VIRTUAL: Sopan Deb with Kabir Akhtar / Missed Translations: Meeting the Immigrant Parents Who Raised Me

Booksmith hosts a live-stream with Sopan Deb for his new book Missed Translations: Meeting the Immigrant Parents Who Raised Me. He’ll be in conversation with Kabir Akhtar.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to public health concerns around the coronavirus, this will be a virtual event live-streamed on our Facebook page. Please join us!

Friends, neighbors: We are pleased to be able to bring you some of our events virtually while our doors are otherwise closed in the interest of public health. You can still support us in the usual ways: you can make donations; you can buy the book and we’ll deliver it directly to your door; and did you know we keep our gift certificates on file and they never expire? Thank you very much for your support – we’re proud to be a legacy business and a mainstay of the Haight-Ashbury since 1976!

Approaching his 30th birthday, Sopan Deb had found comfort in his day job as a writer for the New York Times and a practicing comedian. But his stage material highlighting his South Asian culture only served to mask the insecurities borne from his family history. Sure, Deb knew the facts: his parents, both Indian, separately immigrated to North America in the 1960s and 1970s. They were brought together in a volatile and ultimately doomed arranged marriage and raised a family in suburban New Jersey before his father returned to India alone.

But Deb had never learned who his parents were as individuals—their ages, how many siblings they had, what they were like as children, what their favorite movies were. Theirs was an ostensibly nuclear family without any of the familial bonds. Coming of age in a mostly white suburban town, Deb’s alienation led him to seek separation from his family and his culture, longing for the tight-knit home environment of his white friends. His desire wasn’t rooted in racism or oppression; it was born of envy and desire—for white moms who made after-school snacks and asked his friends about the girls they liked and the teachers they didn’t. Deb yearned for the same.

Deb’s experiences as one of the few minorities covering the Trump campaign, and subsequently as a stand up comedian, propelled him on a dramatic journey to India to see his father—the first step in a life-altering journey to bridge the emotional distance separating him from those whose DNA he shared. Deb had to learn to connect with this man he recognized yet did not know—and eventually breach the silence separating him from his mother. As it beautifully and poignantly chronicles Deb’s odyssey, Missed Translations raises questions essential to us all: Is it ever too late to pick up the pieces and offer forgiveness? How do we build bridges where there was nothing before—and what happens to us, to our past and our future, if we don’t?

Sopan Deb is a writer for The New York Times, as well as a New York City-based stand up comedian. Before joining the Times, Deb was one of a handful of reporters who covered Donald Trump’s presidential campaign from start to finish as a campaign embed for CBS News. He covered hundreds of rallies in more than 40 states for a year and a half and was named a “breakout media star” of the election by Politico.

At The New York Times, Deb has interviewed high profile subjects such as Denzel Washington, Stephen Colbert, the cast of Arrested Development, Kyrie Irving and Bill Murray. Deb’s work has previously appeared on NBC, Al Jazeera America and The Boston Globe, ranging from examining the trek of endangered manatees to following a class of blind filmmakers in Boston led by the former executive producer of Friends. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for a documentary he produced for the Boston Globe called “Larger Than Life,” which told the story about the NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell’s complicated relationship with the city of Boston.

Kabir Akhtar, ACE is an Emmy-winning director-editor whose work includes The Academy Awards, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Arrested Development, and Unsolved Mysteries.

A three-time Emmy nominee, Kabir won the award in 2016 for editing the pilot of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, becoming the first person of color to win in the category. He worked on all 62 episodes of Crazy Ex, rising from editor to director/producer as the series progressed. Kabir directed twelve episodes of television last year, including the season finales of the critically acclaimed shows Grown-ish and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, the first Disney-branded series on Disney Plus. His new work premiering in 2020 includes episodes of Mindy Kaling’s new Netflix show, Never Have I Ever. With a passion for musical projects, Kabir has directed thirty music videos with a combined 13 million Youtube views, as well as comedy segments of the Academy Awards and the Primetime Emmy Awards.

He has edited ten pilots which were later picked up, and has directed the pilot episodes of two series: 8th & Ocean for MTV, and the relaunched edition of Unsolved Mysteries. Kabir has served as Co-Chair of the Asian-American Committee at the DGA, and as a Peer Group Executive Committee member at the Television Academy. He has been a featured speaker at many industry events and festivals, including SXSW.

He lives in New York City. Author photo by Amy Lombard.

This event is free and all ages.

RSVP appreciated by not required.