Rag-head is a pejorative, and I chose that because it was the first slur I heard someone call my dad,” writer and performer Sundeep Morrison tells us about the title of their solo off-Broadway show, which will premiere this month. “As a kid I knew what a rag was and what a head was, but what he wore was almost like a cloth crown as it had such a sacred meaning. I remember that moment of trying to ask my dad why someone would say that and seeing the pain on his face.”

Rag Head: An American Story was a visceral response to a mass shooting incident that occurred on August 5, 2012 at a gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where a white supremacist murdered six people and wounded four others. “I was in Los Angeles when the shooting was unfolding,” recalls Morrison. “Both my parents have lived there for about 20 years now. It devastated me, our community and our family, and it was the first time that I was questioning how safe my parents were [in this country]. My mom does kirtan on Sundays and I wondered, ‘what if she had been on that stage that day?’.”