Beats, Bhakti and Bauls: Ginsberg at 100 Goes Back to India

Leading Beat poet Allen Ginsberg’s South Asian inspirations were manifold. He travelled to India and Bangladesh twice in the 1960s-70s, collaborated with avant-garde Bengali poets of the Hungry Generation, raised consciousness of the suffering caused by the Bangladesh Liberation War and wrote poetry inspired by Bengali mystics such as Lalon Fakir. Saudha Society of Poetry and Indian Music celebrates Ginsberg’s birth centenary with an innovatory exploration of these connections. Among others Indian classical vocalist Chandra Chakraborty, poet and singer T M Ahmed Kaysher, semi-classical vocalist Amith Dey, performance poet Shree Ganguly, Bengali folk and Tagore singer Sahana Bajaie and Matthew Pritchard from the School of Music will be reciting, dramatizing and discussing Ginsberg’s poetry, presenting mystical songs by Lalon, Kabir and Hason and spiritual and semi-classical forms from bhajan to thumri.

The event is hosted by Saudha Society of Poetry and Indian Music (www.saudha.org) in collaboration with the Music Department of Leeds University.

Saudha is a leading platform for South Asian as well as other global classical arts, critically acclaimed for its experimental productions seamlessly merging poetry, music and painting in complementarity. Saudha has attracted diverse audiences from different heritages through its presentations mingling and bridging arts from different corners of the world. Saudha's productions Frida Kahlo Through Indian Classical Music and Songs of Sringar and Seduction at the Royal Albert Hall were highly praised by prominent ethnomusicologists, music and literature connoisseurs of the city and beyond. Saudha's Lyrics of Love at the South Bank Centre and at Edinburgh Fringe, Chayanaut through Sebastian Bach at the House of Commons, and Taste of Twilight at ICCR, Kolkata and the Welsh Parliament have also received media acclaim. More on www.saudha.org.