A global singer seems to understand the importance of Columbus’ Ethnic Expo international festival perhaps as well as anyone, though Friday will mark her first visit. In fact, Kiran Ahluwalia’s tune “Asat,” on her seventh and latest album, confronts the wrong of cultural intolerance around the world.
The song title in the Urdu language means “seven” and refers to the 7 billion people on the earth.
“It (division) is not happening just in America,” Ahluwalia said while speaking by phone from her home in New York City.
The Indian native will perform that song and other original material in three foreign languages during a 90-minute set at 8 p.m. Friday at the 36th annual free downtown extravaganza known as Ethnic Expo.
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The event is meant to build bridges among people of various backgrounds and ethnicities. Ahluwalia is the headliner since India is the host country, with organizers scheduling everything from an India-oriented marketplace to a fashion show.
The event unfolds from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. rain or shine at First and Washington streets near Columbus City Hall.
The late Barbara Stewart launched Expo in 1984 as a way of making the city’s rapidly growing international population feel more at home — and as a way of sharing some of their life with others. The two-day gathering of entertainment, food, and shopping is one of the city’s most popular events, attracting an estimated total of 25,000 people each year.
“I definitely want to be a part of cultural tolerance,” Ahluwalia said.
Her career since 2000 has been more of a cultural celebration mixing folk stylings of India and Pakistan with jazz, classical and other genres. Her music impressed Katherine Dunn, the city’s project specialist and Expo coordinator. When Dunn heard the unifying tune “Asat,” she knew Ahluwalia would be ideal for the festival.
“I really like the message behind the song and the album,” Dunn said. “It definitely impressed me. And in our current climate, I think it’s important to keep that (unifying) message out there.”
Ahluwalia was born in Patina, India, and spent nine years in the country before her family moved to Toronto, where she was raised. Though she took an early interest in music, she never planned a related career. In fact, she earned a master’s in business and became a bond trader before returning to India to study music.
Normally these days, she tours worldwide, including her native country, with Pakistani-born husband and jazz guitarist Rez Abbasi. But since he is enjoying his own expanding career at the moment, Ahluwalia will appear here instead with jazz guitarist Brad Shepik. In keeping with her pattern, she will be in full, colorful, Indian regalia.
“I do it because I like it, first of all,” she said of her wardrobe. “And I also think it’s important to show young Indian people, and non-Indian people, that Western-style clothes are not the only outfits to wear in the world. People need to know that there are modern things in the world that don’t always necessarily look modern to everyone.”
More than anything, she wants her Expo audience to enjoy “a mental day at the beach,” as she put it with a chuckle. She’d also love to see people catch the rhythm of her songs, reflected in her fluid, lyrical movements in performances, and get up and dance. Her audiences range from club crowds of maybe 120 people to festival assemblies of 500 to 5,000 people.
Whatever the crowd, Ahluwalia is grateful for her longevity in a business hardly known for such. She has mentioned in some interviews that she is uncertain when she might need to return to her business background. She thinks as both an artist and a realist.
“The artistic life,” she said, “is not always filled with security.”
But hers has had its share of a measure of that, along with critical success. In 2009, she won a world-oriented music honor called a Songline Music Award in the Newcomer category. Yet, with her latest release, she may become known for other success — that of bringing people together.
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Ethnic Expo will run from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, rain or shine.
Friday
11 a.m. — Food and bazaar booths open
4:30 – 5 p.m.: Raices Folklore – City Hall Plaza
5:30 – 6 p.m.: Kids Yoga Class – City Hall Plaza
6:15 – 7 p.m.: Adult Yoga Class – City Hall Plaza
8 – 10 p.m.: Indy Annies – Biergarten
8 – 9:30 p.m.: Kiran Ahluwalia – City Hall Plaza
Children’s activities
5:30 – 6 p.m.: Children’s Yoga Class – City Hall Plaza
Saturday
Parade
11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.: Washington Street to Third Street to Brown Street.
Entertainment
Noon – 12:30 p.m: Southern Indiana Pipes and Drums – City Hall Steps
1 – 1:45 p.m.: Bollywood Dance Workshop – City Hall Plaza
2:15 – 3:15 p.m.: CAMEO Columbus Got Talent Winners – City Hall Plaza
3:45 – 4:15 p.m.: Southern Indiana Taiko – City Hall Plaza
4:30 – 5:15 p.m.: Taiko Workshop – City Hall Plaza
5:45 – 6 p.m.: Bollywood Unlimited – City Hall Plaza
6:15 – 7 p.m.: Cummins Diversity Choir – City Hall Plaza
7 – 9 p.m.: Black Tie Optional – Biergarten
8 – 10 p.m.: Tiptonians – City Hall Plaza
Children’s Activities
2:00 – 4 p.m.: kidscommons – Children’s Tent
4:30 – 5:15 p.m. – Taiko Workshop – City Hall Plaza
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Because India is the host country, Expo organizers have worked with the India Association of Columbus to have a makeshift marketplace from India set up near First and Washington streets.
An Indian food booth will include offerings such as chole bhature, a tangy curry of white chickpeas and fried bread and biryana, a mixed rice dish with Indian spices, vegetables, meat, egg, yogurt and more. The area also will include a stage for a variety of area performers arranged by the association, plus an area for dancing. A disc jockey also will provide a mix of Indian music in between live performers.
Expo coordinator Katherine Dunn has made one significant change to the layout by moving this year’s 20 bazaar booths from the far west end of First Street to the secondary city parking lot behind City Hall to make those vendors more a part of the festival.
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