Tonight in Page Auditorium, Diya--Duke's South Asian-American Student Association--will put on its annual cultural extravaganza: Awaaz, formerly known as Diwali. Earlier this week Recess arts associate editor Victoria Kaplan had the chance to talk with Diya's 2001 co-chairs, Jainey Bavishi and Namita Koppa, about the event.
What does Awaaz mean?
JB: Awaaz means "voice" in a bunch of South Asian languages. It is derived from Hindi as well as Urdu, so it's not unique to any particular part of South Asia.
Why did you change the name from Diwali?
NK: Diwali is a Hindu holiday and Diya is not a Hindu group. We're a South Asian-American cultural group, so we felt in order to represent our general bodies to the utmost we would need to change our name to something that wasn't religious.
JB: And our show is not religious either. Our show represents our entire general body so Diwali didn't accurately represent what the show was about even.
What is the purpose of Awaaz and what can people expect?
NK: The purpose of the show is to entertain and educate the audience about the South Asian and South Asian-American
JB: We tried to get a pretty good cross-section of different regions of South Asia as well as different expressions of culture.
Who participates in the event?
NK: About 175 Duke students participate, South Asian and non-South AsianÉ It's not really a set core constituency of people. The Diya general body members are definitely more present than other groups, but we do get a lot of people outside of that population.
JB: We also have several graduate students performing, so we reach out beyond just the undergraduate population.
NK: And faculty this year, too.
Since the show is free and the dinner is free, where does all the money for the event come from? And what is the budget?
NK: In the past, the budget has been around $18,000 and we had to collect that money from quads, houses, businesses off campus. But since the cultural events fund was set up this year, we got a big portion of the money from that fund, and the rest we've been fundraising through different organizations on campus.
JB: As well as from businesses and other donations.
How many people usually come to the show?
JB: We have 500 each night for dinner, and 1000 each night for the show.
So Page pretty much fills up. To what do you attribute the popularity of this event?
JB: We have a long history. This is the 17th year the show's been running, and it's grown considerably. It started out in a Giles commons room 17 years ago... and just three years ago it moved to Page. So I feel like it's built a name for itself.
NK: And also the participants, since they do come from really diverse backgrounds and different groups of friends, they bring in different types of people as well. And we also bring in people from the Triangle area who are interested in the South Asian community.
The Diya dinner, catered by Sitar India Palace, is at 5pm in the Great Hall and the show begins at 8pm in Page Auditorium. Both events are free but tickets are required and can be found on the BC walkway or at the Page box office.
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