This is booktv on cspan2. [inaudible conversations] good evening. Good evening. Welcome to politics and prose at busboys and poets in brooklyn. Thank you all for coming out this evening. Politics prose is very pleased to join busboys and poets in bringing authors and events to brooklyn. Now, if you would, please silence your mobile phones. After the event well have question and answers. Books can be purchased at our register on the way out the door. You can have them signed by this at this table right here at the door heading out of this space, and ill give it over to my friend andy. Thank you so much, and welcome, everybody. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. How many are here for the first time . Oh, its always exciting you have not been here for the first time. And this one, okay. [laughter] how many are lying . I want to thank you all, and i want to also say a very special thank you to politics prose and the partnership that we have with them. Were very thrilled to be part of this great partnership. Two great brands, we feel, coming together makes five great brands, right . So its great to have you here. This is a very special event because it has two of my favorite people. Langston hughes and deepa iyer. [cheers and applause] so deepa, of course, as probably everyone knows here is a Racial Justice issue person. Shes been working on these issues for a long time, and she works on immigration justice as well. And together she and i are on the board of race forward which is an organization that deals with Racial Justice on a national basis. And its great that this conversation about race is taking place and this is being extended beyond this black white paradigm but really bringing other people of color into the picture because its going to bring everybody to a unified, cohesive, human family, so to speak. Of course, we too sing america is a Langston Hughes poem, and it speaks about being black in america at a time where you feel like youre the outsider. And as many of you probably know, busboys and poets is named after Langston Hughes. He was, he worked as a busboy while writing poetry. And for those of you who may not know, it was back in 1924 when the Young Langston was working at the Wardman Park Hotel which is in woodley park. Its still there today. He was working as a busboy, slipped some of his poetry next to a famous poet by the name of lindsay. While he was working as a busboy, he was being entrepreneurial and slipped some of that poetry next to lindsay who in turn read the poem, he was so impressed by it that the next day he announced to the press he had found the next busboy poet. When i first was opening busboys and poets, we actually had a poem that was sketched on the top of the mural at our 14 and b location, and it was let america be america again which, again, speaks to the same issues that i too sing america speaks, the idea that america is this dichotomy, this sort of confused adolescent where it feels like its supposed to be something, but it doesnt quite act up to its standard. And i think thats the thing, i think, that makes america so interesting and to full of possibilities. Even back in 1936 when the poem was written, the young Langston Hughes, a black man, living here many this country which was not a very has pit call place for black young men in the 1930s, he saw the possibilities of what america could be. He saw that america was a place that had the potential to be amazing. To be the place where the dreamers dreamed. The place where no one is going to be crushed by one above. The place where he says i am the white man being pulled and pushed apart. I am the indian pushed from the land. I am the negro bearing slaverys scars. I am the immigrant clutching to the hope i seek but finding the same old stupid plan of dog eat dog the mighty [inaudible] this is about the immigrant experience that Langston Hughes was experiencing back in the 1930s. And some of that still happens today, doesnt it . This is why i think this book is so important to talk about the issues. I make up 50 of in this book because im muslim and arab, and [laughter] so im excited, looking forward. I havent had a chance to read it, it just came out, so ill look bard to reading it, and ill look forward to the conversation and the q a afterwards. Id like to present to you deepa iyer. [cheers and applause] this is not deepa, by the way, but shell introduce deepa. One minute until the star of the show comes on. I want to thank im jenelle wong, and i want to thank busboys and poets and politics prose for hosting this very special event, this reading and this discussion about we sing america by our friend, deepa iyer. To get us started tonight, we are very fortunate to have someone here to do a special spoken word performance. A poet, a teaching artist, a journal editor and a lawyer whose affiliations include bloomberg, busboys and poets, beltway poetry quarterly and u. S Political Action council. Please join me in welcoming her. [applause] good evening. As many of you know, hindus and south asians around the world have been celebrating the holiday yesterday and today. Its known as the festival of lights. When light overcame darkness. My parents immigrated to the United States from sri lanka. The island of lanka plays a role in the story of the holiday. I wrote this poem yesterday, and its first poem id like to share tonight, because for many of us in talking about our families immigrating to this country and talking about the experiences weve had here, its also important to acknowledge the histories of where we come from and some of the reasons for why many of us will not return. Look for light in sri lanka. We celebrate the night when light overcame the darkness, when rama returned from exile, when returned from lanka and the grips of the demon king. Seetha was abducted, according to mythology. Many are vanished. It is becoming history. When the government commits atrocities with impunity, keeps peoples faiths a mystery, agrees to reforms without accountability, where is the light . What can we see . Seetha suffered abuses in the evil custody. Many are now being tortured at