Shubhashri is an intern with Festival of Voices, a campaign that explores Delhi through the eyes of women who are challenging norms, oppression, patriarchy, and violence against women and girls in the city. She documents these stories through her group Team Zero. Know more here.
Stories have been a constant source of energy for me. They have taught me about the nuances in languages. I learned the art of imagination, and also came to know about various realities of the world through them. Both written and spoken storytelling have always fascinated me. It wasn’t a straight road at first, but eventually, I did turn to write as an art form, and stories became my passion and my work.
It so happened, that I was in the early stages of my journey with the Festival of Voices (FOV) project, that documents voices of women who are fighting patriarchy in Delhi. I joined, along with other artists, to spread the voices of women who have shown resilience and resistance in their lives against adversities, and are fighting the tough battle for gender equality.
The experience has been interesting, engaging, enriching and fun, all at the same time. My journey started with an induction workshop organized by Mittika (an organization based in Delhi), working on the theme of gender justice and heading the FOV campaign. This brought with it a lot of learning and created a sense of community amongst us all. It allowed us to understand, absorb and own the stories of these women in the city, so that we could bring justice to them with our performances. We were inducted to understand the need for poise with theatre techniques.
Reaching out to organizations and performing in spaces we may or may not know, brings a thrill of sorts. The beauty of bringing these unheard stories to life and discussing them with the audience so they can connect instantly with them brought me unparalleled joy. Whether it is a seven-year-old or a 70-year-old, irrespective of the gender, people do give these stories a hearing.
The part that I love the most is, when I know that whatever we performed reached out to people. I am looking forward to more of our performances and raising our voices so that the stories of these women are heard.
About the Festival of Voices
Delhi is known as the rape capital of India. It has been touted as one of the most unsafe cities for women to live in. Every day, the city newspapers dominate news headlines that scream violence against women and girls. Mittika, supported by Oxfam India decided to turn the lens towards women who call this city, home, and asked them about their brush with patriarchal constructs and how they are constantly challenging them. These are the stories that are unheard but deserve your attention. You can read the stories here.
About Oxfam India
Oxfam India (OIN) is a non-profit organization working in 6 states of India, across several thematic areas like the humanitarian response, health, education, gender justice as well as economic inequality to help create an equal, just and sustainable society.