Raising Brown Boys In America Beyond the Gender Binary

Words by Deepti Sharma

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This is a rare vintage poster from the night when the Sabri Brothers became the first ever South Asians to play at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1975. It was a special concert because it marked one of the earliest times Qawwali music was brought to a Western audience, long before Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan made it into a household name. The New York Times sent one of their reporters to review the performance - a white American man named John Rockwell. This would be Rockwell's first experience with Qawwali music and for him it would be "a long way from the polite boredom of so many Western concerts." Rockwell was in awe. He had never seen. (Available now)

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Recommended Reads:

Virginity Testing: A British History of Dehumanizing South Asian Immigrants

How the British Attempted to Erase the Hijra

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Raising Brown Boys In America Beyond the Gender Binary

Why I Let My Son Wear Nail Polish

One day my older son, Zubin, walked into his first-grade classroom, his small fingers sparkling with metallic gold and black polish. The night before, we’d sat cross-legged on the bathroom floor, our laughter echoing as I carefully painted each nail while he chattered about dinosaurs. It was one of those perfect parenting moments—simple, joyful, connective.

But by afternoon pickup, something had changed. Zubin looked deflated, quieter than usual. When I asked, he told me a teacher had said, “Only girls wear nail polish.”