Sumeet Grover2013-05-21T15:59:14-04:00Sumeet Groverhttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=sumeet-groverCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Sumeet GroverGood old fashioned elbow grease.Genesis by Sebastião Salgado: Exhibition Reviewtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.33028422013-05-19T11:36:19-04:002013-05-19T16:27:56-04:00Sumeet Groverhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/sumeet-grover/ Genesis, an unfathomable eight-year long work, that took the Brazilian documentary photographer Sebastião Salgado to 32 countries, explores the earth in the way it must have originated and the way its vast undiscovered stretches have remained untouched. It asks us, the humans, to question our view of this world and our relationship with this fragile planet that is powerful enough to create, sustain as well as destroy; but it is equally powerless when stood in front of the extents to which the ignorant and self-destructive human instincts have accelerated. 200 of Salgado's photographs from Genesis are on display at the National History Museum, London, until 8th September 2013.
There are about five sections across which these photographs have been spanned out: Planet South, Sanctuaries, Africa, Amazonia and Pantanal, and Northern Spaces. As curator Lélia Wanick Salgado remarks, each of these photographs capture our world 'in all its unspoiled grandeur'. Therefore, to contemplate upon every photograph at the exhibition is a task that is better left to the audience, so that they can make sense of the associated meaning very personally. But what stands out across all these photographs is the prodigiously overwhelming beauty, landscapes and the stories Sebastião Salgado has captured from a comparably diminutive camera lens, and locked a naked majestic world in his camera shutters. There is a very inviting and entangling intimacy in all of his photographs that one can spend several hours looking at.
From a large number of extraordinary and gripping photographs in Genesis, a few of them are as follows. Volcano photographs include pictures of the lava cactus plant found on the barren lava flows at Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, vegetation on the slopes of over 4,000 metre high Muhabura volcano in Uganda, and an inside-crater view of Nyiragongo volcano at the moment of explosion at the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Tribal life around Oceania and Africa include the Yali, Korowai and San, most of whom live naked except covering their genitals; their photographs invite thought and discussion as to why thousands of women and men are raped in the world's non-tribal, developed lands. It is thrilling to see that the Korowais in West Papua, Indonesia, build wooden houses and erect them on trees that are about six to twenty-five metres tall; up to eight family members live in each house, all without many clothes or sophisticated possessions. A striking picture of a Yali father and daughter, at the same region in Indonesia, demonstrates the most important clothing for these tribes are skirts for women and kotekas or penis guards for men. Equally energetic is the picture of the San tribe men in Botswana, performing their healing or trance dance that marks their entry into the world of spirits.
A fearless and scare-some leopard, stood in the Barab River Valley, stares calculatedly at the photographer in Namibia, whilst the rarest of the three species of gorillas, the mountain gorilla enjoys a full-face photograph that vividly captures its tiniest of expressions and facial details at Mount Bisoke in Rwanda. There are relentless close-up pictures of these animals unknown, whose facial expressions not only tell us that they don't need us bigoted humans who have built nuclear weapons to destroy them, they also send us a message that they have existed for millennia on their own and will continue to do so, irrespective of whoever thinks they own the territories these creatures live upon; they are the undeniable rulers of their lands, waters, icebergs and mountains.
There is a dramatic picture of the southern right whale emitting distinctive V-shaped vapours from in front of its mouth through its two separate blow holes; the vapours rise high in the air as this creature that weights between 30 and 50 tonnes makes its way ahead in the far-stretching waters around Valdes Peninsula, Argentina. On the other hand, there are pictures in a row of the chinstrap penguins from the South Sandwich Islands; how could we have ever imagined that there are around 750,000 couples of these penguins, thousands of them photographed, on snow-captured mountains at the Zavodovski Island. These penguins, who solitarily rest upon icebergs sculpted by our frail and melting earth, inhabit a planet we are yet to comprehend, and must do so before its increasingly melting ice turns into water graveyards.
