WE presented 'Poetic Justice' at the US Consulate, Dosti House, Mumbai on March 16, 2017 and WE Speak Up' at Kitabkhana on March 18, 2017 as part of the International Women Scream Festival 2017
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Sessions
Spiritual bonds - Poetry That Heals
Tracing Trails - Partition -In Search of Roots
Women Today - Ties That Bind
@the global event: Women Scream 2017
For Freedom, For Equality, For Justice
WE - US IS YOU!, March 16 at Dosti House
WE ARE Together, March 18, Kitabkhana
Program Schedule
2pm : Gathering at Dosti House, Tea
2: 15 : Welcome Address
( Consulate and Poets)
2:30 : Session 1 - Spiritual Bonds - Poetry That Heals
To
3:15 (Interactive - 3:15 - 3:30)
3:30 Session 2 - Tracing Trails - In Search of Roots
To
4:15: (Interactive - 4:15- 4:25)
4:25 : Session 3 : Women Today - Ties That Bind
To
5: 10 (Interactive 5:10 - 5:20)
(Note : Each session has four poets reading)
Session 1 Spiritual Bonds - Poetry That Heals
Priya Sarukkai Chabria,
Anju Makhija, Vinita Agarwal
Session 2 Tracing Trails - Partition - In Search of Roots
Sudeep Sen, Nabina Das, Gayatri Chawla,
Smeetha Bhoumik
Session 3 Women Today - Ties That Bind
Sanjeev Khandekar, Anjali Purohit, Smita Sahay
Sharon Irani
Poetic Justice at US Consulate by Women Empowered-India
It is a pleasure welcoming you all to this evening of poetry. Our thanks to distinguished poets, the US Consulate, friends and members of the audience. It's an honour to be hosted at the US Consulate and this is a very special moment for us, because the USA represents a pinnacle of higher learning and opportunity to everyone with dreams. WE Women Empowered -India dream of an equal opportunity, safe and just world for women around the world. This evening's poetry forms part of the international Women Scream 2017 festival of art & poetry.
WE celebrate our close ties with the US in every sphere and I begin by reciting inspiring American poets we love.... Adrienne Rich and of course Bob Dylan
Adrienne Rich Planetarium (for astronomer Caroline Hershel),
A woman in the shape of a monster
a monster in the shape of a woman
the skies are full of them
a woman ‘in the snow
among the Clocks and instruments
or measuring the ground with poles’
in her 98 years to discover
8 comets
she whom the moon ruled
like us
levitating into the night sky
riding the polished lenses
Galaxies of women, there
doing penance for impetuousness
ribs chilled
in those spaces of the mind
An eye,
‘virile, precise and absolutely certain’
from the mad webs of Uranusborg
encountering the NOVA
every impulse of light exploding
from the core
as life flies out of us
Tycho whispering at last
‘Let me not seem to have lived in vain’
What we see, we see
and seeing is changing
the light that shrivels a mountain
and leaves a man alive
Heartbeat of the pulsar
heart sweating through my body
The radio impulse
pouring in from Taurus
I am bombarded yet I stand
I have been standing all my life in the
direct path of a battery of signals
the most accurately transmitted most
untranslatable language in the universe
I am a galactic cloud so deep so invo-
luted that a light wave could take 15
years to travel through me And has
taken I am an instrument in the shape
of a woman trying to translate pulsations
into images for the relief of the body
and the reconstruction of the mind
Bob Dylan - Talkin' New York"
Rambling out of the wild west
Leaving the towns I love best
Thought I'd seen some ups and down
'Till I come into New York town
People going down to the ground
Building going up to the sky.
Wintertime in New York town
The wind blowing snow around
Walk around with nowhere to go
Somebody could freeze right to the bone
I froze right to the bone
New York Times said it was the coldest winter in seventeen years
I didn't feel so cold then.
I swung on to my old guitar
Grabbed hold of a subway car
And after a rocking, reeling, rolling ride
I landed up on the downtown side:
Greenwich Village.
I walked down there and ended up
In one of them coffee-houses on the block
Got on the stage to sing and play
Man there said, Come back some other day
You sound like a hillbilly
We want folksingers here.
