Borderless Solidarities
2025 Curatorial Theme
With the closures of thought all around us in an era of hardened borders, resurgent strains of authoritarianism and violent expulsions, the urgency to think and live otherwise intensifies. In an unravelling world, we invoke an audacious and unfashionable idea – an insurgent solidarity that refuses the inertias of this troubled time.
We hold deviously to the idea that the world of arts and culture bears the distinctive power to unfold a possible countersignature to the present hour. Through acts of deep hospitality and breathing together, we intend to fracture the inevitability of the inherited storyline and ricochet into public encounters of the possible.
We ask, how can we be together today? What is the time of dreaming? How to amplify the whispered gestures of the periphery? To listen well. To move beyond estrangement. To laugh, to gather, to persist in the face of impunity. To court the ecstatic trance. To disappear and reappear. To reinhabit the capacity to touch and feel. To assemble a brief refuge for the imperishable, a defense of the sensual. A bumpy carriage ride where both tradition and change have room for maneuver. An open door to the stranger, the neighbour and the passerby. Always an insistence on promiscuous alliances and borderless solidarities. To leave open the possibility of the possibility of something new.
Welcome to the Indian Summer Festival. Bring your friends.
ganavya
Hailed by The Wall Street Journal as “among modern music’s most compelling vocalists,” ganavya is a boundary-defying artist whose voice and vision transcend genre. For her Vancouver debut at the Chan Centre, she performs music from Nilam—a luminous new work that coalesces lullaby, poetry, and prayer into powerful, poignant music.
Arundhati Roy in Conversation with Naomi Klein
Arundhati Roy speaks with award-winning journalist, author and activist—as well as her longtime friend—Naomi Klein, about her latest book and her work to date, the intricacies of thorny love, and living on the frontlines of humanism.
Rishta
Step into a living archive of Punjabi expression at Rishta, a vibrant afternoon where poetry, music, memory, and community converge. Featuring voices from across generations, this event honours a rich literary legacy from Baba Guru Nanak Dev Ji to emerging artists. Come be part of the story, a shared journey through centuries of poetic fire and the hearts that keep it burning.
Alam Khan In Concert
An evening with Alam Khan is a soul-stirring journey through the sounds of Indian classical music, led by one of the most respected sarod players of our time. Alam Khan, son of the legendary Swara Samrat Ali Akbar Khan, is bringing his signature blend of emotional depth and masterful technique to Surrey—joined by the incredible Eman Hashimi on tabla.
Lecture/Demonstration
Meet the artists! Join Alam Khan and tabla player Eman Hashimi for an intimate lecture-demonstration exploring Indian classical music and the rhythmic voice of the sarod.
Horizons
Horizons is a luminous evening of music, poetry, and storytelling featuring award-winning artists who offer vision, sanctuary, and solidarity in fractured times. With performances by Vivek Shraya, Kimmortal, Mohanad El Eek, Brandon Wint with Feven Kidane, and Cecily Nicholson with Sejal Lal, this one-night gathering transcends genre—part concert, part invocation.
Indian Summer Sounds
Join us for an evening of genre-defying music under the open sky. Featuring Sejal Lal, Jody Okabe, Ruby Singh’s kraKIN, and Surya Brass Band.
Radical Possibility in the Age of Impunity
This urgent conversation, moderated by ISF Curator-in-Residence Am Johal, brings together renowned thinkers Glen Coulthard, Brenna Bhandar, and Alberto Toscano to explore the power of radical philosophy and theory—and what they offer to today’s political and conceptual struggles.
Artist Roundtable
What does it mean to be an artist in this present hour? This annual roundtable invites racialized artists and cultural organizers to gather in honest conversation about resilience, solidarity, and the power of creative resistance. Part panel, part collective dialogue—this is a space to share, connect, and reimagine.
A Raucous Evening with Kiran Deol
Vancouver, get ready to laugh your face off. Kiran Deol—comedian, actor, writer, and all-around badass—is bringing her signature blend of sharp wit and unfiltered honesty to the stage for a one-night-only comedy blowout. You’ve seen her on NBC’s Sunnyside, heard about her Emmy nomination and Oscar shortlist, and now you get to see her live, up close, and hilariously personal. This isn’t just stand-up—it’s comedy with guts.
Tiffin Talk: Artist as Healer
Explore the healing potential of art, grief, and ritual in this long table Tiffin Talk with artists Varsha Gill and Shahir Krishna, joined by residency mentor Farheen Haq and moderator Pawan Deol. After the talk, enjoy a delicious warm lunch served in Indian-style tiffins and connect with fellow attendees.
Tiffin Talk: IYKYK
Museums and galleries are usually the first spaces where audiences encounter art. What if your initial experience with an artwork is not by looking but listening? Through readings and conversation, writer, curator and art historian Sadia Shirazi, along with Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill and Nadia Shihab invites us to explore provenance, language, and postcolonial/Indigenous cosmologies.
Followed by a warm meal in Indian-style tiffins. ASL and live captioning available.
Tiffin Talk: We Carry Her Name – A Gathering of Roots, Restoration, and Rising
An intimate gathering honouring ancestral lineages and matriarchal wisdom in Indigenous, Black, South Asian, and gender-expansive communities. With artists Justine Redila, Linsay Willier Kendall, and moderated by Suvi Bains, this gathering is a reflection and offering: a space to honor the ancestral lineages that birthed us, carried us, and continue to walk with us—followed by a warm meal in Indian-style tiffins.
Today is the evening to strike lightning / Aaj To Bijiliyan Girane Ki Shaam Hai
Justine A. Chambers and Simran Sachar’s first choreographic collaboration is an act of devotion that collapses Waacking, choreographic scores, and gestures sourced from memories and images of their mothers dancing. Today is the evening to strike lightning is a poetic consideration of dances past in order to surface what has been submerged over time.
Dyeing & Dying Exhibit
Dyeing and Dying marks the culmination of Varsha Gill and Shahir Krishna’s 2025 Artist as Healer residency with Indian Summer Festival. This installation emerges from a series of contemplative community workshops about death and dying held in Spring 2025. Open daily from July 5–13. Free to experience.
Tell Me
Step into an intimate space. Share a secret. Hear the voices of others who’ve done the same. Tell Me is an immersive installation by Anamika Deb that invites you to come share your secrets privately. One person at a time enters the space, records a thought or confession, and listens to a chorus of anonymous stories in return. Open daily from July 5–12. Free to experience.
Borderless Solidarities: Storytelling in Ruptured Times
An evening with Minelle Mahtani, Adel Iskandar, Baljit Sangra and Nermin Gogalic. From journalism to film to writing, these voices explore how storytelling can open up space for new stories—especially in times of profound rupture.
Meet the Artists
Artists shape how we experience the world — and each event at Indian Summer Festival is shaped by their vision. These are the storytellers, musicians, and makers who bring our stages to life.
