's most-renowned gatherings of authors, filmmakers and lovers of the written word.

    Salaam! Mira Nair, Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni, and more

    The day begins award-winning film-maker Mira Nair, known for movies like Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding, in conversation with Sanjoy K. Roy, Teamwork Arts' managing director. Nair will discuss her cinematic language, the vocabulary of the moving image, and her special affinity for literary adaptation, including Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake.

    Up next is the panel "Forbidden Pages: Banned, Burned and Censored." The ACLU Texas' Oni K. Blair, The Aztec Love God author Tony Diaz, and journalist, editor and chair of PEN International Writers in Prison chair Salil Tripathi are in conversation with retired HISD librarian Dorcas Hand. They'll talk about the rationale behind movements to ban books, and how ideas still thrive in the end.

    Sanjoy K. Roy
      

    Courtesy of Sanjoy K. Roy

    Global arts guru Sanjoy K. Roy will chat with Mira Nair.

    In the first panel of the afternoon, "The Personal and the Political," award winning journalist Anjan Sundaram discusses his recent memoir, Breakup: A Marriage in Wartime, with Tripathi. The book explores the toll being a war correspondent takes on marriage, and how the scenes they bear witness to expose humanitarian crimes across the world.

    Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni talks about decolonization and the devastating consequences of Partition, which form the backdrop of her latest novel, Independence, a sweeping saga of India in the last days of British rule, told from the intertwined perspectives of three sisters. She's in conversation with Pakistani-American writer and Gulf Coast Journal fiction editor Tayyba Maya Kanwal.

    A Journey Through the Cosmos, Bandit Queens, and world peace

    Additional sessions include Priyamvada Natarajan, a professor in Yale's department of physics and astronomy discusses her book, Mapping the Heavens: A Journey Through the Cosmos with Sanjoy K. Roy. Houston’s sixth Poet Laureate Aris Kian Brown, Nepali-Indian poet and writer Rohan Chhetri, and Assamese writer and poet Aruni Kashyap are in conversation with academic Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan.

    Parini Shroff, author of The Bandit Queens, and Aruni Kashyap, author There is No Good Time for Bad News, His Father's Disease, and The House With a Thousand Stories will talk with academic and writer Mohan Ambikaipaker about the plurality of identity and a sense of belonging found in stories and poems by South Asian writers in the United States.

    The day concludes with an author reception where participants can meet and greet the writers and presenters. More information is on the Asia Society Texas website.

    To mark the beginning of World Peace Week, Sunday's sessions begin at the Rothko Chapel with music and a poetry reading. Salil Tripathi and Sita Kapadia are in conversation about "The Gandhis: The Story of Ba and Bapu" Sunday afternoon at the Eternal Gandhi Museum.

    Tickets, registration and additional details can be found online. While many events are free of charge with registration, Saturday's sessions at Asia Society are $20 for a full-day pass.

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    be part of the art

    Local artist invites Houstonians to participate in new Discovery Green project

    Brianna Griff
    May 23, 2025 | 4:00 pm
    A portrait of artist Karen Navarro for Discovery Green
    Photo courtesy of Karen Navarro
    Artist Karen Navarro is creating a large-scale, public art installation for Discovery Green.

    Discovery Green will debut a new interactive artwork this September, and Houstonians can be part of its creation. Locally-based artist Karen Navarro is inviting residents to sit for portraits for Chroma Collective, her large-scale installation planned for the park’s Sarofim Picnic Lawn.

    The Argentine native centers her practice on identity, representation, race, and belonging. Her own journey as an immigrant woman informs the Discovery Green project, which celebrates Houston’s diversity while examining the intersection of history and personal narratives. Although Navarro began as a photographer, her work now includes immersive, three-dimensional sculpture.

    “I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue evolving my practice and working on a project of this scale as an introduction to the realm of public art,” Navarro said.

    Navarro is a former fellow of Discovery Green Conservancy’s Art Lab, a mentorship program that pairs underrepresented local artists with a lead artist and mentors to learn the nuts and bolts of public art installations.

    “Seeing Karen Navarro, one of our inaugural Art Lab fellows, selected for the park’s fall pop-up installation is a testament to the program’s mission in action,” Kathryn Lott, president of Discovery Green Conservancy, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to see her bring her vision to life and to continue fostering opportunities for Houston’s creative community.”

    A local art advisory firm, The Weingarten Art Group, co-curates and co-administers Art Lab, which is funded by an anonymous national foundation.

    "Karen Navarro’s fall pop-up proposal brilliantly captures the essence of Discovery Green – its vibrant community, lush green spaces, interactive landscape, and spirit of exploration,” said Weingarten Art Group principal Lea Weingarten.

    Houstonians interested in participating in Navarro’s piece must complete this form, which includes a photo submission, to be considered for a portrait session.

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