When you attend a Subcontinental Drift open mic night, you might witness a government employee trying her hand at stand-up comedy for the first time, a poet reading his latest works about the cultural divide between the West and the East, and a duo covering “Royals,” featuring beats from a tabla, or hand drum.

Subcontinental Drift is a community space for D.C. South Asians—the third largest community of South Asians in America--to express themselves free from judgment and preconceived notions, and to focus on carving out their own identities.

Since its founding in 2007, "Subdrift" has grown to hold annual art events in addition to monthly open mic nights, and has inspired (loosely affiliated) chapters in several other major cities nationwide.

Elevation DC spoke to Sriram Gopal, to one of Subcontinental Drift’s organizers, about the movement that gives a new voice to D.C.'s South Asian diaspora.

How did Subcontinental Drift begin?
In early 2007, a group of artists and arts enthusiasts of South Asian descent came together and saw the need for a safe space for members of the South Asian community to express themselves. They also recognized that there are a lot of talented South Asian artists in the area, but there wasn’t a common venue for them to interact with each other. So, they came up with the idea of an open mic. The first open mic was held in March of 2007.

How did Subcontinental Drift evolve into a national organization with chapters and representation in different cities?
I wouldn’t really call it a national organization, because the things that start up in various cities run independent of each other. There were people who had attended the open mics in D.C., and went to a different city and started one up of their own. The first one to start up was in Chicago. The same thing is true of New York and San Francisco. When it started sprouting up in other cities, people in D.C. offered advice on how to run an open mic, but it’s largely people in their respective cities doing their own thing.

How did the visual arts side of Subdrift begin?
I write for DCist, and DCist does an annual photography exhibition called DCist Exposed. I wanted to do an event that was modeled off of Exposed in that it would be a photography exhibit that would draw from contributors that were in the D.C. South Asian community who weren’t necessarily professional photographers. In 2009, we staged a photo exhibit called Positive Exposure. It was a month-long exhibit. We had a panel discussion and a Carnatic music recital. Then we came up with the notion that we would do a big event like that every year.

In March of next year, we’re doing a three-day event where we’re collaborating with the Smithsonian. It’s going to be called Be(com)ing Desi in America, and that’s going to be the last weekend of March. It’s going to take place at The Fridge, which is a gallery space in Barracks Row in the Capital Hill area by Eastern Market.

In your opinion, what impact does Subcontinental Drift have on the D.C. South Asian community?
We don’t consider ourselves an arts group, we consider ourselves a community group. It creates a common place where artistically inclined folks, or people who have felt marginalized in other South Asian spaces, can come together. This is a very open space where they can express themselves without worrying about being judged or without worrying about being censored. They can just be themselves.

What is your favorite moment from a Subcontinental Drift show?
There have been open mics where there have been 150 people, and someone’s performing a poem and there’s pin-drop silence. At the end of the show, there’s just so much warmth in the air, you really feel like you’re in a collective hug.

What I’m proudest of is that we’ve had so many people who’ve gotten up and said, I’m not a performer, but I came to an open mic and it felt so good that I decided to express myself for the first time ever in this space in front of 150 people, just because it was such a positive environment.

We’ve had that happen over and over and over again. We’ve had people who are gay and from the Muslim community say, I’m Pakistani and I come from a conservative family, but I feel like this is a place where I can express myself and not be judged for it.

It’s that kind of vibe—it wasn’t created by accident. A lot of work went into creating that space. The fact that it’s happened so many times is really gratifying.

This interview has been edited and condensed.