MONSOON FESTIVAL

ARTS Monsoon fest offers artists lessons in success

by Charlie Smith

The producer of the Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts took an unusual route to becoming a cultural entrepreneur. Gurpreet Sian grew up in the small town of Clearwater, 124 kilometres north of Kamloops at the edge of Wells Gray Provincial Park.

In a phone interview with the Straight, Sian recalled that there were no traffic lights, shopping malls, or fast-food restaurants in his hometown. According to Sian, who was part of the minority Sikh community, there was also very little racism.

“It’s like this hidden little gem, this jewel of a place in B.C., where everyone knew each other,” Sian said. “It didn’t matter if you were white or brown. There was just one Black family. There was one Chinese family for as long as I can remember. There was just this peaceful harmony that existed in this place that nobody had ever heard of.”

When Sian was about 10 years old, a Sikh granthi (reader of scripture) came from India to live at the local gurdwara. This man wanted to incorporate shabads—hymns from the Sikh holy text—and he could play the harmonium. But he needed someone to accompany him on the tabla, dholak, or some other percussion instrument.

At first, the granthi tried to teach Sian’s father, but that was a bust because the man didn’t have any rhythm. “My dad is not a musician,” Sain said with a laugh. “He’s a hardworking blue-collar kind of a guy.”

The granthi then asked Sian to start drumming. “He showed me a couple of beats; I copied him, played it well enough, and he said, ‘Okay, this Sunday you are joining me on-stage and we’re doing this in front of everybody, right?’” Sian recalled. “And I was, like, ‘Okay, sure.’”

Sian fell in love with playing the dholak and, later, a bigger drum called the dohl that required him to use sticks. After enrolling at Simon Fraser University, he immersed himself in Punjabi arts and culture and attended classes to improve his skills.

“I joined bhangra teams at SFU and became part of the Punjabi student association,” Sian said. “We put on soldout culture shows at Massey Theatre. We made movies. We edited them. We wrote screenplays for theatre, like comedy shows on-stage. We acted in them. We did costumes. We did everything.”

Sian is now the executive director of the South Asian Arts Society, which has been presenting independent, stand-alone productions since 2005. In 2016, he and Rohit Chokhani founded the Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts. “It was to create this platform—literally and figuratively speaking—for local South Asian artists but also for presenting international works alongside these local artists,” Sian explained.

In addition, the Monsoon fest provides workshops. And in August, he has created a stellar lineup of “Workshop Wednesdays” over Zoom for those hoping to be inspired by successful artists of South Asian ancestry.

The first, on August 4, features Vancouver musician, composer, and producer ishQ Bector. He’s perhaps best known for the song “Aye Hip Hopper”, but his credits in Bollywood include being the playback singer on the title track for megastar Ranbir Kapoor’s Besharam.

In addition, Bector supplied a popular track, “Har Gham Mein Khushi Hai”, for the 2019 Bollywood hit Gully Boy, starring two other big names in Hindi cinema, Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt.

According to Sian, the 39-year-old Bector is hoping to inspire the next generation of art makers and musicians in his workshop.

“We’re going to gather some sound samples from any participants who sign up,” Sian said. “And he’ll listen to them prior and give them his honest feedback and criticism from a musical point of view and marketing point of view.”

The next workshop, on August 11, features beatboxer, filmmaker, musician, poet, and sound engineer Ruby Singh, who created a documentary based on his 2020 album, Jhalaak, which melded Sufi music originating in Rajasthan with rap and EDM.

Sian described the Alberta-born Singh’s artistic journey as “incredible”.

“He’s taken all of his life experiences, skills, and art that he’s created to where he’s now doing sound design and soundscaping work for film and theatre, which is phenomenal,” Sian said. “I personally thought that would be a very valuable workshop to offer for artists, producers—anybody, really—who’s looking to take their skill set to the next level and apply it somewhere else.”

The third workshop, entitled “Freeing Your Character: Script Analysis for Actors”, is being offered on August 18 by actor, writer, and theatre maker Adele Noronha. A graduate of Langara College’s Studio 58, Noronha has acted in plays presented by Touchstone Theatre, the Arts Club, Pandemic Theatre, and Bard on the Beach.

This year’s Monsoon fest will also offer four “Sunday Funday Dance Lessons”, a livestreamed Monsoon Music Night on August 15, and an August 22 panel discussion with artists who will have just completed murals as part of a Punjabi Market Regeneration Collective initiative.

In addition, the festival will host a digital marketplace to enable artists to sell their works online. “It’s accessible to anybody around the world,” Sian said. g

Monsoon festival workshops will be hosted by Vancouver musician, composer, and producer ishQ Bector, who has made music for some of the biggest names in Bollywood, and Vancouver stage actor Adele Noronha, who has racked up credits with the city’s top theatre companies.

There was just this peaceful harmony that existed in this place…

– Monsoon fest cofounder Gurpreet Sian

The Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts runs online from August 1 to 31.

from previous page is marked on November 1. As with Japan’s obon, the joyful event is a time for families to get together and share memories. This Philippine occasion of remembering the dead is also called undas, said to have come from the Spanish word honra (“honour”).

“It has that kind of similar feeling, and the dance which I’m going to evoke is about meeting the spirits, and the music awakens those spirits as part of the festivity,” Tolentino said.

Onibana Taiko’s logo features an image of the higanbana, or red spider lily, which grows on Japanese grave sites.

Tolentino said Ceremony for Rebel Spirits seeks to commemorate people who fought for noteworthy causes and against all forms of discrimination. Communing with spirits also serves as a reminder of unfinished struggles and the need to persevere. “Queer people still get bashed in other parts of the world, and being gay is still not being accepted in some other parts of society,” Tolentino noted.

He pointed out that queer artists have a particular knack to “provoke” serious examination of issues in society. “And so as queer artists, we cannot stop. We have to continue to fight for freedom and acceptance,” he said.

This is why Tolentino feels happy returning to the Queer Arts Festival. “Our story is still the same and still continuing to be rebellious,” he said.

As a gay man and artist of colour, Tolentino is the quintessential rebel. “I have always followed my creative instinct. I do not follow the crowd to create my work. I have stayed true to my calling,” Tolentino said.

He added that he’s proud to be a part of the festival’s legacy. “I was there to signify the relation of queer arts and dance in a generation wherein art for queer was just being talked about or just beginning to bloom in Vancouver,” Tolentino said.

For Tolentino, “being a rebel is doing, continuing, and redefining the idea and meaning of being an artist for 30 years, and now, to dance for the dead in the spirit of obon”. g