Bay Area residents celebrated literature and art at the annual SALA 2025 festival, featuring prominent South Asian speakers and a diverse array of discussions and performances.
Bay Area residents enjoyed a vibrant literary weekend at the annual SALA 2025 festival, produced by Art Forum SF on September 13 and 14. The event, which serves as a platform for South Asian literature and arts, attracted a diverse audience eager to engage with contemporary reflections from the subcontinent and its diaspora.
This year’s theme, “Thoughts Without Borders,” highlighted over 24 panel discussions that explored various aspects of literature, art, culinary experiences, and social issues affecting the diaspora. Sobhan Hassanvand of India Currents, a media sponsor of the event, captured the lively atmosphere, filming attendees as they interacted with speakers and enjoyed the festivities.
Among the notable speakers was author Alka Joshi, who participated in a panel titled “Blatant Defiance.” During her discussion with poet Shikha Malaviya, Joshi shared insights into her inspiration and research process for her latest historical fiction novel, Six Days in Bombay. The conversation delved into the life of Amrita Sher-Gil, a pioneering Indian painter, and questioned whether her life was curtailed by her artistic ambitions or the unconventional lifestyle she led in the 1930s across India and Europe.
The festival also featured a variety of food trucks, art and creative writing workshops, book signings, and poetry readings, creating an engaging environment for attendees. Authors had the opportunity to sign copies of their works in the Florence Moore Courtyard, where Joshi expressed her belief in the potential of young people to effect positive change through storytelling. “Young people have so much potential to make this world a better place, to make this world a more accepting place,” she remarked. “One of the ways they can do that is by writing about their history as well as the future that they hope for in this world.”
Another highlight of the festival was a conversation featuring renowned mythologist and author Devdutt Pattanaik, moderated by Dr. Anjali Arondekar, a leading scholar in Feminist Studies. Pattanaik discussed his approach to reinterpreting ancient Indian stories for contemporary audiences, weaving together themes of culture, leadership, and identity.
Acclaimed poet and artist Imtiaz Dharker also participated in the festival, engaging in a thought-provoking discussion with poet Arundhathi Subramaniam. Dharker reflected on her experiences with language, art, and displacement, emphasizing the importance of platforms like SALA in fostering connections among diverse voices. “What SALA is doing is they’re bringing in all kinds of people to listen and to share art, literature, poetry,” Dharker stated. “They are the language of being human, how we live in this world. They give us roots into how we’re going to live.”
SALA 2025 successfully brought together a community of artists, writers, and enthusiasts, celebrating the richness of South Asian culture and its contributions to the global literary landscape. The festival not only showcased established voices but also provided a space for emerging talent to share their stories and perspectives.
As the festival concluded, attendees left with a renewed appreciation for the power of literature and art to bridge cultural divides and inspire dialogue. SALA 2025 reaffirmed its role as a vital platform for exploring the complexities of identity and creativity within the South Asian diaspora.
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