A Space for the Arts

A Space for the arts  

Herald Review November 9, 2014

The Goa Arts and Literary Festival will celebrate its fifth edition this year. Herald Review looks back at how the festival has grown, putting Goa on the literary landscape.  

LISA ANN MONTEIRO

It doesn’t receive large crowds, doesn’t draw on celebrity artistes and doesn’t have large funds at its disposal. Yet the home grown Goa Arts and Literary Festival with special focus on the margins manages to attract quality writers and artists from the world over.

Goan writer Damodar Mauzo felt the need for a festival celebrating the arts when he saw that writers in the region weren’t getting literary exposure and the recognition they deserved. “We hoped that the festival would be able to draw literary personalities but we didn’t expect it to grow so big. The turning point for us came when U R Ananthamurthy noted Kannada writer and one of the most important representatives of the Navya movement in Kannada literature inaugurated the first edition of the festival in 2010.”

The festival has been growing ever since and has attracted many eminent writers and poets over the years. Gulzar, Amitav Ghosh, Mridula Gard, Omar Abdullah, Mitra Phukan and Meera Kosambi have all delivered keynote speeches at the festival. The festival has also consistently highlighted the best poetry and poets from India and beyond. Last year saw a gathering of the finest, most acclaimed poets of the 1960s and 1970s Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Keki Daruwalla, Manohar Shetty, Gieve Patel and Eunice de Souza.

A number of books have also had their exclusive (worldwide) launches at GALF. Bilal Tanweer’s ‘ The Scatter Here is too Great’, Ranjit Hoskote’s translations of Lal Ded, Naresh Fernandes’ ‘ Taj Mahal Foxtrot’, Amruta Patil’s ‘ Parva’ and Maria Aurora Couto’s ‘ Filomena’s Journey’ among others.

Celebrating the margins is what makes the festival unique Vivek Menezes says. “We’ve had contingents from the North East, Kashmir, Pakistan and this year Nepal, Singapore and Australia. At the same time we also pay special focus to poetry, translations and graphic novels.” For a festival whose budget hasn’t grown over the years, the response it receives from artistes is overwhelming.

The festival has been a fixed point on the annual calendar of Ranjit Hoskote, poet, cultural theorist and curator. For him it is an opportunity to connect with fellow writers from South Asia and the world in an atmosphere that is warm and relaxed even while it is profoundly serious about the practice of the literary arts. He has also been pushed out of his comfort zone to interact with diverse artistes. “On one occasion I was asked the evening before to chair a discussion with Teju Cole, Nigerian American novelist and art historian and Heems, American rapper of Indian origin from Queens New York. I was aghast. While I knew Teju’s work I didn’t know Heems’ work that well. In the event the three of us had a wonderful conversation about subcultures, diasporic displacement and the crafting of new positions, the negotiation of artistic languages while addressing plural, unpredictable audiences. It was a terrific experience of being pushed off the springboard and enjoying the high dive. Vivek’s gift for creating such unlikely yet memorable adventures of conversation is a special feature of the festival,” he says.

Author Dilip D’Souza has attended the festival twice and welcomes the opportunity to talk about his books and writing. “It’s a useful exercise to think about what I do and explain it to an audience. It makes something clearer in my mind and that has an effect on my writing.” At other festivals writers are followed by mobs. The special scale of this festival, allowing more intimate sessions is its great strength and appeal, D’Souza feels. “ At one much bigger festival I’ve attended, there are hundreds of people in the audience. While that’s good for sales and so on, I suppose, it’s not so good for the audience most of whom will see the writer as just a speck in the distance. At GALF being in a room with 20 others listening to a greatly respected writer gives one the opportunity to talk and discuss things much more, than would be possible elsewhere. Again while writers like to have lots of people listening, the flip side is also nice- that you can have those intimate chats with people who truly appreciate your work or have something to chat with rather than answer an anonymous question from someone you can’t even see in a big crowd.”

Recently back from the Tata Literary Festival in Mumbai, reporter and writer Samar Halarnkar says it is the warmth and space for alternative voices that are unique to GALF. “There are not too many stars and lots of unexpected people.” One of the biggest challenges the festivals organisers face is the audience not meeting their expectations. They’d like to see more participation from local readers and writers and not necessarily in panel discussions. “The audience too plays a major role. We hardly see students of literature taking advantage of the lineup of writers we bring to the festival. People pay to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival. Similarly people have to shell out 100 Euros per day to attend the Frankfurt festival,” Damodar Mauzo says.

This year the organisers will be bringing in the writers to Goa prior to the commencement of the festival and organising interactions and workshops for interested schools and colleges.

Since the volunteer driven festival doesn’t attract the big sponsors and doesn’t have a profit agenda, the sessions are relaxed and devoid of any external pressure. Their duty, the organisers say is to the writers and not to sponsors. This special scale allows writers and readers to interact in informal situations which is somewhat unusual in a festival context, Hoskote says.

The festival has also managed to integrate other arts; the rock and roll great of Shillong Lou Majaw, the spectacular Bhand Pathers of Kashmir, the performing monks of Uttar Kamalabari Satra in Majuli, the opera diva Patricia Rozario and the rapper Himanshu Suri among others.

Writer E V Ramakrishnan attended the 2012 festival where the documentary of Kashmir and folk performances by Kashmiri actors (King Lear) left lasting impressions. Goa’s cultural vibrancy and unique history gives it a progressive attitude to appreciate cultural differences he says. The ambiance provided by the festival for a cultural meet is very inspiring.

He suggests more regional languages be included to educate people about the diversity of views within India. “I feel serious discussions on issues related to environment, censorship, violence and intolerance of various kinds that plague our society should also be featured. Of course this is not a conference and the format of a festival only provides a setting and it is up to the participants to make the best of it all. All the same, the content needs a little improvement.” Halarnkar says the uncertain timings and somewhat chaotic organisation, although improving, haven’t worked for him.

D’Souza too suggested improvements in the scheduling and suggested a focus on languages other than English. “Perhaps one Indian and one foreign language or country every time.” The organisers have managed to retain their participants this year despite the dates clashing with another festival which recently rescheduled their dates. Mauzo says the festival lags behind in government support. “A festival like this could boost tourism. The government unfortunately is only interested in tourism and not literary activities.” The festival this year boasts of delegations from Pakistan, Nepal, Singapore and Australia as well as a large number of local participants. Review Bureau

Talented Line up

The fifth edition of the festival will see 30 international participants with contingencies from Nepal, Pakistan, Australia and Singapore. Prashant Jha, Rabi Thapa, Sangeeta Thapa, Sheeba Shah, Sushma Joshi and Thomas Bell from Nepal will be attending while the Australian contingent includes Dr Anita Heiss, Cathy Cragie, Ellen van Neerven, Dr Jared Thomas, Mridula Nath Chakraborty, Nicole Watson and Nim Gholkar. Four of the five finalists for the Kushwant Singh Memorial Prize for Poetry will be attending. A first time special focus on food writings, bloggers including Deane, Aparna Jain, Latika George, Pamela Timms, Helene D’Souza, Revati Upadhya, Kornelia Santoro and Kaveri Ponappa. T M Krishna, Carnatic music vocalist and author of ' A Southern Music: The Karnatic Story' and Chee Malabar Los Angeles based rapper and writer will be attending. The festival will also see 12 book releases.  

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