Shabnam Virmani has been exploring the philosophy of Kabir, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai and other mystic poets through a deep engagement with their oral folk traditions for over two decades, ever since the riots of Gujarat in 2002 propelled her on this quest. As a filmmaker, archivist, curator and writer, her deep inspiration in this poetry and its wisdom has taken the shape of four documentary films on Kabir, a digital archive called Ajab Shahar, writing books, curating and organizing urban festivals and rural yatras, and a schools program called Shabad Shaala to infect students with the challenge and wonder of mystic poetry. Personally, she has also been inspired to start singing herself, and sings a diverse repertoire of folk songs of the mystics to both rural and urban audiences. Her two published books are 𝘐 𝘚𝘢𝘸 𝘔𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧: 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘥𝘶𝘭 𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘧 𝘉𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘪 (Penguin, 2019) and 𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘗𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘢 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴: 𝘚𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘉𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘵𝘪, 𝘚𝘶𝘧𝘪 & 𝘉𝘢𝘶𝘭 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 (Speaking Tiger, 2019) co-authored with Vipul Rikhi, and she is currently working on a third book 𝘉𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘋𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦: Provocations 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘒𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘳 (upcoming, Speaking Tiger). Her film ‘𝘒𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘢 𝘒𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘢 𝘉𝘢𝘻𝘢𝘢𝘳 𝘔𝘦𝘪𝘯’ won the Special Jury Prize at the 52nd National Awards in 2011, and the work of the Kabir Project was given the Sadbhavana Award for contributing to inter-faith understanding by Shri Morari Bapu and Vishwagram Trust in Gujarat in 2016. This work is enabled by the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, where she is located as artist in residence and the Kabir Project is housed.