Art and music Konfluens
Konfluens is a collaborative project spearheaded by Keertana Bhoopal and Sahana Ramprakash. The duo guides participants to bring together art and music to explore diverse genres. At HLF, they will engage teenagers and adults. “We use inanimate objects such as cups, forks, stones and just about anything to create rhythmic music patterns; participants can also depict these themes on paper,” explains Keertana Bhoopal. The music composition and paintings will formulate as an interpretation of a single narrative.
Sahana Ramprakash holds a degree in Fine Arts from Lasalle College of Arts, Singapore, and specialises in paintings and installations. Keertana Bhoopal is a singer with a degree in Vocal Popular Music Performance from Lasalle College of Arts, Singapore. She has collaborated with music bands in India and Singapore. The duo will conduct workshops on January 26 and 27.
Tell a story
HLF 2018 has storytelling workshops that promise to engage children and adults through interactive sessions. Arati Kodali will conduct three workshops, one on each day of the fest. A session for children in the 9 to 14 age group will have a mix of fantasy and scientifically-accurate stories, drawn from works of well known writers and Arati Kodali’s own writings. This session will be interspersed with music and children will be encouraged to sing on their own towards the end.
One of her sessions will be for children in three to eight age group, where Arati will narrate her own stories written with an element of fantasy. The interactive story telling will proceed as young children recite lines in chorus. The workshop is open to parents who want to learn fun methods of storytelling. The stories narrated here will vary from animal rights to human rights, history to science and philosophy, with a generous dose of fun.
Another session targeted at children above 14 will have Arati Kodali share stories from history. Learn about adventures of Captain Cook, the unknown side of Genghis Khan and stories drawn from heroes of the Indo-Pak war. These stories steeped in Navarasas will have participants learning to identify the nine rasas.
Living with gratitude
‘The Transformative Magic of Gratitude’ session will aid participants to complain less and appreciate more. Conducted by Prashant Jain, the workshop will focus on using the SAGA method - Specific, Appropriate, Genuine, and Authentic – to live with gratitude.
Holistic living
Agnija Kazuša’s ‘Meditation and Creativity’ session will focus on creative thought processes and use meditation and mindfulness to help participants train their mind to be peaceful and focused. Her workshops will be held on January 26 and 28. “The workshop is for anyone above 18 and I will focus on the importance in being mindful, which will in turn boost creativity,” she says.
Functional fitness
Oh wait, did you read that right? What’s a fitness session doing at a literary fest? Well, if there’s room for art, music and performance, there’s room for some fitness too. ‘The Shivfit Way’ will have functional trainer Shivoham conduct a lecture-demonstration on working out without using any equipment or machine.
Visual stories
‘Creating Visual Frames to tell Stories’ by Marcos Guardiola (Maguma) will guide both beginners and seasoned cartoonists, using distortion techniques, to review and experiment with their own drawing conventions and thereby build visual frames to convey stories and plot lines. This workshop is for children above 13 as well as educators in visual arts, drama and language, who are interested in exploring new classroom techniques.
Travel writing
Writer Shivaji Das will focus on the impact of new media on travel writing, the way forward, and also share insights from his new book ‘Angels by the Murky River’. Das observes, “Travel writing has seen massive interest in developing countries of late while witnessing a decline in the traditional markets such as US and UK.” In his workshop, he will provide an overview of the evolution of travel writing — from Herodotus to Poor Traveller (Blogger). “Different styles, approaches and media will be elaborated upon. The workshop will dwell upon the techniques, tools and preparations essential for good travel writing,” he states. Each medium has its own limitations and advantages, he observes. For instance, YouTube videos are great for festivals and dramatic natural events, Instagram for portraits and landscapes, text for dialogues and deep exploration. The workshop is for 18 years and above. Das has conducted similar workshops in Singapore and Jakarta among other cities and has seen an interest in travel writing among students, young professionals, homemakers and retired professionals.
Intangible benefits
‘Literature Socratic Dialogue’ by Tarun is a session in which the interactive engagement will explore the intangible benefits of literature, beyond the immediate career or goal. One of the areas the session will address is how an exposure to multi-cultural literature can change one’s thought process and help imbibe life-skills.
Get creative
A story writing workshop by Toral Shah will give children the opportunity to express their ideas through collaborative short stories.
Citizen journalists
Enhance your communication skills in this Citizen Journalists Workshop conducted by Palak Malik and experience film as a medium of communication.
Know your Constitution
How well do we know our Constitution. You just have to throw a few questions to a group of young adults to realise how many still remember lessons from school. ‘Construe the Constitution – 2018’ session at HLF will be the second edition of the annual inter-school Socratic Dialogue to celebrate India’s Republic Day. Here, students will analyse the philosophy of the Indian constitution.
Photography as social documentary
Helena Schätzle will conduct a photography workshop in which she will use images to advocate, create awareness and emphasise on the importance of photography as an art form and as social documentary.
Repair, reuse
‘Repair Workstation’ conducted by Bengaluru-based Repair Café will show participants how to repair electrical and electronic household items, shoes and bags, clothes alteration, kitchen appliances and utensils, cycle, watch repair and so on. Basically, it’s about being practically skilled.
Eco-friendly cooking
Talking about practical knowledge and skill sets, ReReeti group will conduct an activity-based workshop ‘A tryst with vessels’ in which children will be introduced to different types of environment-friendly materials used for making vessels for storage and cooking. Children will be encouraged to try out some of the utensils that were traditionally used to grind, pound, and cook rice noodles.
Fantastic beasts!
‘Monsters and Other Night Creatures’ by Ana Cristina Herreros will imagine how frightening creatures that linger at night look like. Children can draw the heads, eyes, mouths and muzzles of these fascinating creatures. Participants will create masks and write about the animal habits. The session is for children between 6 and 10 years and primary school educators.
(Register ahead: Hyderabad Literary Festival 2018 will be held from January 26 to 28 at Hyderabad Public School, For a detailed schedule and to enrol in workshops, look up www.hydlitfest.org)
