Bhangra Empire

Established in 2007, Bhangra Empire is a San Francisco Bay Area dance team in California. The team is composed of undergraduates, graduate students, and recent graduates pursuing a variety of career paths while taking time to pursue Bhangra and Punjabi culture. The team has won 16 awards in four years.

Popular culture

President Obama's first State Dinner

On November 24, 2009, Bhangra Empire performed at the first State Dinner hosted by President Barack Obama and the First Lady, Michelle Obama. The event honored its chief guest Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh and was held on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.

Along with Bhangra Empire, the entertainment lineup included the National Symphony Orchestra, A.R. Rahman, Kurt Elling, and Jennifer Hudson.

The guest list included a mix of prominent figures in United States and Indian politics, business, and entertainment, including the President and First Lady, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, Bobby Jindal, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Steven Spielberg, M. Night Shyamalan, Alfre Woodard, and Blair Underwood.

Bhangra

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Castro Valley, California

Castro Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in Alameda County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, it is the fifth most populous unincorporated area in California, and the twenty-third in the United States. The population was 61,388 at the 2010 census.

Castro Valley is named after Don Guillermo Castro, who was a soldier in the Mexican army and a rancher.

First known for chicken ranches, Castro Valley eventually became a bedroom community.

History

Before the arrival of European settlers the area was settled by the Chocheño (also spelled Chochenyo or Chocenyo) subdivision of the Ohlone Native Americans.

With the arrival of Europeans, Castro Valley was part of the land granted to Mission San Jose in 1797. The area Castro Valley now occupies was part of the extensive colony of New Spain in what was the state of Alta California.

Castro Valley was part of the original 28,000 acre (110 km²) land grant given to Castro, called Rancho San Lorenzo. This land grant included Hayward, San Lorenzo, and Castro Valley, including Crow Canyon, Cull Canyon, and Palomares Canyons. Castro had a gambling habit and had to sell off portions of his land to pay gambling debts. The last of his holding was sold in a sheriff's sale in 1864 to Faxon Atherton for $400,000.

So High

So High may refer to:

See also

Empire

An empire is defined as "an aggregate of nations or people ruled over by an emperor or other powerful sovereign or government, usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom, as the former British Empire, French Empire, Spanish Empire, Russian Empire, Byzantine Empire or Roman Empire." An empire can be made solely of contiguous territories such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or of territories far remote from the homeland, such as a colonial empire.

Aside from the more formal usage, the term "empire" can also be used to refer to a large-scale business enterprise (e.g. a transnational corporation), a political organisation controlled by a single individual (a political boss) or a group (political bosses). The term "empire" is associated with other words such as imperialism, colonialism, and globalization. Empire is often used to describe a displeasure to overpowering situations. The effects of imperialism exist throughout the world today.

An imperial political structure can be established and maintained in two ways: (i) as a territorial empire of direct conquest and control with force or (ii) as a coercive, hegemonic empire of indirect conquest and control with power. The former method provides greater tribute and direct political control, yet limits further expansion because it absorbs military forces to fixed garrisons. The latter method provides less tribute and indirect control, but avails military forces for further expansion. Territorial empires (e.g., the Mongol Empire and Median Empire) tend to be contiguous areas. The term, on occasion, has been applied to maritime empires or thalassocracies, (e.g., the Athenian and British empires) with looser structures and more scattered territories. Empires are usually larger than kingdoms.