To celebrate its seventeenth year, Katha invites you to KathaAsia: CITY STORIES . Writing the City . Transforming the City.
KathaAsia is seen as an open meeting place for creative people from Asia, designed for reflection, discussion and debate and a free exchange of ideas. Its nested colloquia provides spaces for formal and informal interactions between participating writers, artists, musicians, painters, poets and filmmakers as well as students drawn from across India and from its neighbouring South Asian countries. Student groups of 25 each, writers and academics groups of 5-10 each will make the discussions
We believe that ideas for transforming the city lie beyond and in front of the podium, too. Hence a cafe ethos. Sessions take wing from the keynotes by writers, social entrepreneurs and community activists. School and college students share the tables with more experienced participants, contributing to nd partaking of the collective wisdom. Each table will have paper available to note down the minutes of the round table colloquia by the group's ad-hoc, group-chosen rapporteur..
Part of the debate about diversity and identity in today’s India revolves around complex issues of onus and ownership. Within India, a nation whose cultural heritage throws up new elements every 200 metres —we recognize a great many cultures that live and let others live. The academic colloquium brings scholars, writers and academics and students together to discuss the many issues that face us when we look at diversity and identity issues in the 21st century. This debate is a crucial one in many cultures throughout the world today. In India, the debate promises to impact the way we educate our future decision makers. As well as to find an answer to the questions — If there is indeed something called an Indian culture, who gets to decide what it is made up of? For many of us, what is at stake is the character of our identity.
The Katha Story Festival once again brings together thought leaders, writers, scholars and intellectuals in discussion over issues that concern college and civil society. A multi-disciplinary research forum that provides in-depth considerations on the different ethical issues and challenges presented in the area of humanities and education. It wants to promote quality interaction and encounters among its participants, academics who are interested in the humanities and the carefully chosen invited speakers, renowned experts in the field.
We know that we are not always able to create the public sphere where senior citizens and children participate in the dialogue equally. And KathaAsia provides just that. An egalitarian space for sharing ideas on what we care about. Our cities!
CREATING A COMMUNITY OF CULTURES: The Katha Story Festival and Culture Colloquium hopes to foster cultural exchanges between India and Europe as much as within India. The larger objective is to create an “India of the People,” by bringing together storytellers, academics and scholars from the different linguistic cultures of India. Writing the City . transforming the City celebrates Katha’s seventeen years of solid work in the literacy to literature spectrum, in the culturelinking to community revitalization continuum.
In this festival, we bring in a myriad exciting voices, so that we can hear ourselves in our many voices.
For registration forms and more information to —
the Katha City Stories Secretariat . katha@katha.org
or write to us at a3 sarvodaya enclave . sri aurobindo marg . delhi110017 . India
tel: 91-11-2652.4350, 2652.4511, 2652.1752, 5182.9998; Fax: 2651.4373
