North American Bengali Conference (NABC) 2025

NABC: biggest conference for Bengalis in North America

Since 1981, the North American Bengali Conference (NABC) has served as one of the most significant cultural gathering points for the Bengali diaspora in the United States and Canada, enabling Bengalis to actively express and celebrate their cultural identities. Interviews collected in this project gain depth when situated alongside such communal expressions since NABC functions as a cultural archive-in-motion that contextualizes personal narratives within a broader diasporic effort to sustain Bengali heritage in North America.

As this project seeks to amplify the lived experiences of Bengalis in the United States and how they sustain their cultural traditions, the NABC offers a lens into how identity is preserved, reimagined, and performed collectively by allowing for self-curated, community-authored narratives. My own reflections and participatory observations of this space demonstrate how diasporic traditions are not only maintained but adapted to meet the needs of a multicultural world.

For more specific information on NABC 2025, please visit nabc2025.ca.

Community Ritual, Memory, and Visibility

Organized under the broader umbrella of the Cultural Association of Bengal (CAB), NABC functions as an annual diasporic ritual of cultural affirmation. With thousands of attendees, including second- and third-generation American- and Canadian-Bengalis, the conference makes Bengali culture visible on a North American stage. The venue, which was the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in 2025, served as a quasi-transnational space where Bengali identity was celebrated.

The importance of memory through remembrance and the memorializing of Bengali cultural stalwarts was centralized through a series of posters of renowned writers, filmmakers, actors, singers, and other artists that paved the way to the main auditorium, which served as the principal arena for performances during the 3-day conference.

Cultural Celebration through the Arts

One of the critical ways the NABC sustains Bengali culture is through its emphasis on literary, musical, and theatrical traditions. Rabindra Sangeet, modern Bangla bands, classical dance, and dramatic performances are forms of entertainment, of course, but also help maintain the aural and emotional landscapes of Bengal, especially for second- and third-generation Bengalis in the US and Canadian diaspora, who might not speak the language fluently or might have never visited the region. By inviting internationally recognized and local community performers alike, NABC also creates a continuum between heritage and present-day creativity, offering a platform for Bengali artistry that often cannot occur in day-to-day American life, especially if one does not live in or have access to a particularly thriving Bengali diasporic community.

Ananya Chakraborty

Arkadeep Mishra

Lakkhichhara

Rabindranath Tagore's Mayar Khela

Saampan

Rabindranath Tagore's Taasher Desh

Rupankar

Tribute to Salil Choudhury

Spades

Performances like Taasher Desh and Mayar Khela honor the legacy of Rabindranath Tagore, the poet, playwright, and composer every Bengali grows up knowing and revering. Seeing Tagore’s works performed live keeps his words and music connected to everyday life in the diaspora, while also inviting second- and third-generation diasporic Bengalis to encounter Tagore not just as a figure from a textbook, but as a living artistic force. One of the artists involved in the production of Taasher Desh mentioned at the end of the performance that she wished to spread Rabindranath everywhere and hoped that he would stay in the minds of young people.

NABC 2025 also showcased the range of Bengali music across geography, genre, and generation. Local bands--such as Spades and Baundule from Toronto and Saampan from the San Francisco Bay Area--shared the stage with the well-known Kolkata band, Lakkhichhara, reflecting the transnational nature of the Bengali music scene. Folk traditions were honored through artists like Arkadeep Mishra, Deb Chowdhury, and Joy Shankar, while contemporary Bengali music was represented by Rupankar. And, of course, the musical component without which no Bengali cultural event is complete--Rabindra Sangeet--was provided by Laisa Ahmed Lisa, offering the familiar strains of Tagore’s compositions that continue to influence Bengali musical identity.

Adding another layer to the programming, the Bollywood Dhamaka segment acknowledged that Bengali audiences embrace popular Hindi cinema and music with as much enthusiasm as anyone else in South Asia. Featuring high-energy Bollywood artists--Papon, Anwesha, Subhadeep Das Chowdhury, and Ananya Chakraborty--this segment affirmed that cultural celebration can honor heritage while also engaging with the broader currents of South Asian popular culture. Indeed, Ananya Chakraborty's parting comment was that Bengalis in the diaspora are more Bengali than those in Kolkata, and should keep up the culture in the same way!

