Kanyadaan, Again
I wrote the poem—or rather the poem Kanyadaan, Again exploded out of me—on the extremely emotional day before my US citizenship interview.
Close-up of the poem sewn onto canvas
In 1999 I came to the US to marry my sweetheart, who is American. It took me years to apply for citizenship because India insists you surrender your Indian citizenship to get your American one, and so it was a really hard decision.
However, recent events had pushed me in that direction.
My first Indian friend in the US, Ketan, went through the process a year earlier and had invited me to his citizenship ceremony. It was so wonderful to see him smile and wave the flag. I took many pictures. I told him I would be next.
In 2021 when I shared this poem with him he totally connected with it. That was a very powerful moment for me. In a popular Hindi movie, a ‘non-resident Indian’ (NRI) living in the UK sings of remembering the smell of the soil of home. But as I created this artwork, words sewn onto canvas, with brittle Indian wedding-themed papers I had brought here decades ago, calligraphy in my recently re-learned native Bangla script, and the auspicious red—the Bengali color of marriage—I thought about how the color red grounds us. How much red there is in everything a Bengali bride is given. And how the stories of soil are different for a farmer and different for a girl growing up in a big city near a beach.
In 2023 I had applied for an Arlington Arts individual artist’s grant for my project Curating 4 Community Art Exhibits and had been awarded the grant. Now I was the curator of the exhibit “Me, Here:” Stories of People & Place as told by the Studio PAUSE community. But PAUSErs—the regulars at Studio PAUSE, my community space for art and stories—insisted I enter an artwork too. LouLou, while framing something on the art table, said Kanyadaan Again was very powerful. Susan, while hanging up her own entry to the exhibit, said yes, I must do something with it. Carson, who was bringing frames from the other studio called to ask if I needed the blank canvas as well. I said yes.
Sewing the printed image of Ganesha on handmade paper from old collection of wedding card samples I had brought to the US from India for my wedding.
Sewing the poem onto painted and “soiled” canvas
Keeping the pages centralized… with ribbon and extra needles
Needles do the work of holding the pages in place so I can sew from under the canvas (middle needle!)
Almost done!
I painted the canvas black and then that red. I wrote and re-wrote the Sanskrit word Kanyadaan, meaning the ritual of the father giving his daughter in marraige, in my native Bangla script. Luckily painting in acrylics lets you do that. Then I wrote Kanyadaan, Again in English and waited for the paint to dry.
As I sewed the pages into the canvas, my friends watched. Took many photos. I had designed the poem into pages of a book. I had measured and cut brittle paper brought to the US ages ago from a trip to Mumbai.
When I started thinking about the soil, it struck me that how each of us experience “Here” is as diverse as the storyteller. I wonder if the viewer would know where the soil I included here is from—from the US or from India. One visitor said you can tell soil as it is different from place to place. He couldn’t tell where this was from. “It all smells wonderful when it rains,” I told him. We agreed. One day someone volunteered me to read it aloud to visitors and I choked. It had been 3 years and still.
Now the artwork has got into the Asia North 2024 exhibit “Love Letters to Baltimore + the DMV”
Friday, May 3 – Saturday, June 1
Gallery Hours:
16 W North Ave: Friday – Saturday, 5 – 8 p.m.
Motor House: Tuesday – Saturday, 4 – 10 p.m. Gallery
OPENING EVENT Asia North 2024
Friday, May 3, 5 – 9 p.m.
16 W North Ave and Motor House
APIMEDA (Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and Desi American) artists based in Maryland, DC and Virginia creatively express their ideas of love and home, including the meaning of home, how they respond to the question, “Where are you from?” and more. Through research from AA&CC’s Greater Baltimore Asian Community History Project, this exhibit honors the Station North neighborhood's ongoing transformation from a historic Koreatown to a diverse arts district. Curated by Nerissa Paglinauan with Guest Co-curator Ryan Jafar Artes.
Celebrating with family and flag after the swearing in for my citizenship!