Exploring Exciting Texts In Collaboration with the Bangalore International Centre

Theme: Accessing Community Archives Through Song

by

Shilpa Mudbi Kothakota & Adithya Kothakota

Entry is Free

If you walk through Cubbon Park at 8 AM between Monday and Saturday, you might be able to find your way to Urban Folk Project by following the sound of Shilpa Mudbi singing at the top of her voice. Urban Folk Project archives folk art forms in Karnataka through its contemporary production based on Yellammanaata, a ritualistic overnight play hosted mostly during the Dussera season by lower caste Hindus around parts of Hyderabad, Karnataka and the Southern Maharashtra region.

Shilpa and Adithya, the creators of this project will give us a glimpse of their show as they take us through their process of archiving these forms. They’ll also talk of how the politics of a community are preserved and how they intersect with our urban sensibilities

How do we document and remember a history that is not ours? How do we represent communities that we don’t belong to? These questions are at the forefront for us as storytellers, as creators of work, as people who engage in history.