[Reader-list] Learning with Kabir: Residential Workshop for Educators, Artists and Community Workers

[Chintan]

Shared by Jayashree Janardhan Ashok


LEARNING WITH KABIR

4-DAY RESIDENTIAL WORKSHOP FOR EDUCATORS, ARTISTS & COMMUNITY WORKERS





PARTICIPANTS:            20

LANGUAGE:                 English & Hindi

FACILITATORS:                        Ravi Gulati & Shabnam Virmani

ORGANIZED BY:          Commutiny-The Youth Collective & Kabir Project,
Srishti

EXPENSES:                   Participants would be required to fund their own
travel to & from the venue. Boarding, lodging and workshop expenses are
covered.

                                    (A small fund is available to cover
travel costs for some participants who are unable to afford the travel).





WORKSHOP OBJECTIVE & METHOD:



This workshop is an exploratory initiative that seeks to create a creative
and immersive experience in the poetry, music and ideas of Kabir for a group
of educators, artists and community workers, with the broad objective of
triggering new ideas for bringing the values and ideas of Kabir into the
classrooms of this country. We are defining “classroom” in the broadest
sense of the word – any setting, formal or informal, for creating learning
opportunities for older children, youth and the community.



During the workshop we will explore how Kabir’s poetry intersects with ideas
of cultural identity, secularism, nationalism, religion, death,
impermanence, folk and oral knowledge systems, music and spirituality. The
method will include poems, discussions, group exercises, films, viewing
relevant video footage and singing! At the end of four days, we hope to
emerge with a heightened awareness of ourselves, Kabir and the possibilities
of creatively communicating him to others.



We expect to brainstorm and come up with concrete learning initiatives that
may be distinct in different settings (regions/schools/communities), but
linked to and drawing energy from each other through a network. A pan-Indian
initiative to bring the voice of mystic poets into classrooms through live
folk music performances may also emerge. Since each region of the country
has its own tradition of mystic poetry, the voices included in such a
pan-Indian program could include a range of mystic poets other than Kabir.



We see this workshop as the first in a series of events & activities that
will bind together a group of motivated “educators” who commit themselves,
individually and collectively, to the many possibilities of Learning with
Kabir.



FACILITATORS:



Shabnam Virmani is a filmmaker and director of the Kabir Project at Srishti,
which has inquired into the living traditions and contemporary meanings of
Kabir through a series of journeys over the last 6 years through films,
music and books. (www.kabirproject.org)



Ravi Gulati is an educator and founder of Manzil, a non-formal learning
space for low-income youth in Delhi. He is also member of Commutiny - The
Youth Collective, a group of progressive and like-minded individuals /
organizations from across the country, who have a passion and belief in the
power of young people to bring about social change (www.commutiny.in).



Please write back with queries to: shabnamvirmani at gmail.com or
ravi at manzil.in