This exhibition is to be visited for every single of its 200 photographs on display. The world première of Sebastião Salgado's exhibition at the National History Museum, London, brings us an unseen ancient earth, unspoiled and magnanimous, revealing untold stories and unseen wisdom that exists on our planet to preserve our future. Salgado deserves to win not just an environmental award, but also a peace prize for his work that is pulsating with his passion to protect nature and life, and to advocate sustainability in the direct words of our planet's timeless wisdom. We should be grateful to the Brazilian mining company, Vale, for their generous support to materialise this exhibition when our own grey bar-charted economy is trimming the arts funding, like elsewhere in the world, humans are trimming forests and water resources.]]>Documentary Review - Mine: Story of a Sacred Mountaintag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.32625632013-05-12T10:46:58-04:002013-05-13T13:23:23-04:00Sumeet Groverhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/sumeet-grover/Mine: Story of a Sacred Mountain', a documentary produced by Survival International, is a record of the multi-billion pounds FTSE 100-listed British mining giant Vedanta Resources Plc with its ambitions to destroy the breathtaking beauty, culture, forests and tribal life of the Niyamgiri Hills located in eastern India in order to mine millions of tons of bauxite from these hills to produce aluminium. The film centres around a tribe called Dongria Kondh who regard the Niyamgiri Hills as an intrinsic part of their ancient religious institution, and moreover of their ancestral and ever-continuing tribal life scattered around its mountains. These mountains are their homes, their food, their livelihood, their God, their schools and their identity. In the recent years, Vedanta seems to have achieved a fruitful relationship of money and political power in a country where corruption is not only a fabric of certain sections of politics, it is also a mockery of poor Indians who will never be allowed educational or economic advancement, because for the policymakers, sustaining ignorance brings more votes.
A rich foreign corporate from Britain can fearlessly evict people out of their homes and demolish them, build roads and refineries, produce tonnes of toxic waste that leads to dead crops and unsafe drinking water, and terrorise people who speak out against them. All of this is possible in India; the film does not go into details, but it goes without saying that all of this cannot be allowed were there not support from local political power and bribery.
We live in globalised times where we have a lot in common with people across different countries; common food, clothing brands, Hollywood films, English language music, books, cars, computers and much more. But our planet is irrefutably diverse with unfathomable geography, languages, skin-tones, food, stories and it is pulsating with people who will never participate in the melting pot of globalisation because their traditions and cultures are etched in their vivid-coloured clothes, forest tools and wooden stoves.
This is what the story of the Dongria Kondh tribe is, as this immaculately directed film follows their forests, the juice that men drink from palm trees to keep them in energy whilst walking up the mountains, the crops they produce in their family lands and the axes they build to cut wood. All of these people are illiterate, but these mountains, their weather, the forests and its science are their textbooks they have mastered for countless generations. With their yellow-brown skins painted by the sweltering sun and having dressed up in bright hand-made clothes, these people talk of their determination of never allowing Vedanta to destroy their mountains, which they anciently regard as their Gods who sustain their lives.
Tense mood in the film gains momentum as it shows Vedanta's bulldozers carving out a road up the Niyamgiri Hills, with plans to evict and displace these people so that mountain-tops can be exploded to mine bauxite for producing more aluminium and thus more profits. But what stands out the most throughout the film and towards the end is the determined nonviolent resistance of these tribal people, one of whom remarks: "Vedanta does not have any right to touch our Niyamgiri mountain. Even if you cut our throats, even if you behead us, we are not going to allow this."
