Brooklyn Baithak: Community & Culture in the Heart of NYC

Brooklyn Baithak has grown to be a popular South Asian music event in New York City - its guiding ethos is centered around community, culture, collaboration, and a fundamental dedication towards the “raga-based” classical arts (music that follows Hindustani or Carnatic frameworks). 
Its founder, Sapan Modi, grew up with a dual identity, listening to both classical Indian music and American rock and hip-hop. His journey led him from a Bollywood rock band to helping start a South Asian open mic series in Boston, experiences that taught him the power of bringing people together through art. When he moved to Brooklyn, he felt the need to create a community-centered music platform in New York. In a moment of experimentation, he hosted a Friendsgiving dinner in November 2023, inviting musician friends to bring their instruments and jam - this informal soiree became the catalyst for starting Brookln Baithak and posting a call for performers on Instagram. Forty people packed into his living room for the first event in December 2023 - a house concert featuring twelve artists performing raga-based music.

 Brooklyn Baithak Founder, Sapan Modi. Credit: Sushant Khire

The event's popularity grew so quickly that it soon outgrew Sapan's apartment. Eventually, the Baithak team partnered with local cafes and restaurants which provided a new home for the event. These spaces have been packed for every Baithak, with each event consistently selling out. 

Open Open Jam Session Credit: Shail Joshi

An Inclusive Platform

Brooklyn Baithak's core philosophy is to empower emerging artists and create a welcoming space for them to grow. Sapan notes that the formality of traditional classical performances can sometimes be intimidating and can feel exclusive to those who practice but are not already involved in New York’s music groups and dance companies. He wanted to create an environment where artists did not have to worry about perfection, a place where they could feel comfortable experimenting and even making mistakes. The format is a curated open mic, where each performer gets an ten-minute slot to showcase their art. While the focus is raga-based music, artists with a foundation in classical training are also encouraged to experiment. This approach has led to a diverse range of performances, from traditional raga and Qawwali to Bollywood and Western music with a classical twist. For many appreciators of South Asian music, there seems to be a line for the tasteful modernization of classical art - the Baithak team so far seems to create a space for contemporary work that is still sincere to its roots and Hindustani and Carnatic frameworks.
The showcased emerging artists, many who work full time jobs outside music, have grown up training in their respective music forms. Sapan himself plays the guitar, dhol, and sitar and currently works a full time job in tech. Many immigrants and/or children of immigrants probably relate to dedicating their after school evenings to the arts but not feeling like they were able to bring that part of themselves to school. Brooklyn Baithak, with its current scale and audience pull, gives trained artists an inclusive space to showcase their music practice. The number of artists who present at Baithak, and their quality and sincerity, is a testament to the sheer amount of talent in the South Asian community. 
Brooklyn Baithak's core belief is that people just need to attend their show once to truly appreciate the concept. The group keeps the lighting intimate, speaks casually in layman terms, and often sees baseball hats at Baithak events. In this more relaxed environment, the presentation of raga-based music also seems to be more digestible to a lay audience - every Baithak event has sold out historically, and greater than fifty per cent of the audience is consistently first-time attendees, indicating that the showcase is continuously expanding its reach to new people. This feat is nearly unheard of in the New York South Asian arts space, where you often see the same familiar faces at major events.

Building a Sustainable Community

Sapan and his team of volunteers face the challenge of managing its growth while staying true to its founding principles. Interestingly, Sapan does not run an incredibly competitive selection process for his events, despite there being an abundance of artist interest - he believes that only people who are generally “the right fit” apply. This could lead to some variations in the selected talent pool, but overall, this approach seems to be working well. To create space for new talent, Baithak hosts "first-timer" shows once every six months, and their recent new initiative, "The Ghar.ana Sessions," was created for artists who have performed at Baithak multiple times and are ready to present a longer set to share their musical journey. Baithak tries to serve as an “incubator” for emerging artists - taking them from the informal recurring Brookyn Baithak events to larger theater presentations. 
As briefly mentioned before, Brooklyn Baithak is entirely volunteer-run, similar to many other major performance platforms in New York City. Sustaining South Asian arts in NYC with limited monetary and time resources takes a village. Dedicated volunteers, many who work full time jobs and are artists themselves, tirelessly organize and build opportunities for others, often without asking for recognition. The Baithak team has sound engineers, photographers, videographers, and logistical planners who are skilled and are doing something that they enjoy. This goodwill is what breathes life into the cultural arts scene in New York - with limited resources, it is always heart-first.
  

Artist Collaborations. Credit: Shail Joshi

The success of Brooklyn Baithak proves that there is a vibrant audience for South Asian arts, despite modern critiques that classical music does not resonate with audiences. Without over-engineering its platform and focusing on organic community-building, Brooklyn Baithak has shown that there is a new generation of artists who not only preserve culture but can also innovate and create something entirely new.