Bangalore will soon reverberate with the beautiful sounds of 'Koi Sunta Hai: A Festival of Kabir', a celebration of the contemporary expressions of the 15th century mystic weaver poet Kabir. To be held at multiple venues throughout the city from February 23 to March 1, the event will offer audiences an opportunity for a festive yet critical immersion in the ideas of Kabir through a series of film screenings, live music concerts by folk, classical and Sufi singers, and exhibition and outreach events in colleges and institutes for higher education in and around the city.
The event, is organised by the Shrishti School of Art, Design and Technology along with a range of partner and support organisations and is the culmination of a six-year collaborative project supported by the Ford Foundation and directed by Shabnam Virmani, a filmmaker and artist-in-residence at Shristi.
The festival will be a chance for Bangaloreans to experience the joy of Kabir in songs, while engaging with the radically transformative power of his poetry, creating moments of reflection on ideas such as cultural identity and social divisions, topical issues with huge relevance in today’s climate.
The celebration will bring artistes from diverse musical and cultural traditions in India together in one performative space, and reflect on shared and overlapping heritage.
The singers include Sangeet Natak Academy award winning folk singer Prahlad Tipaniya from Malwa, Mukhtyar Ali, the Rajasthani Sufi singer who combines classicism with folk, Vidya Rao, who renders Kabir in the delicte Thumri-dadra style, and many others.
Karnataka’s rich, diverse and plural Bhakti and Sufi traditions will also be well represented throughout the festival with singers like Abdul Rauf and Basavalingaiah Hiremath.
The main festival is to be held on the weekend from February 27 to March 1, at Sophia High School, Palace Roa. It will consist of film screenings thematic exhibitions, carft displays, seminars and concerts by the finest Sufi and Kabir singers in the sub-continent.