Page 61 - English Tehelka Issue 1&2

column music

Woman who popularised time she finally met and performed

with her childhood idol Malkit Singh
Basement Bhangra in US in 2011, and when she opened for the
AR Rahman concert in Washington DC
in 2015. Rekha has received numer-
ous community awards and in 2009
This Indian-origin DJ in the USA has helped blur boundaries was inducted into the New York City’s
Culturati between people through the power of her music Peoples’ Hall of Fame, and was a Grand
Marshall of the 9th Annual NYC Dance
Parade in 2015.
ArshiyA sethi Rekha recognises that today’s Amer-
t was the winter of 2003. We were for the TONY award winning Broadway ica is in need of conversations and
inching to the end of the year. Show ‘Bridge and Tunnel’ and received critical lenses. She feels that people like
Plans were being made about a Drama Desk Award nomination for her are the bridges that can make these
Dr. Arshiya Sethi writes how to celebrate New Year’s Eve. her work on the play ‘Rafta Rafta’ and conversations happen, at least in her
on cultural issues. I insisted that I didn’t want to go was the associate producer for the community. America, in her opinion,
After a rich career of I to any Indian suburban party and NPR Radio Documentary ‘A Feet in changed with 9/11. She remembers that
working on tangible would rather spend it at a happening Two Worlds.’ She has done remixes for day as starting off as an unremarkable
and intangible aspects New York party. Friends obliged and artists that range from Meredith Monk day although the night before there
of the ecosphere of the tickets were bought for the NYE party to Priyanka Chopra. She has curated had been a Michael Jackson concert at
arts, she runs the Kri on the ‘Frying Pan’, a boat docked at events for Celebrate Brooklyn, Central Madison Square Garden. That month,
Foundation that Pier 66 on the Hudson River which is at Park Summerstage and has performed September was the beginning of fall,
promotes arts, West 26th street. Through the even- at the White House and internationally. their party barely ten days after the
activism in the social ing we danced to music belted out by In January this year she was one of the event went ahead. “Although we had no
and development DJs of many ethnicities, each playing official DJs for the historic Women’s expectation that anyone would show
sector, especially via very different music. Then about half March on Washington. That is a lot photo: nisha sondhe up, thirty people came. They were thirty
‘artivism’, and the an hour before the ball dropped, the of achievement and we haven’t even this year, growing every year in popu- people who needed that space,” recalls
generation of knowl- most prestigious slot for DJs, there was a begun counting the awards. larity. What helped her was the fact The dance floor is a Rekha. “I know I am creating a helpful
edge on intersecting change in DJs and I found myself danc- Rekha Malhotra was born in UK, that “the Bhangra culture had begun safe and open space. space,” she acknowledges. It was in this
issues. ing to familiar music — Punjabi Bhangra spent her first year of life in London capturing the imagination of young- belief that she spun soon after 26/11 in
and Bollywood, being spun by DJ Rekha. and the next three in India, but came sters across races, through the initial It has no place for Mumbai and even on the day that her
DJ Rekha pioneered merging Bhangra of age in the Queens and Long Island success of the ‘Bhangra Blowout’ which xenophobia, racism father had a stroke.
and Bollywood sounds with contempo- boroughs on New York City. She grew up emerged on the George Washington or Islamophobia. Yet after twenty years of scripting a
rary electronic dance music. That very listening to Bollywood film music, like University campus and preceded base- successful South Asian story with her
moment I wanted to interview her to most other Diasporic Indian families. ment Bhangra by two years”, acknowl- Music transcends Basement Bhangra parties, in August
record her extraordinary journey. But When she was eleven years old, her edges Rekha. But what her Basement this year, with one big concert in
I had to wait thirteen years before I got mother gave her a CD of Malkit Singh in Bhangra party gave to all ‘desis’ was a boundaries, barriers Central park featuring Apache Indian,
the chance. This column is based on the which he sang his chart buster hit ‘Tutak regular weekly place to hang out and and bans Punjabi MC and a lot of emerging talent
interview I conducted earlier this year. Tutak Tutiyaan’. “Why hadn’t I heard build community, and memories that from North America — from both sides
Rooted in hip-hop and dub, her DJ such music before?” was the question still light up their lives. of the border, she closed it down. “They
sets range from Brazilian Baile Funk in Rekha’s mind as she and her cousins More subtly it was a political state- Black feminist poet Audre Lorde’s were twenty amazing years no doubt,”
to Balkan Beats and everything in began to lap up the music of Singh and ment. “The dance floor is a safe and words — “...we do not lead single issue she says recognising what she has done
between. Her debut album ‘DJ Rekha Bally Sagoo. They decided to share this open space. It has no place for xeno- lives”. Rekha is well aware of the fact for the Diaspora. “When I started the
presents Basement Bhangra’, released Punjabi Bhangra music with the larger phobia, racism or Islamophobia. We do that the DJ culture comes out of the community had slim pickings. It has
on E1 Music, features a track with three community and offered to DJ for them. not believe in walls. Music transcends Black culture which is always being gone beyond its class consciousness
time Grammy winner and one time Hai- Before they knew it, the cousins were boundaries, barriers and bans. Even appropriated. “In this resistance with of music and embraced the power of
tian President hopeful Wycelf Jean. It in business, “having scraped our nickels Bhangra is bigger than the nations that rhythms, I am indebted to Hip Hop rhythms, irrespective of where they
has won much critical acclaim, and was to buy the player and acquire a suitable claim it. It is flowering in the Diaspora culture. It is sacred to me. When I spin come from. The community is very
nominated for the best DJ album by the library, mostly of music coming from so I actually have a hard time with Punjabi music I know I am standing robust now, generating popular lo-
2008 Plug Awards. She is the founder UK,” recalls Rekha of the early years. the idea Nation. I am recognised as a on far more ancient ground,” admits cal talent, and I need to follow other
of the trademarked Basement Bhangra, In 1997, she set up the iconic monthly Punjabi, and that goes beyond nations, Rekha, not ever wanting to be accused creative pursuits,” she says, refusing to
Bollywood Disco and co founder of Mu- party Basement Bhangra for which she in the Diaspora. But we have multi- of appropriation. detail them at this point. We wait to see
tiny Club nights. She was named “Am- began spinning at the Sounds of Brazil, ple identities, and we go with what’s Among the proudest moments in what’s next!
bassador of Bhangra” by the New York where it stayed for fifteen years before comfortable” says Rekha in a rather her life are the three times she was
Times. Rekha was the sound designer shifting to a new venue and returning impassioned manner, recalling to mind invited to the Obama White House, the letters@tehelka.com

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60-61 Column-Arshiya Sethi.indd 2-3 12/01/18 4:26 PM