the hands of the police and military. What are their names . When will they be free . Where is the light . What can we see . The flames from our lamps guide us. We carry our fires like torches. If we keep seeking justice, will it be achieved . We march toward the night when light will overcome this darkness. [applause] thank you. The last poem id like to share with you is one i wrote a few years ago when i was invited by the executive director of south asianamericans leading together [laughter] who at the time was deepa iyer to be one of the activists and writers who were doing pieces for the salt blog as reflections during the oneYear Anniversary of the oak creek murders. This poem reflects on the experiences of certain communities in our country, but i dedicate it to all victims of xenophobia at the hands of our fellow americans. America, the beautiful. When my parents moved to this country, they expected the warmth of melting pot but not the burn of go home spray painted across the first house they thought was theirs now. As a child, i stood beside my Mother Holding up Grocery Store checkout lines because the cashier didnt want to understand her foreigntongued english. Just like she didnt want to understand when i shamefully descended kindergarten bus asking why do they call me the color of ketchup . After all, i was born speaking american. Just like my parents didnt want to understand when my brother and i flew home in the year after 9 11 and told them of the Airport Security agent who looked at the two of us and said i have to pull one of you out of line for questioning. You can decide which one. Like my 3yearold niece didnt understand when i explained, your mom is from india and your dad is from sri lanka, so youre from both. Replying, but i was born in minneapolis. Im from this is america, from this is our home, from we have been here for decades, from were not going back now. Im from politics being something to discuss at dinner parties but hide behind learned vocabularies of american assimilation in public. Im from still feeling like a foreigner in certain places in this country where i would blame myself for being there if something were to happen to me. Over 50 years ago, four black children in alabama were murdered at their church because they were proof of what america could be. Over four years ago six sikh adults in wisconsin were murdered because they were proof of what america still is. In february three Muslim Students in North Carolina were murdered in their home because they were proof of what america still is. In june nine black adults in South Carolina were murdered in their church because they were proof of what america has always been; a country whose fingerprints are caked with the blood of those it calls other. As it claims to crown thy good with brotherhood, hoodie, white hood, yamaka, cowboy hat, do rag, baseball cap, turban, habit, head dress, hid job hijab. None of these things is more american than the others. [applause] thank you so much. And please join me in welcoming deepa iyer, the author of we too sing america. Deepa is currently a senior fellow at the center for social inclusion. She led south asianamericans leading together, and she was legal director at the asianpacific American Legal Resource Center here in d. C. Deepa has also taught in a program i direct, the asianamerican studies program at the university of maryland. As many of you know, deepa has been at the forefront of many fights for justice in our communities. She has never been silenced. She has helped lift our voices, and she has done so with love. And that is what we see in this book, a lifting up of the voices of so many whose stories were not told in the wake of 9 11. Its a passionate call to action and all under the banner of love for her fellow activists and Community Members. Please help me welcome deepa iyer. [cheers and applause] hi, everybody. How are you . Are you good . Yes . So great to see so many of you here, so many faces and smiles from a lot of different jobs i have apparently held. [laughter] in washington. Its just great to be here at home with all of you to talk about the themes in this book. And for the sake of time, im actually going to keep my thank yous very brief. I had the opportunity at our book launch last week in new york to really thank a lot of people, and theyre all named in these acknowledgments in here, but just a few shout outs to a few folks who i think are here. Julie enzo, my editor, really helped me climb a lot of mountains while writing this book. And i also wanted to thank a couple of other people, victoria, christina, kay lin who have also helped with so Much Research and getting this book out there. And thank you to busboys and poets. Andy, you know, i really appreciate that you came tonight. I know how busy your schedule is, and ive told andy before that i literally wrote most of this book at a busboys in poets, the one in heightsville. And, of course, thanks to politics prose for hosting and presenting this. And to jenelle. Jenelles leadership as the asianamerican studies program at the university of maryland is really a model how we should link up community and academia. So thank you. [cheers and applause] and, yes, weve got a lot of maryland folks here. And for that amazing, powerful performance, im so happy that we could integrate art and spoken word into these conversations, because i think that it is critical to have cultural spaces to talk about this. So thank you for being here. So we too sing america, a book whose title draws upon the raw injustice of Langston Hughes powerful poem is a love story to my community and to the people who stand up for us. Some who are professional activists and some who are moved to action because of attacks on who they are. Just a quick personal note. You could say that the post9 11 environment have shaped who i am as a person and as an activist, and its influenced my consciousness as a person of color. I was 28 and an attorney at the department of justice on 9 11, and for the past 14 years i have been submerged in policies and practices that many havent heard about from countering violent extremism