This week, the DESIblitz Literature Festival has been taking place across Birmingham, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich, with a range of events celebrating British South Asian writing, and celebrating the community’s breadth of talent and creativity.

You can catch a special event showcasing emerging British Asian writers on 25 October at The Exchange, Centenary Sq, Birmingham, where new talent in fiction, poetry, and screenwriting are invited to present their work to a live audience.  Aspiring young writers can attend a workshop with Jasbinder Bilan at Handsworth Library on 28 October at 11am, and to find out more about the various talks and events this week (and to book tickets) click here.

The festival continues with ‘Punjabi Shayari on Tour’, featuring three of the world’s greatest living Punjabi Shayari poets and Bhangra musicians performing at local community centres, libraries and Desi Pubs in Birmingham and West Bromwich on Friday 27 October.

Shayari is the ancient tradition of reciting spoken word couplets in Punjabi, dating back to the Mughal Empire: poets would recite for Kings while seated on velvet cushions.  During the 50s, new Punjabi communities that sprang up in the Midlands organised Punjabi Shayari poetry nights in their local pubs (‘Desi Pubs’), safe spaces where they could celebrate the culture of their home country, away from everyday racism.

Since the early 90s the tradition of holding Punjabi Shayari nights in pubs across the UK has completely disappeared, so the DESIblitz Literature Festival is aiming to revive this tradition with performances from legendary Punjabi poets and Bhangra Musicians, Channi Singh, Jandu Littranwala and Kulwant Singh Bhamrah.

Kulwant Singh Bhamrah
As a solo artist, Kulwant played the traditional Punjabi tumbi stringed instrument on the iconic bhangra song ‘Mundian To Bach Ke’, and the song has since been used on countless films and TV series. The sound of his tumbi in the track propelled Bhangra music into the mainstream.  During the 80s and 90s he founded Apna Sangeet, which became one of the biggest Bhangra Bands in Britain.

Channi Singh OBE
Bhangra icon Channi Singh is the founder and lead singer of legendary Bhangra band Alaap, and he is known as the Godfather of modern Bhangra music. In 1976, when Channi moved to England, he realised that the Asian community had few links with their cultural heritage, and that music would be the best way to address this.  Allap is recognised worldwide as the most successful, longest running Punjabi music collective.

Harbans Jandu / Jandu Littranwala
Harbans Singh Jandu was born in the village of Littran, Punjab, India, first starting to write lyrics for Punjabi songs in 1968. He has written for many famous Bhangra and Punjabi artists, and has recorded many songs over his 50-year career. Jandu Littranwala wrote one of the most celebrated Bhangra songs in the history of Punjabi music – ‘Giddhian Di Raniye’ sung by A.S.Kang.