The idea  for this workshop is a sense of the lack of an understanding of gender in art and cultural practices.

Some of the aims and objectives that I see could be to

a.  to create an understanding of methodological frameworks within feminist practices of art and other forms of cultural production.

b. to spur and encourage cultural practitioners to think along these lines,

c. to bring about a shared communal understanding of feminist and gender politics among cultural practitioners in  South Asia.

d.To create a space for collaborative synergising among feminist artists and scholars where we could share and draw from each others work.

This draft is also at this google docs page and is open for anyone who is interested in contributing.The idea is also to pitch it to individuals who are part of organisations that are working in these areas for organisation and logistics.

Dear All,

As some of you may know, a few friends and I have started a working group called ‘The Plantation’ in order to explore interdisciplinary research in the arts, psychology, dance and performance, art history and music( along the lines of ethnomusicology).We held an event called ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ which brought together a plethora of diverse musical and performing arts traditions late last year at Kamati Bagh in collabration with MSU to commemorate Baroda Day.

‘The Plantation’ is an assortment of scholars, practitioners,artists and musicians and has been an open group where people have been walking in and out.We have an interesting history and I write this on behalf of the group in order to invite your assistance as well as involvement.

We came together because we felt a need to speak progressive secular politics in our practice and at Baroda where we have all seen and felt insecure about our political positions given the climate of fear and communal disharmony.

As of today we have a collective resource of books, a computer(everything we need to start a revolution), and we started working out of Angshuman Phukan’s apartment in Nizampura last year.And as things go with people who are at the start of their career, we tended to diverge and pursue our livelihoods.As a group now we are at a loss of a space and young blood to join us as well as think with us.We need new recruits, because given the conditions of all our lives, we need a collective intelligence as well as space in Baroda where we can operate from.

Any suggestions?

The Plantation Event at Vadodara Day.

Bringing you pictures and recordings from our event at Vadodara Day.

The Plantation was responsible for bringing two groups, one, a group of Baul fakirs from West Bengal and the other a troupe of Assamese Bihu Drummers and Dancers from the North East.

What was enriching about the experience were our collective jam sessions where we played and sang with the Folk singers leading to an intermingling of sensibilities.

We hope to create many more such music scapes adding some melody to resonate the sphere of Gujarat which sure could use it.

Our work spans diverse fields like music, art, performance,  psychology, literary and arts discourses in the Indian subcontinent.

This group blog is nourished by contributions from our team comprising of the following people:

Amitabha Adhikari,

Raheema Begum,

Angshuman Phukan,

Anupam Chakravartty,

Dipankar Gohain,

Kaustubh Das,

Saad Nawab…