This film was released in 2009 but it is very relevant to be watched today and beyond because after years of legal battles, on 18th April 2013 the tribal people of Niyamgiri Hills won a ruling by the Indian Supreme Court, which upheld the rights of these tribes on these hills. It has been watched by over 600,000 people worldwide, more than 10,000 letters have been sent to the Indian government in support of Dongria Kondh, and over $40m have been divested by Vedanta shareholders in the company. Critiques of Vedanta's unethical practices in Indian mining operations also include the Norwegian and British governments. The film ends with the following words: "We asked Vedanta Resources plc for their response to this film. We received no reply."]]>40 Days: Art Exhibition Reviewtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.30775262013-04-13T18:58:28-04:002013-04-15T13:57:56-04:00Sumeet Groverhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/sumeet-grover/40 Days', created by an Israeli-Palestinian artist, Dor Guez. Guez has used photography archives and documentary film-making as means to capture the history, endurance and presence of the Palestinian-Christian community within the Israeli city of Lod, which was previously known by its Arabic name of Al-Lydd. His mother's family was one of the few Palestinian Christians to remain in Al-Lydd when over 20,000 Palestinians were driven out around the 1948 war, whilst his father's family heritage was that of Jewish-Tunisians who immigrated into the newly formed state of Israel in the 1950's.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, a key belief about death has it that souls of the deceased wander on the Earth for 40 days after death, until the ascension of the soul occurs. Special prayers are offered at the grave-site as well as at the church to mark the end of these 40 days. For the artist to title this exhibition as '40 Days' and given the context of the faded Palestinian-Christian population around 1948, the audience are invited to put together many destroyed, or perhaps 'dead' puzzles of the Palestinian-Christian story in Lod. Even after carefully examining the photographs in the exhibition, we will merely begin to make sense of the extent of unequal rights these people must have lived through for several decades and continue to do so.
The opening space of '40 Days' features two photographs of the first Christian wedding that took place in Lod after 1948. These pictures, where we see the bride surrounded by a noteworthy number of people in the backdrop of shattered buildings, depict Palestinian people determined to carry forward their traditions even after what was their land was now part of Israel having most of their own people driven out. It is important to note that the use of these photographs as the starting point stresses an important message by the artist that Palestinian Christians in Israel are still and will always be wedded to their traditions, history and community.
The main exhibition room features stories of destruction of both Christian and Palestinian identities. On the walls, we have pictures of hate messages against Palestinian Christians in the form of vandalism of their ancestors' graves in a cemetery in Lod to the extent that skulls and bones are visible in open air. Through the medium of these photographs, which were presented to the Israeli police for investigation of the cemetery vandalism, the artist explains how these photographs captured the truth and a message of justice not only in pictorial form, but also in the way these pictures were folded, torn and stored by the police, who failed to find the perpetrators.
It is most admirable that the artist does not choose to draw divisions between different communities in and around Lod or between Israelis or Palestinians, Jewish or Christians; after all, the artist represents all four of these communities. These photographs are merely used in the context of capturing a story and to encourage the audience to question why do the identities of culture, nationalism, religion or beliefs become so strong and divisive that people feel the urge to humiliate death. They also question whether it is human to do so and whether Palestinian Christians or for that matter, any ethnic or religious community deserves to experience this.
On the floor of the main exhibition room, there are several panels on tripods, where each panel displays archives of 'British Passports' held by Palestinians, pre-1948 when they enjoyed easy travel in the Middle East, exhibiting immigration stamps of Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan etc. There was also an exchange of culture and ideas within these countries. It is deplorable that whilst speaking for the rights of Palestinians in Israel, the artist would choose to reminisce the British colonial past. But what comes out of these archives is that the Palestinians in general as well as Palestinian Christians had more rights during the colonial time than what they now have as citizens of Israel.
Further on, this exhibit also features two documentary films of around eight minutes and fifteen minutes in two different theatre rooms. Whilst the second documentary records one woman's recollections of dead family members, their destroyed graves and her resigned acceptance, the first one in particular is bright and inspiring. It tells the story of an Israeli-Palestinian family, who choose to be 'smart' rather than being 'right' in Israel where they represent a minority community. There is certainly an irony in this film because this family cannot be 'right', as they put it, which is to express their Palestinian traditions and beliefs, but it is equally inspiring and beautiful as they trace some Palestinian cultural stories being adapted by the Israeli's into their own interpretation. Therefore, as Israeli-Palestinians they enjoy the paradox of having lost a part of themselves, by using creativity and optimism to re-discover it in a different culture.
The central theme of this exhibition is to contemplate the loss and the future of a minority community in Israel, represented by the artist's mother's lineage. But in his work, Dor Guez simply chooses to question the human nature behind construction and destruction of identities, without any divisive thinking whatsoever. Guez is as Israeli, as Palestinian, as Jew and as Christian as anyone else. He embodies an artist of conscience before being an Israeli-Palestinian artist.]]>Focal Points: Art and Photography Exhibition Reviewtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.30018972013-04-02T18:12:42-04:002013-04-03T08:29:20-04:00Sumeet Groverhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/sumeet-grover/Focal Points: Art and Photography exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery achieves in an ample floor space where we can move back and forth to examine these photographs and question our perceptions, about ourselves and how we choose to relate to external images.
