Cultures of Peace: Festival of the Northeast

Venue: Pune, Mumbai, Guwahati

Conceptualised and produced by Preeti Gill and Mary Therese Kurkalang,Festival Directors, the Cultures of Peace festival is a three way collaboration between Zubaan, the Heinrich Boell Foundation andKhublei. Now in its third edition, the festival has been growing each year and brings together writing, music, film, theatre, media, photography etc. It aims to showcase the cultures of the Northeast and foreground important and pertinent discussions, to build bridges and make connections with the rest of India, and to create awareness of the region, both historically and in its present day context.

In 2014, the main two- day festival will be held in Pune, the city which witnessed the exodus of large numbers of North easterners, as a result of the rumours spread by sms messages in 2012. The festival is dedicated to Sharmila Rege(1964–2013) Phule-Ambedkarite feminist and pedagogue, and Irom Sharmila the ‘Iron Lady of Manipur’ on hunger strike since 2 November 2000.

In PUNE the festival will comprise panel discussions organised in collaboration with the Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule, Women’s Study Centre – Pune University, whichwill focus on human rights and women’s issues in the Northeast, Kashmir, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.The evening programmes will include, a session with authors from the Northeast & music by the Tetseo Sisters, and a preview performance of ‘AAYADAN’ directed by Sushama Deshpande, taking place in the heart of the city, hosted by The Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts at the Vishwabhavan Auditorium. In partnership with FTII, film screenings are being organised which include films from Tripura, Manipur and Assam. ‘Asomi’- an Assamese group, has joined hands with us to support the programme in Pune. In MUMBAI, in collaboration with the KALA GHODAFESTIVAL, the festival will bring together ten writers and Tripura’s rapper, Borkung Hrangkhawlaka BK who will set the tone for an evening in the lawns of the David Sassoon Library. In GUWAHATI, within the framework of theIndian Association of Women’s Studies conference at Cotton College, the festival will host an evening of writings by women with 14 writers from the different states of the Northeast, and will include fiction, non-fiction,folk story writers, poets, historians and journalists.