It all started three years ago with Larry Claypool. Sirish Rao flagged his cab, heard stories from the Vietnam vet who later worked with a landmine program in Cambodia and asked him to pull over so they could just talk.
Then Rao learned about Helen Potrebenko, who drove taxi in 麻豆传媒映画in the 1970s and published an autobiographical novel called Taxi!
鈥淚t鈥檚 a brilliant, really sharp scathing commentary on working class life, on the role of women in low-paid dangerous jobs,鈥� said Rao, artistic director and co-founder of the Indian Summer Festival. 鈥淪uddenly, it struck me that we have people in 麻豆传媒映画whose experience driving cabs had led them to create some amazing narratives.
So he created an event called In the Driver鈥檚 Seat: Stories from the Cab for the Indian Summer Festival, which runs July 9 to 18.
鈥淲e always feel that cab drivers must be psychologists of some kind because you鈥檝e got someone literally on a couch behind you, and as Larry once said, 鈥楨ither they talk to you with the intensity that you would never talk to a stranger, they thought that they would never see you again so they give you everything that鈥檚 on their mind, or they forget you exist.鈥欌��
Claypool returned to the U.S. from Vietnam and wound up in Kent, Ohio the day the infamous Kent State shootings happened.
鈥淪o between that and the war, I鈥檇 had my fill of Richard Nixon and the U.S. government and it was time to leave,鈥� Claypool said.
After Ohio, he travelled to the South of France, where he fell in love with French women and then moved to Montreal to meet their Canadian counterparts. He then studied at York University in Toronto, and at In the Driver鈥檚 Seat he will read from the novel he鈥檚 writing about the unique community he encountered in a high-rise building there.
He will also present photos from his series Larry鈥檚 Window, pictures of people on the street and his customers.
Claypool started driving cab as a 鈥減ick up, throw away job鈥� in 1978. It鈥檚 a job he鈥檚 picked up between a five-year stint in South America and eight years in Southeast Asia, working in the wild animal trade.
Four or five current and former cab drivers will speak at the July 10 event at SFU鈥檚 Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. They鈥檒l talk about their lives and how driving cabs affected their creative output, followed by a Q&A with the audience.
鈥淚 kind of felt like sharing the experience I had of being in a cab and then meeting this incredibly gifted storyteller and very interesting human being that I would have only seen in that mirror,鈥� Rao said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of nice to be in the driver鈥檚 seat, so to speak, and sit face-to-face and hear them speak about their work and their lives.鈥� 聽
Audiences will encounter Keith McKellar, who became entranced by Vancouver鈥檚 neon era when he drove cab in the 1970s. His book Neon Eulogy incorporates line drawings of the disappearing neon in 麻豆传媒映画and jazz riff tales from the streets.
They鈥檒l also meet Pav Nagra, a 22-year-old full-time business student who started driving cab a year ago and has been developing a standup routine to give his passengers an experience, rather than a mere ride.
鈥淗is dad drives cab, his uncle drives cab, so he said that he grew up watching the world through the rear window of a cab and for him, the street is where he feels completely at home,鈥� Rao said.
鈥淗e鈥檚 got a sort of philosophy of what being a cab driver is and he does want to break some of the stigmas around it because this is what his family does, this is what he does,鈥� Rao continued.
In addition to presenting the stories of cab drivers, Indian Summer is a festival of art, food, music and ideas.
There鈥檚 an event called 5 x 15 at the Imperial, July 18, that will feature five speakers, including award-winning journalist Naresh Fernandes talking about the global media landscape, restaurateur Meeru Dhalwala of Vij鈥檚 highlighting how insects are a high-protein, sustainable food, and Patrick Stewart of the Nisga鈥檃 First Nation speaking about aboriginal culture, colonialism and his punctuation-free 52,000 word PhD thesis in Grammatical Resistance.
鈥淚t鈥檚 follows on to be a vintage Bollywood dance party, so that鈥檚 always a good thing,鈥� Rao said.
The Strings that Bind Us, July 15 at the Orpheum, will feature Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, India鈥檚 master of the sarod, a lute-like instrument with 19 fretless strings, playing with his two sons and violinist Jeanette Bernal-Singh of the 麻豆传媒映画Symphony Orchestra.
鈥淭his idea of worlds meeting is very key to the way we put this festival together,鈥� Rao said.
鈥溌槎勾接郴璱s for sure an extremely diverse city with a lot of interesting people in it, but perhaps not enough cross-pollination,鈥� Rao said. 鈥淲e want science and art to meet. We want South Asia and Europe. It doesn鈥檛 mean that you find an easy common ground, it means that you actually explore if there is good friction.鈥�
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