BENGALURU:Inspired by the French illusionist and film director Georges Mélies, Janet Orlene initiated the Paper Moon as a tribute to performance art. First of their monthly events was held at Koramangala Social on April 16.
“It is a platform for performers to learn, perform and grow,” says Janet, who is herself a spoken word artiste and writer. Paper Moon is her idea, a space for aspiring artists and performers to test the waters.
The event will host poets, musicians, beatboxers, actors and other forms of performance art, who will be screened through a selection process before the event. The screening will be conducted by the core members of the Inkweaver community (Janet Orlene, Daniel Sukumar, Bharath Divakar and Meera C Govindan). The Inkweaver conducts workshops for aspiring artistes.
Love and Yesterday
Each month will have a theme and sub-themes around which people will have to weave their performances. For the first edition, for example, was on Stages of Love including First Love and Turning the Page.
The launch event seems to have been a success, going by the crowd feedback. There were over 18 performances including mono acts, rap, performance poetry, singing and a drag routine. This monthly event is set to take place on every first Sunday of the month at the Koramangala Social.The theme for next month is Dear Diary, based on observations made on the world or self or a combination of both. This theme is further divided into three subcategories: Yesterday, today and tomorrow for pieces reflecting the past, present or future.
Participation is open to all interested, except there will be a selection process after enrollment. The next event will take place May 7 and the entry is free.
Jay Malaga
Jay and his friend Ranjitha presented a poem in mime. Their poem “The Lovemaking of a Snail” delves into the self-sufficiency of a snail that requires no mate. This is unlike humans who fall apart in the absence of romantic relationships. Jay is a counsellor from Philippines who also dabbles in theatre, choreography and travel.
Hamsi Radhakrishnan and Vibhu Bharadwaj
Both recited poems on their experience of first love. They weaved their verses into each other’s, that is Hamsi would say her few verses and then Vibhu and then back to Hamsi. Their chorus was ‘Love as a metaphor’, which is also the theme they picked. They are friends studying in an engineering college and were shortlisted in the top twenty-five poets in the National Youth Poetry Slam in 2016.
Ravi Ramaswamy and Sowmyashree Gonibeedu
They performed a duet ‘Eternal Love’ with Sowmyashree rapping the lyrics, with few Kannada words thrown in, to the drum beats on the djembe by Ravi. Sowmyashree is an MBA graduate who quit her corporate job to work as a freelance writer and counsellor. Ravi is a theatre artiste and a musician.
Daniel Sukumar
Daniel was called on popular demand and asked to recite another poem of his based on love. Many in the audience related to his poem “Love during the time of Insomnia”. In it, he compared love with insomnia, “the most painful experience” there is. He is presently a content writer and a mentor for NYPS (National Youth Poetry Slam).
Meera C Govindan
Meera used social media language, like hashtags, in her poem written under the #ForeverAlone theme. Through her poem, she says that the reason for loneliness is the absence of display of love.
Harshit Wadhwani
Harshit did a rap mixing English and Urdu Shayari, on the theme “Turning a page”. It was a reflection on a breakup and the inspiration was drawn from his life experience. He is a software engineer who is interning at a poetry slam.
Neil Newton
Neil told a story on a failed quest for love, using beat-boxing. It begins with a young man who enters a club hoping to find love but leaves lonely after a series of unfortunate encounters. Neil inserts relevant songs into the narration through his beatboxing.
Rakesh Regan
Rakesh did a mix of magic and mentalism, on the theme of Deep Love. He invited a couple to the stage, to test their ‘chemistry’ through techniques he devised himself using self-reflection, neurolinguistics and psychology.
Aishwarya Sainath
Aishwarya’s poem “Why we Build Monuments” was on the temporality of love. It asked why people build monuments like Taj Mahal and asked people to recognise how passing love really is. This psychology student and a trainer wants to make poetry her career.