This exhibition has been on display since 17th May 2012 and has well deserved to continue over several months in a public art gallery, free of charge, to offer its visitors understanding of the depth and breadth of artistic thought that manages exercising the mechanism of perception, utopia and interpretation of events in our life placed within social context.
Feminist thought is evident in the photographs of Jananne Al-Ani and Pushpamala N. Al-Ani, as a half Iraqi and half Irish woman, questions the portrayal of middle-eastern women by Western photographers where the stereotypes of long dresses, head scarves and faces lacking much expression support the prevalence of the imbalance of power between men and women. Challenging stereotypes, she contemplates whether it is the men and the camera who are instruments of control and manage to turn these women of vitality into powerless beings.
Pushpamala, a 'performance photographer' performs in her own photography as different characters. Three of her photographs on display show her in Christian, Muslim and Hindu wedding dresses where the first two dresses conceal her face whilst the third one is of a bride with her back towards the camera, suggesting perpetual shyness preventing her from revealing her face. She successfully manages an intelligent and intended parody of the portrayal of Asian women; humour turns her message ever bold without the need for much explanation.
An unvarnished self-portrait of John Coplans (1920-2003) displaying his very hairy body folded in a shape is his attempt to confront the social views of old age and wrinkled body as 'ugly'. Our perceptions covered by the posters of gym toned bodies and skinny clothes would initially find it hard to glare at Coplans' photograph, but locked in this picture is an underlined message of accepting oneself exactly how we are.
Photographs do not always capture a snapshot of the real world and can be manipulated, reveals the work of Melanie Manchot, who used the Russian tradition of group photography by assembling strangers in public places where photography is restricted and asked them to pose candidly. Most strangers or groups look in different directions, giving the impression of a real event captured by the camera, but she proficiently achieves a pulse of interconnection amidst parallel stories within the picture.
The most distinct and uplifting of these images is the one of Donald Rodney (1961-1998), titled 'In the House of My Father'. A sufferer of sickle cell anaemia, Rodney took portions of his skin removed during medical treatment to build a tiny house-shaped model and held it on his palm in this picture. It is not just photography but artistic and transformative thought at its play as Rodney's hand is pictured as much larger than the house, built from his skin, where he feels unsafe and uncomfortable. This photograph is the one to leave a lasting and inspiring impact, and there are several more pictures in this exhibition by different photographers to look out for.]]>My Neighbourhood: An Israel-Palestine Documentary Reviewtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.29826992013-03-30T00:11:43-04:002013-03-31T04:30:35-04:00Sumeet Groverhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/sumeet-grover/My Neighbourhood is a short documentary film that records four different stories at crossroads between Israeli West Jerusalem and the occupied Palestinian town of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. It is not the sole Palestinian town to be occupied by Israel against international laws; it is the two unforeseeable forces of change converging, along with one antagonistic force of occupation bringing slow revolution in this town that directors Julia Bacha and Rebekah Wingert-Jabi have captured.
If I were to rename this film, I would call it 'It is my home; I won't leave it', an uncompromising message used by Sheikh Jarrah's people to hold nonviolent demonstrations against the illegal occupation and forced-eviction from their own homes. But Bacha and Wingert-Jabi achieve much more than merely one-sided view of the conflict. As filmmakers, they exhibit an exemplary approach to examination of reality in the face of this decades-long political conflict by offering an equal stage to all perspectives, from Palestine and from Israel. In this documentary and through its title, 'My Neighbourhood', they bring together the contradictory forces of occupation, resistance, powerlessness and indifference, which is what West and East Jerusalem represent.
