IFA@Hyderabad: Presentation & Performance at Lamakaan | January 20 & 21, 2017

India Foundation for the Arts
in collaboration with
Lamakaan, Hyderabad
(Near GVK One, Road 5, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad)
presents
IFA@Hyderabad - Two Events

Join us at Lamakaan for two exciting events, exploring feminist street theatre of the 1970s and 80s in Delhi, on January 20, 2017; and soak in the music of the Mir musicians of Rajasthan, on January 21, 2017.

Feminist Street Theatre – Histories and Stories
A Presentation on Feminist Street Theatre during the 1970s & 80s in Delhi, by Deepti Priya Mehrotra
Friday, January 20, 2017 | 05:30 PM

The late 1970s and 80s was a particularly fertile time for street plays, within the context of a vibrant women’s movement. Deeply political plays were created by ordinary women, from colleges, bastis and women’s groups, in Delhi, and performed hundreds of times. Actor-activist memories provide occasions to explore theatre as activism, as education and art. Revisiting vintage drama scripts feels meaningful, for the history they embody and the power they still exude.

Deepti is an independent scholar and a Fellow at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, researching towards a book on a spectrum of social movements in India of the ’70s and ’80s. Her publications include Gulab Bai the Queen of Nautanki Theatre; Burning Bright: Irom Sharmila and the Struggle for Peace in Manipur; and Home Truths: Stories of Single Mothers.

Sampurna Trust received a grant, with Deepti Priya Mehrotra as the Principal Investigator, under the Arts Research programme of India Foundation for the Arts, with part support from South Asia Women’s Fund.

Farida, thuriya thuriya jaa...
A Musical Performance by the Mir Musicians of Rajasthan
Saturday, January 21, 2017 | 07:30 PM - 09:00 PM

The Mirs are a music community based in the Pugal region of Rajasthan. Hereditary singers of the Sufiyana Kalam, the Mirs have been known for their passionate and intimate renderings of the compositions of the mystics such as Baba Sheikh Farid, Sain Bulleh Shah, Hazrat Shah Hussain, Hazrat Sultan Bahu, Ali Haider and Khwaja Ghulam Farid. They have been musicians of the common people, and perform the bhajans and vanis of Meera, Kabir, Gorakhnath, Baba Ramdev and Achalram. Their songs are mostly in Siraiki, a dialect of West Punjab, and are deft players of the been (a kind of bagpipe) and algoza (a double barrel wind instrument).

Performers
Nazru Khan, Abdul Jabbar, Antar Khan, Manji Khan, Bassu Khan, Mode Khan and Sattar Khan.

The Baba Farid Mir Project brings together the families of Mir musicians and their patrons, scattered across the Bikaner region, in an attempt to reinvigorate their musical tradition. From October 2015 to December 2016, a core team of senior as well as young artists, along with patrons, undertook a yatra across the far flung Mir strongholds in the Bikaner region, towards facilitating musical interchanges, community interactions, and mapping of musical opportunities within cultural festivals and events.

This performance is part of The Baba Farid Mir Project, supported under the Arts Practice Programme of India Foundation for the Arts. The Baba Farid Mir Project is funded by Infosys Foundation.