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ASIA PACIFIC FORUM on
WBAI 99.5 FM, New York City
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Guantanamo Interpreter and Writer, Mahvish Khan
Rep. Mike Honda on Asian American Soldiers in the Civil War
Erasing Borders: Festival of Indian Dance
Join us tonight as we hear stories from My Guantanamo Diaries, a new book by Mahvish Khan, talk to Congressman Mike Honda about his struggle to have Asian American Civil War soldiers recognized, and learn about the upcoming Festival of Indian Dance in New York City.
My Guantanamo Diaries is an account of Mahvish Khan's more than thirty trips to Guantanamo as an interpreter and law student. In it she tells the stories of the detainees, the lawyers, the guards and her experiences at the country's most notorious military prison. In the book she talks about how she went to Guantanamo thinking that many of the men there were "terrorists," but left with a very different impression. Tonight we talk to Mahvish Khan who will read an excerpt from her book and talk about her experiences and thoughts on Guantanamo.
The US House of Representatives recently passed a resolution honoring Asian American and Pacific Islander soldiers who fought in the U.S. Civil War. Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) led a five-year battle to have the soldiers posthumously honored, which led to the resolution being passed on August 1st. It was recently discovered that hundreds of soldiers of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage fought on both the Union and Confederate sides, continuing a long tradition of significant API contributions to the history of the United States. Congressman Mike Honda joins us tonight to discuss the uncovered history and significance of the resolution.
ERASING BORDERS: FESTIVAL OF INDIAN DANCE starts next week and is sponsored by the Indo-American Arts Council. The event will bring together dancers, choreographers and directors from across the world to show the richness and variety of Indian dance. And it all begins on Monday - that's August 18th - with two free outdoor performances in NYC. Tonight on Asia Pacific Forum, we'll be speaking in the studio with the director of the festival, Prachi Dalal, as well as with Preeti Vasudevan, director of THRESH Dance Company and one of the performers in next week's event. For more info you can go to: http://www.iaac.us/IAAC_dance_festival/dance_festival.htm
Mahvish Rukhsana Khan is an American lawyer, born to immigrant Pashtun parents in Michigan. While persuing a law degree at the University of Miami, she became enraged by the illegal detainment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Having grown up listening to her mother tell her "Now is not the time to be complacent," Khan felt compelled to help any way she could. With her fluency in Pashto and a familiarity with Afghan cultures and customs that no other "habeas" lawyer with security clearance had, she was quickly taken on as an interpreter for Afghan detainees. Six months later, in January 2006, Khan was on her way to Guantanamo Bay. Her role with the detainees quickly developed. She began providing supervised legal counsel and traveled to Afghanistan to find exonerating evidence for prisoners. For more info on the book and author you can go to: http://www.mahvishkhan.com/
Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) has represented the 15th Congressional District of California in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2001. His diverse district includes Silicon Valley, the birthplace of technology innovation and the leading region for the development of the technologies of tomorrow. Congressman Honda is serving his second term as Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, coordinating with his colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucuses to champion the causes of under-represented communities by promoting social justice, racial tolerance, and civil rights.
Prachi Dalal, Dance Director, Indo - American Arts Council. Born in Bombay, Prachi holds a Bachelors degree in Commerce from Bombay University and a Masters degree in Tourism Administration with a focus on Cultural-Heritage Tourism from George Washington University. Prachi brings a unique blend of a dancer and artist with an experience in organizing events and educational programs, and commitment to multi-cultural understanding, sustainable development, and heritage management through museums, education and travel. She was also initiated into Kathak, a dance from northern India.
Preeti Vasudevan is a performer and choreographer whose creative explorations derive from her deep training in Indian classical dance (Bharatanatyam) as well as multiple other modern and contemporary forms. Her goal is to develop a new language of movement through a multi-disciplinary approach to dance and theatre. She was delegate to the first American Dance Festival in India ('90) and was awarded a one-year cultural scholarship for cultural studies in Japan ('94). In 2003 she was selected as one of the emerging choreographers by the Joyce Foundation. She will also be one of the performers of next week's Erasing Borders dance festival.
This program is brought to you by Dorian Merina and Silky Shah of the APF Collective.
Asia Pacific Forum is New York's pan-Asian radio program, broadcast each Tuesday night at from 8 to 9 p.m. on WBAI-FM, 99.5, New York City, and live on the Web at: http://www.asiapacificforum.org/.
For more information on APF and to get more information about this evening's program, or other programs, please contact us via email: info@asiapacificforum.org or visit our website: http://www.asiapacificforum.org/.
phone: (212) 209-2991; fax (WBAI): (212) 747-1698
mail: Asia Pacific Forum, WBAI 99.5 FM, 120 Wall St., 10th Floor, NY, NY 10005
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