DJ Rekha- Defiantly Undefiant

It's funny: in discussing culture and community, we have talked about language, movies, family, religion and sex. I think we are missing a fairly major one though...Oh yeah! Music! Music is one of the purest form sof expression- an art form that cuts through to the core of who we are. So it stands to argue that look at a people's music gives a glimpse into who they are. So what does that mean for the American Desi community? Well, there has been one form of South Asian music that has come to dominate the landscape of Desi music in the US: Bhangra.This week we are thrilled to speak with Rekha Malhotra, better known as DJ Rekha. Akaash calls her the first "cool indian" in American culture and others have called her the reason Bhangra came to the US. She is best known for her monthly parties that have been going on in NYC since 1997 called Basement Bhangra.We sit down with her to speak about the origins of her monthly parties and how they grew out of her childhood home basement. We talk about how her South Asianness affected her growing up and how that has influenced the way she lives her life today. How a streak of activism was borne into her that manifests in the contracts she has for her parties. We then segue into the nature of the South Asian identity and what that really even means. There of course was no concrete resolution as disagreement and debate broke out about the need for community. Rekha expresses her thoughts on the negative aspects of it and in general seems to disagree with much of what we say. Make sure to check it out and let us know what you think!