World in Other Words: Celebrating Toronto’s Tamil Stories

Nedra Rodrigo, Devakanthan and Geetha Sukumaran

World in Other Words: Celebrating Toronto’s Tamil Stories

Nedra Rodrigo, Devakanthan and Geetha Sukumaran

4:30pm

Saturday, October 1, 2022

Meet storytellers from unique communities around the world and across the local neighbourhoods of Toronto in the World in Other Words. Curated by Nedra Rodrigo, this event features established and emerging voices from the Tamil writing community in Ontario. With a mix of readings, poetry and short films, the showcase will celebrate the vibrant community of Torontonian storytellers sharing Tamil experiences. This event is presented in partnership with Tam Fam Lit Jam.

Participants:

  • Geetha Sukumaran
  • Devakanathan

The evening will also feature works by emerging artists: Jeyolyn Christi, Ashvini Sundaram, Kalainithan Kalaichelvan, Gitanjali Lena and Kayal Vizhi.

Ticket Info:
Date & Time: October 1 at 4:30pm ET
Where: Studio Theatre in Harbourfront Centre
Duration: 60 minutes
Ticket prices: $17 – Regular; $12 – Youth; or Get a TIFA Pass
*This event will be followed by a book signing

We thank the York Centre for Asian Research (York University) and Tamil Worlds Initiative (University of Toronto) for their support.

   Tamil Worlds Initiative (University of Toronto)

Reading

Meet storytellers from unique communities around the world and across the local neighbourhoods of Toronto in the World in Other Words. Curated by Nedra Rodrigo, this event features established and emerging voices from the Tamil writing community in Ontario. With a mix of readings, poetry and short films, the showcase will celebrate the vibrant community of Torontonian storytellers sharing Tamil experiences. This event is presented in partnership with Tam Fam Lit Jam.

Participants:

  • Geetha Sukumaran
  • Devakanathan

The evening will also feature works by emerging artists: Jeyolyn Christi, Ashvini Sundaram, Kalainithan Kalaichelvan, Gitanjali Lena and Kayal Vizhi.

Ticket Info:
Date & Time: October 1 at 4:30pm ET
Where: Studio Theatre in Harbourfront Centre
Duration: 60 minutes
Ticket prices: $17 – Regular; $12 – Youth; or Get a TIFA Pass
*This event will be followed by a book signing

We thank the York Centre for Asian Research (York University) and Tamil Worlds Initiative (University of Toronto) for their support.

   Tamil Worlds Initiative (University of Toronto)

Reading

Featured Authors

Nedra Rodrigo
Nedra Rodrigo is the founder of the Tamil Studies Symposium at York University, and the bilingual event series, The Tam Fam Lit Jam. She is a translator, academic, curator of Multi-arts events and a Member of the Board of Directors for the Tamil Community Centre Project. Her published translations include: In the Shadow of the Sword (SAGE Yoda, 2020); His Sacred Army and A Time of Questions, Vols. 1 & 2 of the Devakanthan quintet Prison of Dreams (Mawenzi House 2021). Her essays have been published in Kalam, Briarpatch, C Magazine, Studies in Canadian Literature and Human Rights and the Arts: Essays on Global Asia; and her translations of poetry have appeared in Words and Worlds, Jaggery Lit, Still We Sing: Voices on Violence Against Women and Human Rights and the Arts in Global Asia.

Read more about Nedra Rodrigo

Devakanthan
Devakanthan was exiled by the Sri Lankan civil war and now lives in Toronto. He has written numerous essays, short stories, and novels and is an active member of the Toronto Tamil literary community. His work is read and studied internationally, in his homeland and among the diaspora. The Prison of Dreams quintet of novels is an epic examination of the ethnic tensions in Sri Lanka, the marginalization of the Tamil minority and the trauma of civil war and exile. His Sacred Army, the quintet's first volume, won the Tamil Nadu Government's "Novel of the Year."

Read more about Devakanthan

Geetha Sukumaran
Geetha Sukumaran is a Tamil poet and a bilingual translator in English and Tamil. She has published two books in Tamil: Tharkolaikku Parakkum Panithuli (translation of Sylvia Plath's poems, 2013) and her own collection of poems, Otrai Pakadaiyil Enchum Nampikkai (2014). Her English translation of Ahilan's poetry Then There Were No Witnesses was published by Mawenzi House, in 2018. English translations of her poems were published in various South Asian Anthologies including Still We Sing (2020) and The Best Asian Poetry (2021). Her recent publication Tea: A Concoction of Dissonance (Dhauli Books, 2021) is a collection of poems in collaboration with poet Ahilan and artist Vaidheki. She is the recipient of the SPARROW R. Thyagarajan award for her poetry in Tamil.

Read more about Geetha Sukumaran

4:30pm

Saturday, October 1

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