The queue to see Shaan perform

Shaan on stage

IMG_5608.MOV

Short clip of Shaan singing

One of the most anticipated moments of NABC 2025 was the Shaan concert on July 6th, which drew a long, eager queue well before the doors even opened. With his warm stage presence and easy, self-deprecating humor, Shaan quickly made the massive auditorium feel like an intimate gathering. His set moved seamlessly between Bengali, Hindi, and English songs, reflecting both his versatility as a performer and the multilingual realities of the diaspora audience.

Bengali Storytelling: Literature and Media

Literary Seminar Schedule, July 5

Literary Seminar Schedule, July 6

Tribute to Ritwik Ghatak

TV and film actors from Kolkata discussing the Hoichoi platform

Movie Schedule on July 6

Hoichoi movies shown at NABC

NABC 2025 also featured literary seminars, including an interesting discussion on capturing diaspora experiences in English, as well as poetry and short story sessions, along with tributes to the late Bengali cultural icons, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha, and Jibanananda Das. These spaces allowed the Bengali language to be spoken and heard in a sustained, communal way, reinforcing it as a living practice in the diaspora. For second- and third-generation attendees, these programs might reintroduce Bengali as an expressive tool for identity, connection, and pride.

Another major cultural highlight was the presence of well-known actors from Kolkata--Parambrata Chatterjee, Swastika Mukherjee, Paoli Dam, Riddhi Sen, Priyanka Sarkar, and Ambarish Bhattacharya--promoting Hoichoi, the popular Bengali streaming platform. Hoichoi is reshaping how Bengalis in the diaspora access stories from West Bengal since its shorter, more experimental formats allow for fresh ideas and innovative storytelling. Throughout the convention, audiences were treated to previews of upcoming series, films, and special releases, sparking a general sense of excitement (the special 20% off subscription fees for NABC attendees might also have helped!). The packed preview sessions showed that even in a world of global entertainment, there is a strong appetite for Bengali-language content, especially when it is easily accessible on a phone or laptop.

A Bit of Bengali-ness To Take Home

The Haate Bazaar (Marketplace) was bustling at all times of the day with vendors offering a variety of clothing and jewelry, effectively recreating the sensory world of Bengal within the confines of the convention hall and providing an opportunity to embed cultural memory into everyday consumption.

Conversations at NABC

The following excerpts are paraphrased from conversations I had with conference attendees:

- - I sometimes feel like the Bengali culture is getting lost, but this event tries to lift it up--I come to see that every year.

- - The thing I like most about NABC is the Bengali cultural programs, but they are bringing a lot of Bollywood now to appeal to the young people. I enjoy that as well, but the main draw for me is the Bengali performances.

- - I moved to Calgary a few years ago since my son lives there. The celebration of Bengali dance and music is why I love to come to NABC.

- - This is my first time at NABC, and I am loving the celebration of Bengali-ness [Bangaliana in Bengali] in every aspect. I feel like the song and dance during the opening ceremony really captured the essence of Bengal.

- - We come to NABC almost every year--we have missed only a few since we moved to the US. We look forward to it since we love how this one occasion lets us all gather together and enjoy ourselves and the culture that we share. ... Besides Durga pujo in October, which all Bengalis love, of course, this is the other Bengali event that our family loves to attend.

What I really love about NABC is that it feels like I am back home in Kolkata again for a couple of days. The atmosphere is so festive that it feels like [Durga] pujo, even though pujo is still months away. ... It also makes me realize just how big the [Bengali] diaspora really is.

I am here only for today since my friends and I are attending the college reunion. I am hoping to meet people that I haven't seen in over a decade. I really like that NABC makes these opportunities for connection. ... My friends and I are also looking forward to attending the Shaan event tonight.

I brought my kids this time because I want them to experience Bengali culture more broadly, outside our house. This is a great opportunity for that, as close to Kolkata as you can get in Canada.

I just love that I can speak to every single person in Bengali for these 3 days! Listening to Bengali music in a big hall full of Bengalis singing along is so much fun.

Questions?

Please contact Srijani Ghosh at srijani@berkeley.edu for more information

This project is funded by the AAPI Data Faculty Grant from the Asian American Research Center at the University of California Berkeley

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