Can I get you anything?
Acclaimed folk artist and my good friend Lisa Cain will be giving a free virtual artist talk at the American Visionary Art Museum, the national museum and education center dedicated to intuitive, self-taught artistry, based in Baltimore, MD, to discuss her work featured in AVAM’s current exhibition “Good Sports: The Wisdom and Fun of Fair Play.”
January 23 at 7pm EST. Join me in the audience! RSVP required; sign up here.
An overdue congratulations to my good friend Indira Tiwari on making her first film outside of India. We met by chance in a theatre lobby when she was in Kolkata shooting Suman Mukhopadyay‘s amazing indie film Nazarband and I was completing my Fulbright research in 2019. We quickly became friends.
She was on her way to audition in Mumbai for Serious Men and got the role, a major break for her co-starring alongside Nawaz Sidiqqui, which premiered on Netflix in 2020. I’m looking forward to watching her as the female lead in Cannes Prizewinner Vimukthi Jayasundara’s Turtle’s Gaze on Spying Stars, as covered in Variety, an international collaboration between India, Sri Lanka and France. Go, Indira!
Please join the Independent Film Circle for our next guest, Prof. Sudipto Shankar Roy, on Saturday, April 30th at 11am EST. You might first want to watch his jaw-dropping documentary, “Ordeal of an Impossible Dream” below.
Like Spielberg? All about E.T.? Or maybe you’re a screenwriter like me who feels infuriatingly certain that one of your scripts was once blatanly stolen? Get ready to have the top of your head blown off.
As always, this live, online event is free but pregregistration is required. Message me if you’d like to join.
Race & Class peer-reviewed UK journal article:
Nil Darpan: How a Mistakenly Published Play Helped Force Labour Reforms in British India
Democratic Communiqué peer-reviewed US journal, featured critical commentary:
Calcutta 1908: Apocalypse Now
Contingent Magazine:
The RRRevolution Will Be Cinematic (paid assignment; review and critical commentary of hit Indian film RRR)
Washington Post:
Supernatural Skeptics Don’t Know What They’re Missing
A Jewish-Hindu Connection
Four Pairs of Sandals as an Act of Faith
Brooklyn Rail nonfiction book reviews:
Exquisite Corpses
Holey Logic, Batman
Daddy, Who’s Grover Cleveland?
Theater of Cruelty
New York Times, “The City” section cover story:
Talk Radio (paid assignment)
Time Out New York Paul Robeson film festival preview:
The Last Emperor (paid assignment)
Book foreword:
Postcard Tales by Raja Singha
Drexel University Office of Global Engagement:
Jatra With Me
medium.com:
Distress Signals: My Posthumous Friendship With a Civil Rights Hero
A Hindu-Appalachian Christmas in the City of Brotherly Love
Hemispheres:
Full House (paid interview with rapper Nelly at international poker tournament in Monte Carlo)
Blog Posts:
My Visit to Minning Town (paid assignment; Chinese TV series review and critical commentary)
Escaping the Racist Escape Room Paradigm
House of Time (Indian film review)
Remnants of Jewish Kolkata
To Think That I Saw It On Markenpower Street
Published Scripts, Films, Podcasts and Performances:
The Jeff & Shuvam Show (film review podcast)
My role in the Indian film Manbhanjan
Tesla’s Letters (stage play)
Lady in a Box (award-winning short film)
Coast to Coast AM With George Noory (media appearance)
Continuing Revelation (paid industrial film)
Medicine, Man (stage play)
The End That Does senior editorial adviser (nonfiction book)
The Golden Horseshoe: A Lecture On Tragedy (theatrical performance)
Jeffrey Stanley’s Boneyards (theatrical performance)
The Great Kohinoor Diamond Heist (escape room intro video)
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Now it can be told. I’m so thrilled to have been named a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar, and will be spending 5 months of the 2018-19 academic year writing and researching in India. If you’d like to learn more about my intended goals, the full scoop is here in this handy dandy pdf of the press release.
As a Fulbright‐Nehru Fellow I will to travel to Kolkata, West Bengal, India to conduct research from my host institution, Rabindra Bharati University, where I will research early 20th century Bengali film and theatre and its impact on India’s nascent independence movement. I will also spend time in Bangalore, Karnataka, India observing the Bangalore Little Theatre’s (affectionately known as BLT) theatre education program and teaching a playwriting workshop to BLT members.
I’m proud to be one of over 800 U.S. citizens who will teach, conduct research, and/or provide expertise abroad for the 2018‐2019 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.
Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement as well as record of service and demonstrated leadership in their respective fields. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to build lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.
The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program, which operates in over 160 countries.
Mine is not an official US Department of State website. The views and information presented are my own and do not represent the Fulbright Program or the Department of State.
