ARTWALLAH – LA: Thrive

ArtWallah THRIVES as a platform through which new and established artists can express the expanding frontiers of South Asian culture, politics, and identity through their art.

ArtWallah presents innovative works that express the personal, political, and cultural celebrations and struggles of the South Asian diaspora through music, dance, performance, literature, film, and the visual arts. This year’s festival is directed and curated by Sheetal Gandhi and showcases the work of dance-theater artists Danish Bhandara, Sheetal Gandhi, Lionel Popkin, Richa Shukla, poet Aruni Wijesinghe, theatre artist and stand-up comedian Jimi Shah, music and multi-media artist Paul Livingstone and The SoulForce Project, Rajib Carmaker and artists from the Los Angeles Music and Arts Academy and bands Elephants with Guns, Rusty Rickshaw and more!

ArtWallah will also showcase the work of talented South Asian Youth artists in Highways’ Gallery and feature a special Saturday daytime workshop called “KidWallah,” with Desi Family Fun and the Dancing Storytellers.

$20 in advance / $25 @ the door

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Sheetal Gandhi is a National Dance Performance (NDP) and MAP Fund award-winning director/choreographer, performer, and teacher based in Los Angeles, CA.  Gandhi’s career has spanned genres and disciplines including her work as a creator and performer in Cirque du Soleil’s Dralion, playing a leading role in the Broadway production of Bombay Dreams, dancing throughout Ghana with the traditional West African dance company Novisi, and singing with the New York based, all-female a cappella group, Anamcara. Gandhi’s work reflects her love for tradition (both cultural and disciplinary) with the equally urgent desire to break from it. She received a 2012-13 NDP Touring Award for her one-woman show Bahu-Beti-Biwi, and her work has toured to over 16 cities in the U.S. and in India, Israel, Mexico, Norway and Amsterdam. Gandhi’s commitment to artistic innovation, personal transformation and social change continues to lead her to work with various artists and non-artist communities – both locally and abroad – where she strives to build bridges across class, gender, age and cultural differences through the arts. For more info go to www.sheetalgandhi.com