rongin shagor/রঙিন সাগর | Speculating ‘Caste’ – Workshop with AROH AKUNTH

Aroh will host a craft talk that brings the themes emerging out of caste to the writers, enables them to see and read it in different contexts, and also possibly write about it. All systems of discrimination have an inherent logic of merit to them, caste just amplifies it differently than others, it literally produces a reality where two humans that are not discernible from each other are unequal, not that discernible ones should be treated any different, this workshop is born out of the insistence that writers have a lot to learn from the inhuman practices of caste and how it's deeply tied to the eugenics of the west. It will draw examples from various mainstream writers, series, and characters such as those appearing in the works of DC Comics, J.K. Rowling, Aldous Huxley, and Avatar: The Last Airbender to highlight social relations and structures that are best examined through the lens of caste. Science fiction as a genre borrows so much from caste, but does little for its eradication.

This workshop builds upon the work of black-feminist speculative fiction writers who have been trying to wrestle the genre from the hands of white men. It posits, that so many anti caste thinkers are speculative writers, because they imagine a different society than is. The workshop aspires to equip the writers to write more complex worlds that also do justice to historical oppressions they are inspired from. To create more universal and conscious literature. 

The workshop will be held in English.

The hybrid workshop will be held on 06.10.22. at Oyoun Berlin and also open to people joining online from outside Berlin.

>>> FREE ENTRY AND LIMITED SPOTS!

Registration Process: 
If interested, please send a writing sample and a short paragraph explaining your interest in the workshop at melisa@oyoun.de. The selected participants will be notified by the 1st week of October. 

About the artist:

Aroh Akunth is a dalit-transfeminine writer-performer based between Germany and India. Some of their curatorial work can be found on Instagram or at www.dalitarchives.com. 

CONTEXT

"Speculating caste" is part of rongin shagor/রঙিন সাগর, an artistic dialogue in which a series of multidisciplinary and multilingual artists respond to the poem "community" by May Ayim. The accompanying web platform will be launched on 13 November on a physical event happening at Oyoun, that will feature not only the artworks but also performances and a very special edition of "The Poetry Meets Series". Responses to the poem are by Kondo Heller, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Amira Zarari, Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç, Arijit Bhattacharyya, Bruna Barros and Jess Oliveira, Alice Yuan Zhang, Sara Ehsan, Carla Abiles, Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu, Jumoke Adeyanju and you...

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CREDITS

Artistic direction, concept: Madhumita Nandi
Curation: Madhumita Nandi, Anja Saleh
Curatorial assistance: Melisa Manrique
Communication: Tariq Bajwa
Design: Chhandak Pradhan
Funding/ Admin: Sophia Schmidt, Paul Räther, Nina Martin

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FUNDERS

The project rongin shagor is developed within the framework of "dive in. Program for Digital Interactions" of the Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) in the NEUSTART KULTUR program and the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.

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