Chennai’s Dakshinachitra Museum hosts language and culture festival

It’s the season for literary festivals. As bibliophiles travel across the country and cross lighted festivals off their bucket lists, his quiet two-day curation at the Dakshinachitra Cultural Heritage Museum explores all things that connect languages ​​and cultures. I praise you. This year’s annual Langfest has expanded in size and hopes to welcome a younger audience to participate in historic culture against the backdrop of a living museum.

Each year, the festival focuses on language as a lens through which to understand cultural stories. To that end, this year’s theme influences biography and autobiography.

“We are a museum in residence, so personal stories, biographies and life stories are already built into the museum perspective. This year we are leveraging the ideas of biography, autobiography and memoir to create a We wanted to understand the insights, the creative sources,” says Anitha Pottamkulam, cultural director of Dakshinachitra Museum and curator of the festival.

Day 1 begins with a conversation with Naveen Kishore, lighting designer, photographer, filmmaker, poet, and founder of Seagull Publishers, and the editor of Seagull Publishers. front line, Vaishna Roy on the theme of life stories as cultural narratives. “The session will be very interesting as Naveen will also be giving a performance devised on this theme,” Anitha said, adding that she would also have “Urvashi.” [Butalia] Zubaan and Mina’s [Kandasamy] We talk about women writing about their lives, what it means for communities to start writing and speaking out, and the huge impact it can have. ” In another session on multiple inheritance, Aniruddha Knight speaks with the curators.

The day will conclude with Chennai Kalai Kudu’s Tamil version of the play on Pallava king Mahendravarman I titled ‘Title’. Mattavilasa Prahasanam. “It’s unusual because it’s a satirical play,” says Anitha.

The second day will begin with performances by musicians and professors Vijay Karthikeyan and Prakash Ilayaraja. The “I am an Ordinary Man” session will have authors discuss the book edited by Gopal Krishna Gandhi, which is a collection of writings about Gandhi’s life after his return to India. Another panel discussion will discuss the influence of Tamil biographies, memoirs and autobiographies featuring Maa. Rajendran, Kamarajan K., and Sandhya Natarajan. The panel will be moderated by Kavitha Muralidharan.

“Another important session was with Dr. Nikita Mehra, where we look at the biography of an institution. She doesn’t think about it.Here, she looks at the life of Adyar Cancer Institute (WIA) through three characters,” Anitha added. In the next panel discussion, Janavi Faruqui, founding director of Science Her Gallery Bengaluru, will be in conversation with AS Panneer Selvan, a fellow at Rojamtiya Research Library, about scientific life and modern India.

Another discussion titled “The Labor of My Ancestors” will be led by Vijay. Anisa sets the background as follows. “He is in the process of collecting the works of Nadaswaram and Taviru artists, many of which are already lost. He literally goes door to door to collect them and also to give them a mainstream life I’m playing,” Anitha continues.

The second day ended with a rap performance that was clearly conscious of the genre being oral history. Tamil Nadu’s first all-female rap ensemble Sorisai Sisters, Shankara TPK and Akalaiva will take to the stage. The winners of Type 2024, an ongoing typeface contest that received entries from all over the country, will be announced on February 23rd.

LangFest 2024 will be held on February 23 and 24 at Dakshinachitra Museum. The event is free and open to everyone.