It could be said that this film is about Mohammed El Kurd, a boy around thirteen years old who has grown up watching Israeli settlers with court orders to occupy his neighbours' homes and also his own home that his grandmother, Rifka El Kurd, has inhabited for 54 years. He has many unanswered questions such as how can people be violently thrown out of their own homes so that the police can let people from across the border to settle in. Perhaps his questions do not have any answers because whilst there are laws that protect the rights of Israeli people and allow occupation based on their belief that the bible states East Jerusalem as a Jewish land, there are no laws that protect Palestinian people. Rifka's silence and mistrust against Israelis speaks what many Palestinians feel; powerless on their own land and in their own homes.
Mohammed comes of age, learns about left and right politics, participates in nonviolent demonstrations and transforms his hatred of the Israelis as brutal settlers into the understanding that there are all kinds of people in countries, good and bad ones. His hatred is also transformed into hope and trust after meeting Zvi Benninga, his sister and others from West Jerusalem, who choose to give up being bystanders to injustice caused by their own government and awaken their conscience to the violence against Palestinians. Zvi and his sister also manage to convert their father from a person who fears challenging the system to someone who now participates in demonstrations in Sheikh Jarrah in support of Palestinians. Their father, who is a child of holocaust survivors, recalls that it was righteous people who saved his parents and declares that 'just and righteous and brave people can make a difference' as he chooses this path himself in the backdrop of his children being arrested several times by the Israeli police for carrying out nonviolent demonstrations.
In this film, we are questioned to think why would Israeli politics allow the on-going and ever expanding occupation of Palestinian towns and cities? Perhaps it is too hard to believe that such a thing could happen. At this point, Bacha and Wingert-Jabi uphold responsible filmmaking and facts-reporting by giving an equal stage to Yonatan Yosef, one of the Israeli settlers in Sheikh Jarrah, who fondly stands over a hill, points out to the town and wishes that one day all of East Jeruslem will be occupied by the Jewish. A record of this storyline shows Palestinians being forcefully pushed out of their homes and Israeli men chanting slogans 'in blood, in fire, we will kick out the Arabs'.
The film ends by reflecting upon a revolution happening in Sheikh Jarrah. On one hand, it is a revolution happening for Israelis like Yonatan Yosef, for whom the dream of occupation is constantly being materialised. On the other hand, it is a revolution happening for Israelis like Zvi Benninga who are increasing in numbers against their own country's injustice. Meanwhile, the most important of all nonviolent revolutions continue in Palestine; a revolution in the life of Mohammed El Kurd, a young boy who dreams to be a lawyer one day so that he can fight for his family's right to claim back half of their house occupied by Israeli settlers.]]>Our World Is Not Black and White: A Poetry Book Reviewtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.28935742013-03-16T21:44:28-04:002013-05-16T05:12:02-04:00Sumeet Groverhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/sumeet-grover/
On one hand, poetry of trauma offers the process of healing a psychologically wounded mind for those who have been subjected to mentally constricting and damaging behaviour from trusted relationships or even repeated exposure to violence. On the other hand, it needs caution if such poetry is widely promoted to a large audience, because in some of such works, the distinction between real and unreal can be diminished. Therefore, it can end up selling a view of the author's mentally constructed reality where the real is generalised to be oppressive, abusive and violent, whilst victimhood is promoted as new knowledge that demands attention and action. Unfortunately, the winner of 2012 New York Book Festival poetry category, a self-published book, represents the latter category of the poetry of trauma.
In the UK and perhaps in most parts of the world, this book with a controversial title, 'N*gger for Life', would be unknown. At first I chose not to learn more about this book; its title uses a word that is deeply and historically offensive. Prizes and awards should not matter beyond a point, especially if we are to find a sound philosophical direction to examine social conflicts with the view of building a common ground and to bring about a transformation in social beliefs.
My own view of the world is that I see people as colourless; I see them entirely as individuals. But what caught my further attention was that it was written by an American man of African origin, and that the title really interprets his own view of what he terms as 'Racist America' where he would always be treated like a citizen with appalling civil rights because of his colour.
Neal Hall, the author, believes that as a Black American, he is destined to live like a 'N*gger for Life'. At this point, I could not stop to question what view of reality the author holds. Where is the author's thick dividing line between personal experiences and generalisations on an entire nation? Does he see himself as an individual first or as a man of colour first? Has his identity of colour been so deeply attacked that his view of his own individuality is damaged for life? What is reality and what is not: When this line blurs, an intense state of trauma begins.
