Split This Rock Festival, Washington DC

For information and to register: www.splitthisrock.org

READING:
The Names We Carry: Poetry Inspired by Radical India
4-5:30 pm Thursday, April 14

Vidhu Aggarwal, Minal Hajratwala, Tanuja Jagernauth, Ellen Kombiyil, Shikha Malaviya, and Leeya Mehta read poems reflecting the many names, labels, and categories we use/discard/attach to ourselves and others, throughout our lives. We will share poems exploring issues of exile, imperialism, identity, caste/color discrimination, sexuality, and more. We will encourage audience participation during the reading as well, asking them to fill in words and missing phrases, to help them create and think about the different kinds of dialogues we constantly must create and reinvent in order to highlight different causes.

WORKSHOP:
Revolt: Writing Poetry Inspired by Radical India
4-5:30 pm Friday, April 15

Minal Hajratwala, Ellen Kombiyil, and Shikha Malaviya lead a powerful and engaging workshop, drawing poetic inspiration from activist art from various waves of political movements in India and the diaspora. Using prompts drawn from a variety of poets who have been engaged in activist movements, participants will write deeply into issues of exile, imperialism, identity, caste/color discrimination, sexuality, and more. We’ll explore how verse turns the deeply personal detail into the universal, bringing to light little-known voices from India’s radical political traditions and injecting new energy into American poets wishing to engage with global revolutions. We’ll share all the materials so that participants can take them back and share with their own communities and/or students, diversifying their reading lists to include vibrant contemporary global voices of protest.