Our Folk Safar Initiative

 Our Folk Safar Initiative

Contributed by Madhura Dutta

Throughout 2020, Covid-19 and its associated lockdowns, travel bans, cancellation of fairs, festivals and collaborations, etc., have severely impacted the lives and livelihoods of rural folk artists in India. Vulnerable at the best of times, the crisis increased their economic, social and emotional despair, marginalisation and uncertainties manifold. As travel and markets are slowly opening up, there is an urgent need to support and boost the businesses and opportunities of these artists so that they can recover from the huge losses they incurred and get back to their usual livelihoods. To this end, banglanatak dot com, a 20 year old UN-accredited Social Enterprise specializing in Culture & Development, facilitated a series of local festivals since the beginning of 2021 and also developed free live cultural spaces for these folk artists to engage regularly with buyers, markets and audiences.

Banglanatak dot com has created two active community art spaces at Jaipur and Goa with the name 'Folk Safar' where exhibitions, performances, workshops, lecture sessions, and film showcasings are ongoing. Various rural traditional artist groups from Rajasthan, Bengal and Bihar, the areas we work in for strengthening rural creative enterprises, are  participating. Each group has a fourteen to twenty day period at these spaces to directly sell, perform, and build their networks with buyers and clients. The travel, stay and promotion of the artists are being fully supported by the organization so that they can make the most of their opportunities and maximize profits to be able to recuperate faster.

 

Folk Safar Jaipur kicked off from 1st March at a beautiful open area at Krishna Niwas (G-15 Krishna Marg, C-Scheme) which has spaces for set-up of handicrafts artists, a built-in stage, and a cafe. Here, regular folk programmes and handicraft exhibitions/ demonstrations/ sales have been planned, with the idea of providing the artists with a platform to interact with the audience, sell products, and establish direct market linkages. It also gives an opportunity for  local art and music lovers and residents to know more about these intangible cultural heritages of the country. The handicraft artists from Bengal and Rajasthan started showcasing their products from 1st March, and the Manganiyar artists from Sheo, led by renowned vocalist Dada Khan Manganiyar performed over the first weekend of 5-7 March.

 

These folk artists greatly benefitted from this space with excellent sales and direct connects with buyers, customers and audiences. Over a period of ten days there was a total direct sale of more than Rs 1.4 Lac, in addition to buyer-linkages by four handicraft artists including a Kantha artist from Birbhum, a Madur artist from Paschim Medinipur, a Durrie weaver from Jodhpur and an embroidered leather Jutti maker from Barmer. As Banglanatak dot com suppported their costs of travel and stay in order to help them maximize their profits, the market response and appreciation by buyers uplifted their spirits and motivation. As Lovely explained and demonstrated her Kantha work, the visitors were awestruck by the finesse and skill of her handicraft. According to her, "They have never seen Kantha. When I am explaining then they are understnding the process. Else they think these stitches are done with machines. I really like it when they realize the speciality of Kantha and appreciate my work." Pradeep, the Madur artist, showcased the finest quality of Masland Mat, among other products, and also showed how the natural reeds are made finer for weaving different types of mats. Kesaram Durrie weaver, with his diversified home products and brilliant colour schemes captured the attention of buyers quickly. Kishor, a young jutti craftsperson with his exquisite embroidered leather juttis and humorous ways won the hearts of the customers.

During 5-7 March, there was free flowing music under the open sky, audiences and youth enjoying and dancing to the tunes. Being a free and open-to-all space, there was a relaxed ambience that added to the experience.

 

The melodious voice of Dada Khan Manganiyar reverberated with songs of Kabir and Bulleh Shah. The tunes of his Tandura, the rhythm of Manjoor Khan's Dhol, accompanied by Bhungra Khan's Kamaicha and Bhunger Khan's Khartal enthralled the audience! In between the performances, a few short films were shown on the habitat, lifestyle, instruments and doyens of the Manganiyars and Langas. The highlight of the weekend was the inauguration by Padmashree Anwar Khan Manganiyar and Shri Bundu Khan Langa, an historically famous duo at international performances, who performed together after ten years along with the young prodigies, further inspiring them. The audience came forward to interact with the artists after their performances, shared their contacts for future communications about programmes, and congratulated the initiative which was much more than just a one-off event. The enthusiasm is on for scheduled Folk Safar programmes for the rest of the month!

 

In the long run, the Folk Safar initiative also aims to  increase visibility of the rural folk artists and the places they come from, and generate interest and awareness  about their villages, lifestyle and traditions. Banglanatak dot com specializes in design and development of community owned Rural Cultural Tourism, thus  strengthening village based creative economies through the sustainable development and promotion of intangible cultural heritage assets. It has already developed 20 rural cultural tourism hubs in West Bengal benefitting more than 25,000 artists across 30 different folk art and craft forms. The Jaipur Folk Safar programme has the potential to create an interactive and informal space between these folk musicians and craftspersons as well as consumers, enabling development of rural cultural tourism in the folk art villages of Rajasthan.