This book is a collection of poetry of trauma of this American man, who because of his ethnic and cultural origins has suffered deeply rooted prejudice, discrimination and horrific behaviour by, in his own repeated words, 'White America'. It needs an intense amount of attention and patience to read a record of different degrees and forms of divisions between Black and White America from the author's world view. The scale at which the author portrays 'White America' as a socially manipulative institution that continues to orchestrate discrimination against 'Black America' is phenomenal and certainly comes across as questionable.
Returning to the examination of poetry of trauma, it can be said that this book does embody such a work, but it is a trauma that has lost distinction between personal violent experiences and a national generalisation of 'White America'. It is most genuinely commendable that given the intensity of racial discrimination faced, the author chose to pick up his pen and skillfully write some strongly moving pieces about his experiences instead of choosing violence. However, I would still not recommend this book.
Our world is not black and white. It is also not brown or something else. We, the human beings, have the capacity to transform conflicts with creativity, dialogue, understanding, compassion and empathy. We do not need to go to the extent that this book goes to by drawing dividing lines between black and white America. We have much more meaningful as well as enjoyable poetry that can nurture our minds.]]>Art From Iran Exhibition: A Review from Edinburghtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.28320642013-03-07T17:54:50-05:002013-05-07T05:12:01-04:00Sumeet Groverhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/sumeet-grover/Art from Iran' exhibition. In merely seven objects dating between 13th to 21st first century, this exhibition captures volumes of beliefs, mythologies, monarchy, traditions and the poor as well as the riches of a nation where artistic craftsmanship, expression and their advancement was an integral part of society. There is explanatory text accompanying each object on display, along with banners describing further historical as well as cultural context of the arts in Iran across last eight centuries. Amongst several other purposes, the arts have been used in Iran to infuse Islamic thought and philosophy into contemporary life, and they have also been used as a means of encouraging dialectical thinking on the changes that have occurred in society.
Surrounded by enormous natural light in a dedicated space at the museum, each object at this exhibition embodies the culture, creativity, social dialogue and history that the Iranian civilisation has experienced in the past; even though its present is embroiled in the dictatorial ideas of a regime that is swift to regard freedom of speech and democratic thought as 'crimes against God' (Moharebeh), leading to imprisonment, torture and even execution.
One of these objects, a ceramic water pipe base with painted images, shows us how people of the past indulged in enticing extravagance of a possession that four centuries later we can only smile at. It is an important lesson for our highly evolved societies where we are still equally enticed by present-day insatiable consumer culture.
This ceramic water pipe base from 17th century makes us think of how infectious the indulgence of smoking tobacco through water pipes attached to these bases must have been, and equally, what value the artistic expression on these bases would have held for people. These were bought by the poor and the rich alike, where the former went to the extent of having to save money to buy luxurious ones.
Moving further, a brass comb case from mid-19th century narrates the Iranian mythological tale about a lion killing a snake-like dragon to assert its power over the creature that was thought to be a destructive force. The tale goes on to liken the lion to a king who would slay such a dragon to re-assure his people of his power to govern them. For a dramatic story like this to be etched on such an everyday object can be seen as a subliminal love of mythological tales as well as of the institution of monarchy. Images from this tale are visible on the comb case in the form of multi-layered carving that is thought to have evolved in Iran around 16th and 17th centuries.
Also not to be missed is the large-sized ceramic serving dish from mid-17th century, which features images painted on geometrical patterns. Such an artwork draws upon certain Islamic beliefs of capturing patterns from the natural world into art objects to remind us about an order inbuilt into the world by God. Although I have differing artistic opinions, where I believe that the arts should be free of set patterns and should be interpreted freely and phenomenologically, I still found this artwork as visually engaging. Further on, the most important result of this large-sized serving dish is the cultural story that it carries. It is the story of togetherness, of opening one's home to others, and dining with friends, family and neighbours.
