An online course exploring songs of women mystics of South Asia. Through learning the songs of 5-6 poets including Meerabai, Janabai, Akka Mahadevi and others, participants will get an insight into the diverse expressions of bhakti by the mystics, their ways of asserting agency, and their navigation of society and self. While a lot of poetry by women has been extensively translated into English, in the oral traditions it is the singing of this poetry that truly keeps the poetry alive.

Duration: 8 weeks
Frequency: Every Monday from April 8, 2024, 6 – 7:30 PM IST
Format: Interactive and performance-based engagement
Pre-requisite: Passion for creative pursuits
Fees: INR 6000 + GST

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Sing at least 5-6 songs by prominent women poets.
• Appreciate creative forms of expression not merely as a static canon, but as a much more complex, living and orally transmitted tradition.
• Gain the ability to contextualise women's works as a quest to carve out alternate space in a given historical period, negotiating their agency within society, polity, relationships and religion.

This is essentially an interactive and performance-based course to be delivered via Zoom. The instructor will encourage students to sing works by select poets and explore their distinctive features, encompassing literary and philological merit.

April 22, 2024, 6 – 7:30 PM IST: Introduction to the women mystics

April 29, 2024, 6 – 7:30 PM IST: Meerabai

May 6, 2024, 6 – 7:30 PM IST: Janabai Bhakti's myriad forms

May 13, 2024, 6 – 7:30 PM IST: Bhakti's myriad forms

May 20, 2024, 6 -7:30 PM IST: Akka Mahadevi

May 27, 2024, 6 -7:30 PM IST: Muktabai

June 3, 2024, 6 -7:30 PM IST: Women's voices in bhakti

June 10, 2024, 6 -7:30 PM IST: Sakhubai

SHRUTHI VEENA VISHWANATH

Singer, Songcatcher, Stirrer of herstories
Educator, Curator

Shruthi Veena Vishwanath's practice celebrates mystic music traditions from South Asia and beyond. She has composed and researched extensively on folk, spiritual and mystic songs of west, south-west and central India. Trained in classical music for many years, she later dived deep into the roots of mystic traditions, travelling and learning from traditional practitioners in rural areas, especially in the Malwa region, Bengal and Maharashtra. Shruthi has performed at festivals and venues across the world, including at the Kabir Festival Mumbai, Jaipur Literature Festivals in Jaipur and USA, Kochi Muziris Biennale, India Habitat Centre, and the NCPA. She has spoken on music and poetry at leading universities - including UC Berkeley and IITB, and received multiple grants for research and performance from the India Foundation for the Arts, Sandbox Collective, IAPAR, and Art Omi. She currently leads an inclusive online community for song-learning called Music in the Machan, and curates on-ground experiences connecting artists and audiences.