(2002 – ongoing)
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Stung by the devastating religious riots of Gujarat in 2002, Shabnam initiated the Kabir Project, consisting of a series of journeys in quest of the socio-political and spiritual resonances of the 15th century mystic poet Kabir in contemporary worlds, exploring how his poetry intersects with ideas of identity, nationalism, religion, death, impermanence and folk and oral knowledge systems. Inspired by the spirit of Bhakti, Sufi and Baul oral traditions, the Kabir Project team has since been engaged for over two decades in curating and re-expressing the power of this poetry through documentary films, music CDs, books, urban festivals, rural yatras, a web archive dedicated to mystic poetry called Ajab Shahar, and now a schools’ program called Shabad Shaala.
(Launched 2017)
Ajab Shahar is a ‘wondrous city’ of online poems, songs and conversations around Kabir and other Bhakti, Sufi and Baul poets, weaving together voices from Pakistan in the west to Bengal in the east. These are direct field recordings of songs and conversations from the living oral traditions of rural and urban India, which put forth the voices of poets who were fierce social iconoclasts as well as spiritual interrogators such as Kabir, Bulle Shah, Lalon Fakir and others. With an original aesthetics and interface, the site works with a visual language that intuitively draws on philosophic ideas emanating from this poetry. Currently, Ajab Shahar is a curated collection of over 200 songs, 230 couplets, 23 essays on word-themes, 80 interviews, 140 profiles of mystic poets and artists, 12 films, and 14 multi-media web stories, podcasts and illustrated essays. Our YouTube Channel titled Ajab Shahar has a dedicated and steadily rising viewership of 3.5 Lakh subscribers. (www.ajabshahar.org)
Shabad Shaala
Mystic Wisdom, Poetry and Song in the Classroom
(Current)
Shabad Shaala gives school children a unique opportunity to immerse in the wisdom of saint-poets such as Kabir, Meerabai, Ravidas, Bulleh Shah and Lalon Fakir. With folk artist mandlis visiting the schools as gurus, the experience of Sufi, Bhakti, and Baul songs enters the classroom and students embody the poems by singing them. The goal is not to become great singers of these songs but to be struck deeply by their wisdom. The layers of meanings to be experienced in these poems further unfolds through creative classroom activities involving drama, writing, illustrated wisdom tales, multimedia quizzes and games, curated by the Kabir Project team and facilitated by the school teachers.
Apart from the emotional well-being created by learning to sing these beautiful songs, slowly many lessons from the mystics begin to unfold for children in joyful and non-didactic ways – to interrogate the world but also ourselves; to question our impulse to ‘other’ people based on religion, caste or other identities; to recognise our place in nature and learn to be in consonance with it; to know the power of being content, rather than consumeristic; to know the ephemeral nature of all things and cultivate an attitude of non-attachment; to learn to quieten our monkey minds and listen to our breath. . . and in the process to appreciate the tremendous diversity of the folk music traditions, languages and dialects in which oral literatures thrive in our land. An initiative of the Kabir Project @ Srishti, Bangalore, this idea was conceived during lockdown and is currently unfolding in partnership with 25 schools and 10 folk singers’ mandlis from the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bengal.
Festivals and Yatras
Shabnam curates and organises diverse events as a critical yet joyous immersion in the ideas and music of Kabir and other Bhakti, Sufi and Baul poets, with outreach to diverse audience communities including bastis, universities & city folk. In 2009 she envisioned the first ‘Kabir Festival’, combining music concerts, discussions, film screenings, art & student interactions, which was organised by Srishti along with partners in and around the city of Bangalore.
In 2010 she worked on the rural 'Kabir Yatra' format for outreach and popularising of Bhakti Vaani traditions in regional areas, as a creative energising of the existent oral traditions in the villages. In close partnership with renowned folk singer Prahlad Tipanya in Malwa the first Malwa Kabir Yatra happened in 2010 which also included village based screenings of the Kabir documentary films.
Malwa Yatra
Film screening at Bagli
Temple Jam Photo by Hari Adivarekar
Malwa Yatra
In partnership with Lokayan, Bikaner, Rajasthan the first Rajasthan Kabir Yatra happened in 2012, and in partnership with renowned Gujarati novelist and poet Dhruv Bhatt and NGO Vishwagram, the first Gujarat Kabir Yatra happened in 2016, currently called the Vasundhara Ni Vaani.
In 2010, she curated the first Seeking the Beloved: Festival of Shah Latif which presented to urban Bangalore audiences the music and poetry of the 17th century Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai with folk musicians of Kutch, Gujarat. The translations of the songs were interwoven with narration of the famous love legends of the Sindh region on which the poetry is based.
For four editions now since 2016 in partnership with Bhoomija, Bangalore, she has curated and presented Shabad Dhun Laagi, a program featuring 2 new folk musicians every year from different parts of Malwa, Rajasthan and Kutch along with translations and interpretations of the poetry sung in the concert.