Well, I got a harmonica job begun to play
Blowing my lungs out for a dollar a day
I blowed inside out and upside down
The man there said he loved my sound
He was raving about he loved my sound
Dollar a day's worth.
After weeks and weeks of hanging around
I finally got a job in New York town
In a bigger place, bigger money too
Even joined the Union and paid my dues.
100
Now, a very great man once said
That some people rob you with a fountain pen
It don't take too long to find out
Just what he was talking about
A lot of people don't have much food on their table
But they got a lot of forks and knives
And they gotta cut something.
So one morning when the sun was warm
I rambled out of New York town
Pulled my
cap down over my eyes
And headed out for the western skiesopopppp
So long New York
Howdy, East Orange.pp
An author and a blogger, Shuchi likes to carry an extra smile with her always, incase someone needs it
When we speak out together, it is poetic justice that we are in solidarity with people all over the world speaking up for gender equality and women's safety!
March 2017 has been very special for WE, as WE formed bonds with interesting groups and organisations, celebrating them with poetry and conversation. Eminent as well as emerging poets came together to speak up for an equal & safe world for women.
'Poetic Justice' on March 16 was a collaboration between Women Empowered-India (WE), MPI's 'Women Scream 2017 international festival of art & poetry,' and the US Consulate in Mumbai. Our thanks to Mr James Fennel, Officer- Cultural Affairs for attending and appreciating our efforts. Thanks to Sushma Karnik and Sita Murugan for being gracious hosts.
As part of Women Scream 2017, 'WE Speak Out' was held on March 18 at Kitabkhana, with conversations, readings & a book launch; where poets-authors shared their thoughts on equal rights issues, on a journey towards an equal world. The evening saw the Mumbai launch of Erotext, Sudeep Sen's new poetry collection.
There were readings from Erotext by Sudeep, followed by an illuminating conversation around the book with Smita Sahay & Sharon Irani.
Describing the evening, Prof Ashwani Kumar puts it so warmly - '.....enjoyed “word by word, line by line” empowering feminist justice poetry from the Generation Next and Sudeep’s sublime ‘Ero Text’ a lexical and axial delight and wonder…' He then quotes from 'I Lalla', (The Poems of Lal Ded translated by Ranjit Hoskote) :
I burnt the dirt from my mind,
a knife in my heart,
Spread my skirt to kneel at His door.
Only then did Lalla’s name travel from mouth to mouth.
Unquote.
In our conversation 'Self-Expression in Feminism', Vinita Agarwal discussed the spiritual poetry of women in Buddhism
WE are extremely fortunate to have the support and participation of Womaninc.com. com, and other like-minded community groups.
It's a pleasure extending our heartfelt thanks to all poets & authors who read, and to all those who graced the occasion with their presence.
Women Empowered-India (WE) is comprised of you, and we are deeply aware of the brilliance, kindness, love and warmth that shines on WE because of you....
Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal Menka Shivdasani Arundhathi Subramaniam Priya Sarukkai Chabria Anju Makhija Bina Sarkar Ellias Hemant Divate Smruti Divate Vinita Agarwal, Rochelle Potkar Taseer Gujral Sonia Rao Jennifer Robertson Smita Sahay, Gayatri Chawla, Sharon Irani, Pervin Saket, Smriti Dalvi, Sucharita Balraj Mahesh Leelapandit, Trupthi Shetty, Ankita Shah Ramneek Singh, Shuchi Mehta Damini Kane, Priyal Panchal, Prakriti Kargeti, Harnidh Kaur & Mrinalini Harchandrai....many other friends, poets, beautiful people...
WE look forward to many more interesting readings.
To conclude let me leave you with this beautiful prose-poem from Erotext by Sudeep Sen : 'Night Shot, Krusevo'
#womanscream2017 #womenempoweredindia #DostiHouse
#kitabkhana #WEcollaborate #WE-WomenScream2017 #equalrights
On the wings of poetry we have joined an international discussion on safety and equal rights for women, and are happy that so many of us participated.
It is heartening that so many people all over the world are participating and working towards an equal world for all. WE are very grateful to Vinita Agarwal who first brought news of the international Women Scream Festival of Art & Poetry 2017, sometime during Nov 2017.
Smeetha Bhoumik
