Desi Con, a multimedia interactive evening featuring dance, music and satire show, will be held in Jersey City.
Jersey City, NJ,-based Gautam Gurnani, an actor, writer and founder of Joker Face Entertainment, a content creating company, always lamented the lack of adequate platforms for South Asian Americans to show their talent.
Gurnani, who has directed many short music videos and plays in the past, decided to team up with his friend and artist Pranav Patel, a professional dancer and founder of Afro Desi, to come up with an event called Desi Con.
Desi Con, which will be held at the White Eagle Hall in New Jersey on September 15, will be an evening of celebration of South Asian American artists. It will give the artists a platform to showcase their potential to an eclectic mix of audiences, both desis and non-Desis, across the genre.
About 40 artists will come together to be a part of this event, which will be presented by the Jersey City Theater Company. Many talented and emerging names in entertainment will be part of the evening.
Artist KC Arora will do a Stand-Up Comedy Show. There is a music performance by Neel and Group, along with a 40-minute theater play, The Big Fat Brown Show, among other entertainment.
Gurnani, the co-creator of the event, told the American Bazaar that he began thinking about the need for a platform like Desi Con out of frustration seeing many talented desi artists not getting their due in mainstream entertainment in America.
Pointed out that there are hugely popular artists like Hasan Minhaj and Aziz Ansari doing very well in the entertainment industry, Gurnani says, “Yes, they are there but that is the top most rung. But do we ever hear of millions of other desi artists who are struggling for years?”
Gurnani has experienced first-hand the struggles many South Asian American artists have to go through. “I have always been interested in performing arts and it took me three years to get a chance to perform at Tamasha Festival that is held in New York every year,” he said. “For three years I kept on submitting the same script of a show, before it got accepted. Also, we have produced many meaningful music videos on topics such as mental health, etc. But it’s wishful to think that people will go and look out for path-breaking content. Unless you have a platform, you may remain unnoticed.”
Asked how his shows and the curated evening will be different from any other desi entertainment event, he said, “This may be perhaps, the first time that there will be an event showcasing a spectrum of performances from dance, to music to satire to theatre. I have myself attended many desi dance shows but that is not that may wholly interest everybody. We wanted to give an evening, where everyone can enjoy what they may like.”
He added, “More than anything else, the entire evening follows a narrative form. We are out there to break stereotypes, about Indians, South Asians our culture and our customs.”
Desi con will be held at White Eagle Hall, Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ. Tickers: https://www.facebook.com/events/683727188758284/