to spending time in places like oak creek, wisconsin, the site of a horrific massacre targeting sikhs and in murfreesboro, temperature. And in that time tennessee. And in that time what has sustained me have been the people who have become part of my tribe. Now, theres a perception out there that the post9 11 backlash was limited to the months after 9 11, but thats simply not the case. It has actually become even more entricep. Ed over the last entrenched over the last 14 years. This book, i hope, puts in black and white print many of the stories which are not heard, not shared, not validated in a post 9 11 america where the forces of xenophobia, racial anxiety have marginalized a section of people based on their faith, immigration status and country of origin. The impact of the post9 11 climate means that our people are forced to confront the horror toes of hate violence that tears at fabric of families and communities. Our people have become known as the disappeared after being interrogated, profiled, detained and deported by our government through the conflation of National Security and immigration policies. Our people are told time and again that safety is elusive whether it is within the walls of our mosques, our temples. We receive daily signals through political rhetoric and the media that this is not our country, that we should go home. That we are diluting the true nature of america. That our languages u customs, traditions and backweaking work are breaking work are acceptable when it comes to the jobs many do not want to do but not acceptable to when it comes accessing rights, benefits and a country to belong to to feel safe of and to feel welcome. I want to share with you a part of the book that tells the story of some of these people from a community that has become very dear to me, the community in oak creek, wisconsin, where in 2012 a white supremacist barged into that communitys church and killed six people. It was early on a sunday morning in august 2012, and a woman was going about her morning routine. Her two sons wanted to sleep in a little longer, so she set out on her own to the local sikh temple of wisconsin. She was a familiar presence at the church which had had become a is second home to her family and to so many other sikhst in oak creek sikhs in oak creek. It sits on south howell street just a few miles from the milwaukee patient. On weekends sikh families gathered to pray and connect with one another. The dining hall was filled with the sounds of a people socializing and laughing during a free meal offered to anyone who came. They usually hung out with their friends and played football on sundays while their mother helped in the kitchen and prayer hall. But august 5, 2012, would not turn out to be a normal sunday for the oak creek community. Soon after his mother had left the house, news reached one of the boys that people in the sevenning were in danger. Details were scarce, and he rushed to the site. Authorities asked him to wait across the street in the parking lot of a Bowling Alley where he joined others also anxiously awaiting information. As the day wore on, many of the people who had been inside were allowed to leave, and a fuller picture began to emerge about the rampage that had occurs that sunday morning. Not seeing his mother and becoming increasingly anxious about her safety, he left the parking lot. He called his friends, and together they went from hospital to hospital hoping that she had been brought to one. It would be a full 11 hours before authorities finally notified that his mother had been one of six people fatally shot. When i first found out, i passed out. He told me. I woke up in an ambulance and immediately thought of my little brother. Telling him was the hardest thing ive ever done. This wasnt the future that she had envisioned for her family when she and her two sons moved to america from yaind in 2004 to join her husband who owned a number of gas stations in wisconsin. It wasnt the life that she had manned to build when she mustered up the courage a few years later to begin working at a medical factory in a nearby town. Her determination to care for her family, is a point of deep pride for her sons. 45 days later after his mother was killed, one son spoke about her in testimony before the United States senate. He said my mother was a brilliant woman, a reasonable woman. Everyone knew she was smart, but she never had the chance to get a formal education. He couldnt. As a hard working immigrant, she had to work long hours to feed her family and help us achieve our american dreams. This was more important to her than anything else, but now she is gone because of a man who hated her because she wasnt his religion or his color. She was an american, and this was not her american dream. The path to oak creek though began more than a endly ago. South asian, arab, hindu, muslim and sikh immigrants experienced backlash after 9 11, but hate violence gwen these communities has a much against these communities has a much larger history. Violence in the late 70s and early 90s when the iran hostage crisis and the persian gulf what occurred. Attitudes and no beliefs have moted violence against these motivated violation against these groups. Street violence targeting immigrants in more recent decades. The riots in bellingham, which occurred in the early part of the 20th century, are meaningful in understanding the roots of antiasian sentiment. At the time all along the west coast, chinese, korean, filipino, japanese and indian laborers were exploited for their labor. These racist attitudes reinforced by law such as the chinese exclusion act often took the form of actual violence. And thats what occurred on september 4, 1907, in bellingham where 500 white residents rounded up about 2,000 sikhs and hindus and locked them in the basement of the city hall. They intended to drive out imgrant laborers who worked under contract. And unsurprisingly, bellinghams xenophobic reaction to migrant labor reflected views institutionalized in laws and expressed in the media. The bellingham paper read the hindu is not a good citizen, and this country ne