Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts' Gurpreet Sian puts local South Asian talent in the spotlight
Multitasking event producer, bhangra dancer, dohl drummer, and NHL commentator aims to increase representation—and throw a big street party
Festival producer Gurpreet Sian.
Actor-writer Adele Noronha. Photo by theportraitsessions
Punjabi Market Live
South Asian Arts Society presents the Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts at venues in and around Vancouver from August 17 to 31
YOU DON’T NEED TO visit the Punjabi Market to find evidence of the influence that South Asian cultures have had in Metro Vancouver. As the third-largest panethnic group in the City of Vancouver (and the predominant one in Surrey), people of South Asian descent have made their mark in music (hello, Chin Injeti), broadcasting (good morning, Nira Arora), politics (we’re looking at you, Harry Bains), and the culinary scene (keep the samosas coming, Meeru Dhalwala).
From Gurpreet Sian’s point of view, however, there is a distinct lack of South Asian representation in the local arts scene—or at least that was the case back in 2016, when his organization, the South Asian Arts Society, put on the inaugural edition of the Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts.
“The inspiration was having something for South Asian artists, both locally here in the community and nationally as well, to support them in a way—whether it’s presenting their work or providing learning opportunities, educational opportunities with workshops, and things like that,” Sian tells Stir. “Providing a platform, essentially, for South Asian artists of all levels to work together, work on their craft, and get their productions and their ideas out into the public, and tell those stories that weren’t necessarily being told in other theatre spaces in and around the city.
“We saw that there was a need for this, especially with such a large South Asian population,” says Sian, whose official title at the South Asian Arts Society is executive director. “We felt like we weren’t seeing enough South Asian–themed work on many of the main stages in Vancouver.”
Past editions of Monsoon have focused largely on the theatrical arts, and for this year’s edition award-winning actor-writer Adele Noronha and others will read excerpts of three published plays from three groups of South Asian artists. Titled Momentum, that show will take place at The Cultch on August 20.
In addition to a packed lineup of music, dance lessons, and workshops, this year’s festival will also include a live recording of Tarannum Thind’s podcast Chai With T (August 19 at the Surrey Arts Centre Studio Theatre); and Is Democracy Dead?, which combines an interactive game, social discussion, and theatrical performance (on August 26 at the Progress Lab).
“Our signature event is our final one, which is Punjabi Market Live,” Sian says. “It’s a big outdoor street celebration in Vancouver's Punjabi Market, which has a very rich history. It’s the oldest Punjabi market in North America. We’re shutting down the streets and throwing a big party right on Main Street for that day on August 27.” The performances span dance and music, with cuisine, visual art, and fashion around the site.
That street party will almost certainly include some bhangra dancing, which happens to be Sian’s specialty. Well, it’s one of them, at any rate. In addition to teaching a first-year introductory bhangra dance course at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, he is also an accomplished dhol drummer and instructor.
Moreover, Sian is likely to be approached by perfect strangers in any place where local Punjabi speakers gather, and it’s not because of his activities as an arts administrator, festival producer, or educator; they want to talk hockey.
That’s because Sian is undoubtedly best known for his ongoing on-air gig with the Punjabi-language version of Hockey Night in Canada. When the next NHL season starts in October, he’ll be in his ninth year as a pro hockey commentator. It’s a job he says he owes largely to pure luck.
“It kind of just happened,” he says. “I used to work in South Asian media, on Spice Radio, 1200 AM. I worked there for a number of years, and my last year there at the station, we experimented with a sports show. It was called Spice Sports. While doing this show, I called up a couple of the guys from Hockey Night Punjabi, because it is Vancouver-based. I wanted to interview them, so I brought them onto my radio show, and we started chatting about hockey. I had them back on a couple of times, and it turns out that they were looking to hire a couple more folks to join the team as their on-air personalities. So, of course I threw my name in the hat, and I got the job.”
So, maybe it wasn’t entirely down to luck, so much as it was Sian’s broadcasting know-how and his passion for the sport that landed him the job. It’s the same level of passion he brings to his role as producer of the Monsoon Festival. Sian is far too humble to take credit for it, but he will allow that South Asian representation on local stages has improved exponentially since Monsoon started in 2016.
“You’ll see a lot more South Asian–themed productions being produced by some of the bigger theatre companies in town—and even on an individual basis, South Asian performers performing at Bard on the Beach and other more traditionally non-South Asian spaces, where you see South Asian faces now, and stories being told,” he observes. “So, yeah, there has been a change, which is great to see, and we just want to keep that going, and keep pushing that forward, and support as many more artists as we can.”
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