Thousands of writers, poets and academics packed into Chicago's South Loop on August 22 for the city's first-ever South Asian American Literary Festival, a daylong celebration hosted at the South Asia Institute that organizers say marked a milestone for South Asian arts in the Midwest. The event ran from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the institute's home at 1925 S. Michigan Ave., closing out with a DJ reception after a full slate of panels, readings and workshops.
The festival brought together 23 participating literary voices across panel discussions, poetry readings, translation workshops and book signings, according to the South Asia Institute. Award-winning poet, novelist and screenwriter Fatimah Asghar delivered the inaugural keynote, speaking on identity, migration, memory and belonging following the success of their books “If They Come for Us” and “When We Were Sisters,” according to the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. Asghar is also known as co-creator of the Emmy-nominated web series “Brown Girls,” per the same organization.
A South Loop Institution With Downtown Ambitions
The festival was curated and directed by writer, filmmaker and Northwestern University faculty member Ignatius Valentine Aloysius, who was named to Newcity's “LIT50” list in 2025, according to his official website. Municipal and institutional backing for the event included grant funding from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the English PEN / South Asian Literature in Translation Project at the University of Chicago, and the Hundal Foundation, per the institute. The morning opening ceremony featured municipal greetings from Chicago Public Library Commissioner Brown and Ward 3 Alderman Pat Dowell, alongside institute leadership — a nod to the fact that Ward 3 includes the South Loop neighborhood where the institute operates.
South Asia Institute co-founder Shireen Ahmad and executive director Sangini Brahmbhatt joined WGN-TV's Daytime Chicago to discuss the festival and the organization's future, according to the station's report. Daytime Chicago airs weekdays from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on WGN-TV. The station's coverage, reported by Amy Rutledge and Tonya Francisco, noted the institute can be reached at 312-929-3911.
Building on a 50-Year Art Collection
The South Asia Institute was established in October 2019 by Ahmad and Dr. Afzal Ahmad to showcase their more than 50-year private collection of South Asian art and to create a dedicated Midwestern center for diaspora heritage, according to the Chicago Cultural Alliance. The founders are said to have accumulated one of the largest collections of South Asian art in the United States. In the years since, the institute has expanded from a visual-arts showcase into a multi-disciplinary hub, drawing municipal and academic support that helped make the literary festival possible.
The South Asia Institute sits in Chicago's historic Motor Row landmark corridor, a setting distinct from the city's long-established South Asian commercial hub along Devon Avenue on the Far North Side. That corridor became one of the largest South Asian commercial and cultural districts in North America during the late 20th century, per Wikipedia's demographic history of Chicago. The new South Loop festival effectively extends that legacy downtown, positioning the Motor Row district as an emerging center for multicultural arts programming.
A Fast-Growing Community Behind the Festival
The festival's downtown debut arrives against the backdrop of a South Asian population that has grown substantially across the region. Illinois' South Asian American population reached more than 337,000 by 2020, representing roughly 42% of the state's Asian American demographic, according to research by the South Asian American Policy and Research Institute. South Asians make up about 2.5% of Illinois' overall population, per the same research.
The Chicago metropolitan area holds the second-largest Indian American population among U.S. metro areas, behind only New York City, with 255,523 Indian Americans recorded in 2023, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures cited by Wikipedia. Indian Americans represent more than 2.5% of the total Chicago metro population. Organizers have not detailed how the South Asia Institute plans to sustain the literary festival as an annual event or whether future editions will expand translation programming across South Asia's many linguistic communities — questions that remain open as the institute looks toward a second year.
