By Evan Borman
Boulder will host the Jaipur Literature Festival this week, which celebrates global diversity and draws in not only local book enthusiasts, but also scientists, artists, historians and politicians, allowing space to share conversations and connections to inform renewed perceptions on world issues.
The festival this year includes18 speakers, all artists, professors and writers from different cultures and countries across the world, looking to unite attendees with common themes.
“At the end of all this, we are looking at the one thing that binds us together, which is a sense of empathy, a sense of love, a sense of humanity, and more importantly today, that it doesn’t matter where the bombs are dropping, whether it’s Lebanon, Palestine, or Ukraine, or wherever, said Sanjoy K. Roy, founder of the company that organizes the event “Every bomb is an assault on the only home that we all know, which is the Earth. And if you’re not cognizant of that, all of this is going to come and bite us in the collective butt.”
“It will be an event that will open their eyes to new ideas and new ways of creating,” New York Times Best Selling Indian American Author, Alka Joshi said. “It breaks down boundaries and I think it just leads to a better understanding of why different people around the world think the way they do.”
Joshi was born in Jaipur, India and grew up in the U.S. Her novels have been translated into 30 languages and have afforded global audiences’ historical glimpses into India through fiction.
“When you can write fiction, you can give people an understanding of a culture that they cannot get from ordinary communication,” Joshi said. “If you can entertain and enlighten simultaneously through a work of fiction, I think that goes a long way toward people understanding.”
Joshi has spoken at over 1200 public events and carries a strong belief in connecting with people who’ve read her novels, often responding to personal emails and answering questions from readers. Her historical fiction is influenced by her identity and her family’s history.
“When I was growing up in the Midwest, people had such a limited understanding of India and their understanding was concentrated around poverty, overpopulation, and underdevelopment,” Joshi said. “We’ve got a lot of tradition and culture that people don’t understand. But now at the age of 68, you know in my 60s, I was finally able to give a voice to a lot of those things that I wanted people to understand, and that’s what I have done through fiction. JLF is doing that very same thing as well.”
The JLF is in its 12th year. In the beginning, organizers decided on Boulder to be their launch point for their festival’s introduction to the U.S. because of outreaching interest from community members and the impassioned local government.
“I kept coming back to understand whether (Boulder) should be ground zero for us. I remember asking the then Mayor, I said, ‘why are you so keen to have us?’ Given that when we come to town, we’re roughly the only people of color in your city. He said, ‘you know Sanjoy. If we don’t learn how to deal with diversity, we as the city are going to really suffer. We need you here.’ And that convinced us,” Roy said.
JLF is established on core tenets that transcend national differences. “The 1st, how the arts can create value for built heritage. Second, can we get young people through the door?” Roy said. “If you’re able to give young people some sense of considered knowledge, maybe they’ll be able to push back on ignorance. By pushing back on ignorance, can push back on hatred and push back on the kind of violence that’s going to consume us.”
Another core belief is fracturing the divide between the arts and sciences. Roy believes both are necessary for wholeness in creation– creativity is essential for innovation, and disciplinary sciences are needed to bring what’s outside of the box to fruition.
“For any innovation to happen, you need to ask the questions,” Roy said. “That’s how society, economies, everything will evolve: our way of life, our civic sense. There are vital things… the love for knowledge.”
The festival runs Sept. 22 and 23 at the Boulder Public Library.