With careful attention in the very relaxing atmosphere of this exhibition, many such stories of Iran, its traditions and its people can be found in the minute details of these objects. They capture the history of a nation free to express, and I hope one day the young people of Iran currently in a strict state of censorship will once again enjoy a continuation of their rich past.]]>Dylan Thomas: The Man & Myth Exhibition at Swanseatag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.25162752013-01-20T12:44:18-05:002013-03-22T05:12:01-04:00Sumeet Groverhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/sumeet-grover/permanent exhibition on the life, works and influence of the famous Welsh poet.
"It is the record of my individual struggle
from darkness towards some measure of light."
- Dylan Thomas, Poetic Manifesto 1951.
Thomas was not a mere dreamer or a solitary poet who rolled out few hundred verses and faded into oblivion. The work of Dylan Thomas is very engaging and very appealing to most people, including those who might view poetry as an elitist art or a literary form divorced from the real world. He wrote on themes such as life, death, sex, nature, love, childhood and madness, all of which can be found in this exhibit.
This permanently housed exhibition is an unparalleled one to be seen anywhere, not only for the giant portrayal of a poet's life on grand walls, but also for the stories of his rise to international fame, his poetry readings in USA, the depth and breadth of his poetic works, his affair with alcohol and the speculation surrounding his relationships with women. An important finding that must also be noted in this exhibition is that even though all of Thomas' work was apolitical, he had a brief involvement during the World War II to draft propaganda scripts for the Ministry of Information. This finding is a significant encouragement for the scholars of arts and peace in particular to further investigate the use of poetry and poetic fame in general during international conflicts, like music as an art has for decades been used towards this end in military music, along with 'war songs' where mothers encourage their sons to be brave soldiers and to kill.
For tourists to Swansea, poetry enthusiasts or even published poets, why should they visit this exhibition? It is because in this magnificent and perfectly organised exhibition, Thomas stands out as a British poet of unrivalled fame. An exhibition must make us think, it must show us a side of the world and of people that we have never seen before or we may not come across in the future. The following verses of Dylan Thomas make us deeply think, and also invite us to learn more about his work and his life:
"... a poet is a poet
for such a very
tiny bit of his life
for the rest,
he is a human being..."
- Dylan Thomas, Poets on Poetry, 1946
For those who might think they need more of Thomas' poetry outside this exhibition, they will find his verses all over the centre of Swansea alongside sculptures in public places, and a warm welcome from his words engraved on a pillar at the Swansea rail station. Whilst his words from the exhibition will leave our hearts enriched, the City of Swansea has set a very important example of taking the less appreciated art of poetry to freely accessible public spaces.]]>Peace Camps of Multicultural Britaintag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19640992012-10-13T18:12:07-04:002012-12-13T05:12:01-05:00Sumeet Groverhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/sumeet-grover/
Multiculturalism is also evident in Britain's towns where one can never fall short of curry houses, pizzerias or oriental food restaurants. But that does not rule out the challenges multiculturalism and diversity bring forth, with recent years' statistics indicating that one in four children now born in the UK have at least one foreign parent.
These challenges include the geographical connections that the names, faces, skin, food, and schools of thought raise, along with stereotypes, stigma or prejudice attached with those regions. The challenges also include important concerns of British people such as the changing ethnic make-up of the nation, as well as the acceptance of British values. Meanwhile, research has shown that black people are 30 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by the police, and Baroness Warsi in one of her 2011 speeches outlined that Islamophobia has passed the dinner-table test, suggesting that it is both an existing and acceptable practice.
Given these challenges, contemplating the need for cohesion within multiculturalism is not the same as promoting immigration; the latter is completely the choice of people based on the political parties they vote for, and the policies that are set out. If we switch our focus to Britain and its children, who are from native British, mixed as well as foreign descent, how can we as a society ensure that we are in progress towards a future where every child will feel emotionally secure and connected in this country irrespective of their genetic heritage?
One can often notice TV programmes, where these issues are debated and highlighted. But is sheer debate and no dialogue, to reach a common ground, enough? If there is one platform, that can take us to a different place, both within our minds and externally, then it has to be the arts. Theresa Wolfwood, the Canadian poet and a long term campaigner for Palestine, in one of her letters to me suggested that poetry is not just a therapeutic tool to heal people and societies; poetry should have the capacity to 'take us to a different place'. 'A different place' is exactly what people went into at the seven Peace Camps created outside London's Southbank Centre, on 4th October, the National Poetry Day.
