About this Event
Join Rajiv Mohabir to celebrate the launch of his new book Banbas/Exile: A Ramayan Retelling, a genre-bending collection of poetry, stories, songs, and reflective prose. Rajiv will be joined by Nicky Beer and Mathangi Subramanian for a reading and conversation moderated by Arvin Ramgoolam.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Rajiv Mohabir first learned of the Ramayan from his grandmother while sitting on his parents’ brown-tiled porch, surrounded by the scrub forest of Central Florida. Descended from generations of Indian indentured laborers who were brought to Guyana under nefarious contracts, they receive the ancient Hindu epic poem as a tale of exile in anthropomorphic wilderness, passed along as it was in stories and songs shared vocally in the cane fields.
Here, in a singular gesture of deeply layered translation, this ember of song is passed along again. Drawing on his grandmother’s Creole, Caribbean Hindustani, and the King’s English on his own decolonized terms, Mohabir reimagines the Ramayan anew. Classical in form yet rooted in Guyanese ancestry and its diasporas, Banbas / Exile is a genre-bending collection of poetry, stories, songs, and reflective prose. Speaking through heroes, villains, and animal deities, this extraordinary translation gives voice to lives shaped by exile and to the enduring search for a world that can hold both difference and communion.
We encourage everyone to prepurchase their books before the event as we cannot guarantee book availability without prepurchase.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rajiv Mohabir is a memoirist, translator, and the author of five collections of poems, most recently Seabeast. His books have been awarded with Foreword Indies Gold and the Eric Hoffer Medal Provocateur.
ABOUT THE DISCUSSION PARTNERS
Mathangi Subramanian is an award winning neurodiverse South Asian American writer and educator who uses she/they pronouns. Her books have won the South Asia Book Award, been short listed for the Lambda Literary Award, and long listed for the PEN/Faulkner and Center for Fiction First Book Prize, among others. Her shorter works have appeared in The Washington Post, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times kids, and LitHub, and her picture book A Butterfly Smile was inducted into the Nobel museum by laureate Dr. Esther Duflo. Her latest book, Our Periods Ourselves, will be released November 12th. She holds a doctorate in education and currently lives in Denver with her daughter, an enormous kitten, and way too many picture books.
Nicky Beer is the author of Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes, winner of the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry. She is a bi/queer writer, and the author of two other collections of poems, The Octopus Game and The Diminishing House, both winners of the Colorado Book Award. Her awards include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts, a Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a MacDowell Fellowship, and a fellowship and a scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Her poems have been published in Best American Poetry, Poetry, The Nation, the New Yorker, the Southern Review, the Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She is a professor at the University of Colorado — Denver, where she co-edits the journal Copper Nickel.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Arvin Ramgoolam and his wife Danica own and operate Townie Books and Rumors Coffee and Tea House in Crested Butte, Colorado. Arvin is also the Director of the Mountain Words Festival, held every May. His writing can be found in the Asian American Writers Workshop, The Normal School, Anomaly, and the Jellyfish Review. Arvin was born in Trinidad & Tobago, raised in South Florida, and has resided in the Rocky Mountains for over 20 years.
EVENT SCHEDULE
6:00pm Doors
6:25pm Welcome & introduction
6:30pm Reading & Discussion
7:20pm Q&A
7:40pm Book signing and conversation
ACCESSIBILITY
Parking: Metered street parking is available (parallel parking) on Market St. Paid lots are available within a few blocks. The closest one is on 21st and Market St.
Entrance Access: Our front door is at street level and manually operated, accessible for wheelchairs and mobility aids. The rest of the block has sidewalks raised by five steps; however, the bike lane offers a step-free route down the block with minimal car traffic.
Restrooms: All-gender restrooms. Just like at home.
Communication: All staff on site speak English. There will be one Spanish speaking staff member. We welcome communication via translation apps (Google Translate is available). While we do not use ASL, we’re happy to communicate through apps or other tools that work for you.
Alcohol Policy: No alcohol will be served or permitted at this event.
Questions or Requests: Please contact us at [email protected] with any accessibility needs or questions.
We encourage everyone to prepurchase their books before the event as we cannot guarantee book availability without prepurchase.
Event venue & nearby stays
The Shop at MATTER, 2114 Market Street, Denver, United States
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