Sunday May
23rd, 11:25am - 12:40pm.
California Institute of Integral Studies, 1453 Mission St. (at 10th), San Francisco
South Asian Progressive Conference, 2004
Given the dazzling spectrum of struggles in which progressive South Asians are
engaged, we're apt to overlook the very issues we fight for, when it's closer
to home. Sustainability, democracy, accountability, exploitation, peace - and
power - how do we address these in our own organizations? What are the lessons
learned? What are the challenges?
Join panelists in a discussion on means, ends, and creating the world we want
en route to arriving at the world we want. Let's keep it real!
Participants include:
Birjinder
Anant
Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA)
Birjinder is one of 2 bearded coordinators of ASATA; their mission statement
reads: "ASATA works to educate, organize, and empower the Bay Area South
Asia communities to end violence, oppression, racism and exploitation within
and against our diverse communities." They have focused on hate crimes,
gender violence, immigrant rights and other issues of social justice. Birjinder
is currently working on a Masters in Economics at SF State, losing his self,
and ways for people to have good food at hand while walking around.
Sabahat
Ashraf, with Usman Qazi
Friends of South Asia
Sabahat and Usman are members of the Friends of South Asia, an organization
that was formed in the Bay Area at a time of heightened danger of Nuclear War
in the Subcontinent. Working through people-to-people contacts, dialog, and
other non-violent, non-exclusionary means, FOSA works towards a demilitarized,
nuclear-free South Asia; bringing together people with roots in various parts
of South Asia, as well as other well-wishers of the region. A peaceful, prosperous,
and hate-free South Asia is its declared mission. FOSA's members are a cross-section
of ethnicities as well as political and cultural backgrounds from around South
Asia. Sabahat himself is currently a technical writer based in Silicon Valley.
He has a Bachelors' in Computer Systems Engineering from Karachi and a Masters'
in Technical Communication from Rensselaer. Sabahat has worked as a journalist
and human rights activist in Pakistan. He is also currently newsletter editor
of the International Organization of Pakistani Women Engineers [IOPWE; www.iopwe.org].
Maulie
Dass
South Asian Sisters
Maulie is a desi engineer in the South Bay (groan). Most of her colleagues are
South Asian men, including her boss, HIS boss, and HIS boss. Hence it's understandable
why she is one of the founders of South Asian Sisters and Yoni Ki Baat - she
desperately needs a space in which she can breathe and be herself without scrutiny
or judgement. Most of her politics stem from growing up in a Klan-controlled
environment in Colorado, being in a gender-controlled environment at work, and
a deconstruction-controlled environment inside her head.
Mini
Kahlon (Convener & note taker)
Mini is a member of ASATA, and director of research and workplace programs at
the Level Playing Field Institute (LPFI). As a volunteer social justice activist
in the Bay Area for over a decade, she's worked within many different organizational
structures, to facilitate creative expression, event production and political
advocacy. Mini has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and if you ask her about the brain,
you'll see that she's a geek at heart..
Nadia
Khastagir
Design Action Collective
Nadia is a graphic artist at the Design Action Collective, a worker-owned cooperative
based in Oakland which provides graphic communication services for social justice
organizations. Design Action recently co-sponsored Designs on Democracy conference
about design and communication for progressive organizing. Previous to Design
Action, Nadia worked for CorpWatch, a corporate accountability group, and currently
volunteers with the India Resource Center, a project of Global Resistance, on
the website and the Coca-Cola Campaign.
Shaily
Matani (Facilitator)
Shaily is currently on sabbatical from activism and social change/social justice
work, but loves substative conversations and helpful insights, models that generate
good dynamics (as well as good work), facilitation and training gigs, and talking
back to her radio while working on projects at home. She was part of the crew
that co-founded ASATA (way back when), and has done about a decade of anti-sexual-violence
work, ranging from conducting workshops and anti-oppression trainings, to running
direct service programs, to orchestrating fun n' educational interactive campaigns.
Part of Shaily's sabbatical involves searching for and piecing together a new praxis, her last one having given out. If you see a blue tinge on her face, it's 'cuz she's holding her breath and trusting that there's enough in her account to underwrite the process (and that maybe the universe will kick in a little to help cover the costs).
Asha
Mehta
Revitalizing Education And Learning (REAL)
Asha is the program director for Revitalizing Education and Learning (REAL)
at CES. REAL brings youth empowerment philosophies and strategies into public
middle and high school classrooms around the Bay Area. In REAL classrooms, teachers
and students work together to create learning environments and communities engaged
in social change. Asha is a credentialed teacher, has a Masters in Education
from Stanford University, and a long history of participating in social justice
activism in the Bay Area. She is also getting married in less than a month!
Reva
Patwardhan
California Peace Action
Reva is in her fourth year at California Peace Action (CAPA), a nonprofit advocacy
organization that works on foreign policy. She has been a fundraiser for as
many years, and is currently the Publications Director (a position fairly analogous
to a Communications Director). For about five years, CAPA has been working to
diversify its membership and staff. As part of this work, Reva and several of
her colleagues have taken leadership in forming a People of Color Caucus, which
focuses on both supporting and developing the roughly 20 organizers of color
who are currently working at CAPA. Reva also volunteered with ASATA for more
than a year.