These tents exhibited the works of over 400 children and young people from throughout Britain, who met together in several encampments to create poetry and other artworks on the themes of love poetry and celebration of Britain's beautiful coastlines. If the process of creating poetry can really facilitate mutual understanding, inclusiveness and dialogue at grass-roots level, then this is exactly what one could see between the words and behind the lines as I read the poems and verses in these Peace Camps.
Additionally, if multicultural Britain is very much alive and being constructed, then these Peace Camps firmly attested to it. There were poems about children loving their fathers and mothers, and then there were also poems about young people loving their friends, boyfriends and girlfriends. Love is a clichéd subject in poetry, and not one that would catch much attention, at least in the publishing world, but the message of love in these Peace Camps, by the children of Britain had no colours, no geographical connections, and no distinguishable features.
The challenges of multiculturalism and inclusiveness are constantly being transformed in Britain at various levels, and also because the children from these Peace Camps have shown us through poetry that beneath their identities and their heritage, they connected to a very desirable and touchable human emotion of love. At the centre of these challenges, these children have also shown us that if a nation must really think of shaping its future, then it cannot do so without the passion and power of its young people.]]>The Hidden Face of Indian Democracytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.14319702012-04-17T13:36:25-04:002012-06-17T05:12:01-04:00Sumeet Groverhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/sumeet-grover/
One might be taken by shock, because as it is known to the world, India is the world's biggest democracy, but barricades have blocked as many as 10,000 villagers around Koodankulam from access to the outside world, with food, water and electricity supplies cut off to them, which affects men, pregnant women and children. To add to this, all of these on-going abuses of Article 19 (Clause 1) of the Indian Constitution as well as Article 19 and 20 of the UN Declaration of Human rights are being kept as a closely guarded secret since police have stopped Indian as well as foreign media from any coverage of isolating its own people on a large scale.
But in spite of thousands of security forces marching around these 10,000 villagers, in the age of Internet, no amount of injustice and behind-the-scene stories go untold, as in the face of life threats, letters by some key people are being sent out to the international peace research community with desperate cries to protect their lives and speak out for them.
So why is the Indian government voting for slow death of thousands of these people, many of whom are fasting unto death, scenes which invoke horrific images of opt-in suicides, when these same people voted for the government in power?
The peaceful and non-violent protests, Gandhian resistance, carried out by these people are in protest of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP), which is on the verge of being commissioned on the sea-coast that has a history of tsunami and tremors, and as many as 1 million people live within 30km radius with hundreds living within half a mile of the plant. Not only is this plant prone to earthquakes, the Indian government has also kept the safety assessments of the plant as a close secret, raising several life-critical questions, in response to which, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has accused NGO's from the US and Scandinavia to be instigating these protests, and upon repeated challenges to reveal the names of these NGO's or resign as the PM, he has failed to provide evidence for his false accusations against his own people.
Every day the police beat some of these non-violent protesters, file legal cases against shop-keepers for not opening their shops in protest, and force fishermen to go by the sea to send out a message of normalism to the world. Meanwhile, hundreds still remain arrested for demanding transparency and democratic involvement, and the government has filed legal cases of "waging a war against the State" against its non-violent leaders. Is this not déjà vu? China or Burma?
Being in Britain, with enormous amounts of rights guaranteed by the British as well as EU laws, it is perhaps difficult for us to empathise with these people, about 70% of whom are illiterate and cannot go to Twitter or YouTube, like the youth during the height of Arab Spring did. But as I read disturbing letters by some key activists writing under life threat day after day, I wonder if we in Britain can do something to give voice and justice to these people who would either die on a fast-unto-death or in the backyard of a nuclear plant? This, is the real hidden face of Indian democracy, which we will not find in the recent "Incredible India!" adverts on Sky News.
On a closing note, as a poet, I certainly have pressed ahead with 'Poetry In Resistance' for the people of Koodankulam on the Global Poetry site.]]>
