This weekend, NCPA hosts Wild Women, a festival of poetry and music dedicated to the mystical and the female voice. Edited excerpts from an interview with curator Arundhathi Subramaniam…
Why is there a need to celebrate the feminine and the sacred?
F or one, women walk the spiritual path differently. The destination may be the same for all, but the journeys are different. Second, I believe that the voices of many women mystics have been sidelined, or else sanitised and domesticated in a host of ways by the grand narratives of religion. Thirdly, in the climate of sometimes sterile secularism that many of us inhabit today, these voices are almost completely inaudible. We know some of these women, but as decorative cultural artefacts, and little else.
Why the name, ‘Wild Women’?
I wanted to suggest that the spiritual path isn’t about treacly, sentimental, lyrical yearning. It’s fierce. It’s greedy. It’s wild. These women aren’t comfortable folk. They’re dangerous women who ask some very inconvenient questions.
When did this festival start taking shape in your head?
Last August, I think. I happened to be talking to my old friend, Dr. Suvarnalata Rao [Head of Music at the NCPA]. I mentioned my growing interest in the female voice in mystical literature. And she immediately said, “So why don’t you do a festival?” I was struck by the spontaneity and warmth of that offer. Well, here we are!
How did you go about structuring it?
I wanted a jumble of forms, tones, registers. At lit fests, I often find myself longing for the sensuousness and immediacy of music or dance, those forms that are so wonderfully unencumbered by word, that get to the point with such directness and beauty. At the same time, at performances of dance and music, I sometimes long for the crispness and clarity of the well-chosen spoken word. And besides, I believed these women mystics deserved to be spoken and sung, danced and declaimed. The specific choices were guided by two very simple criteria: I wanted artists of calibre. I also wanted artists who are asking some very real questions of themselves and their art.
Tell us a little about the events?
The fest begins with four recent major translation projects of sacred poetry: Ranjit Hoskote discussing his work on 14th-century Kashmiri mystic Lal Ded; Priya Sarukkai Chabria reading her translations of the major Tamil Vaishnava mystic, Andal; H.S. Shivaprakash discussing the women mystics in the Kannada vachana poetry tradition; and Jerry Pinto reading his translations (in collaboration with Neela Bhagwat) of the women varkari mystics of Maharashtra. We then move to a folk goddess, Yellamma, with a rousing mix of conversation and folk song. I then discuss the female body and Bhakti poetry in a session called ‘He’s My Slave.’ And that leads into ‘Bareheaded I Walk the Bazaar,’ an explosive performance of sacred music by Shruthi Vishwanath with her team, beej.
The next day: actor-filmmaker Meeta Vashisht’s She of the Four Faces , followed by a Q&A and Shabnam Virmani (musician, filmmaker, pioneer of the wonderful Kabir Project) explores how surrender and resistance are inseparable in female mystical voices. The finale is a double bill: Kalapini Komakali, acclaimed Hindustani musician, in a specially crafted concert around women mystics of Rajasthan and Maharashtra. And the musical tour de force , ‘The Threshold,’ an exploration of gender down the ages by Pallavi and Bindhumalini.
It’s been five years since you curated Stark Raving Mad, also centred around bhakti poetry, also at NCPA…
That was truly a wonderful experience. Above all, there was a certain bhava in the air. There is no way to ‘programme’ that bhava, though. So, you put the ingredients you trust in place, and then hope for grace.
Can Wild Women travel?
I haven’t given it much thought really. But yes, I suppose it would travel well, in its current form. Thank you for the suggestion. It might be worth considering.
