Heritage evenings at ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival 2019

Celebrate India’s cultural diversity at the city’s iconic monuments in partnership with Rajasthan Tourism

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Two Heritage Evenings will be showcased at iconic heritage locations in the city - Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK) and Amber Fort.
Details of the Heritage Evenings

Clothing as Identity @ Jawahar Kala Kendra - A group of skilled artisans from Kutch will showcase their designs on the ramp. Friday, 25^th January, 7pm to 8pm.
A Majestic Evening @ Amber Fort - An evening of performance and music by Rajasthan Tourism and the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival that will bring together art, culture and built heritage at the magnificent Amber Fort. Saturday, 26th January, 7pm onwards.

Music, dance, and fashion performances will charm audiences at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival 2019 during two glorious Heritage Evenings which will be set against the backdrop of the city’s spectacular monuments. On the evenings of January 25th and 26th, in association with Rajasthan Tourism, the Festival will host these grand events at Jaipur’s iconic Amber Fort and the multi-arts centre Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK). While the two evenings are dedicated to the monuments of Jaipur, the spellbinding shows will celebrate the rich and diverse culture of India.

Clothing as Identity is a fashion Show by Artisan Designers of Kutch. This will be a vibrant narration of the diversity and unity found in the rich cultural traditions of Kutch through its prevalent fashions. Numerous communities from Rajasthan, Sindh, Pakistan, Persia and Africa migrated to Kutch bringing with them their traditions, costumes, culture and shaped the region’s unique identity. Accompanied by Rajasthani Folk Music, the hour-long event will exhibit costumes that bring together folk traditions of Kutch on a chic canvas in a fusion of craft and contemporary silhouettes. Complex traditional textile techniques and skills such as Bhujodi weaves, block prints, Bandhani and Dhebaria Rabari embroidery will be showcased. Presented by Craft Stories Under the Mango Tree, the participating Artisan Designers include:

· Aslam Abdul Karima Khatri (Ajrakh block printing)

· Irfan Anwar Khatri (Ajrakh block printing)

· Abdul Aziz Khatri & Taina Aziz Khatri (Bandhani)

· Talah Gulam Khatri & Fahad Gulam Khatri (Bandhani)

· Kunvarben Bhikabhai Rabari (Dhebaria Rabari embroidery)

· Sajnuben Pachanbhai Rabari (Dhebaria Rabari embroidery)

· Rajesh Vishramji Siju (Bhujodi weaving)

· Dilip Dahyalal Kudecha (Bhujodi weaving)

A musical evening awaits audiences on Republic Day, January 26th with a mix of enthralling music and dance performances. Rajasthan Tourism, in partnership with the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, will bring together art, culture and built heritage at the magnificent Amber Fort.

The evening will begin with a performance by Folkland, International Centre for Folklore & Culture, Kerala showcasing Theyyam, a ceremonial dance from Kerala, depicting famous folk, tribal and mythological stories with music, dance and mime. A chorus of traditional musical instruments will accompany this stately dance.

Following the performance, Man Booker Prize winner, acclaimed poet, novelist, essayist and playwright Ben Okri will be on stage presenting The Griot, a new kind of live literary experience in the tradition of bards and griots, ancient story-tellers and custodians of oral traditions.

Another highlight of the evening will be a recital by Sitar Ensemble, one of India’s most accomplished sitar duos: Shakir Khan and Azeem Ahmed Alvi. Shakir, son and disciple of Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan, and Alvi, a disciple of the sitar maestro, have come together to form this unique collaboration as the 8th generation representatives of the Etawah gharana. Ustad Akram Khan and Hafeez Ahmed Khan will join them on the tabla.

The evening will culminate with 3G – a unique performance that brings together three generations of the only family in India that has been paying rich tributes to Carnatic music for decades. Legendary percussionist Vidwan Vikku Vinayakram, along with his exceptionally talented sons, V. Selvaganesh and Umashankar, and grandson Swaminathan, will celebrate Indian classical music, at the forthcoming majestic evening to be held at Amber Fort. Audiences will witness their unmatched dedication to music and superlative skills on the ghattam (Vikku Vinayakram and Umashankar), hand-drums (Selvaganesh), morsingh (A. Ganesh) and the kanjeera (Swaminathan). Vinayakram’s youngest son Mahesh will join them on vocals.

Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, Producer of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival said, “Ever year, with support from Rajasthan Tourism, Heritage Evenings at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival celebrate the built heritage of the state and highlight its rich cultural and architectural legacy through performing arts. This year, we will present some of the best in earthy fashion, music and folk-dance against the backdrop of two unique spaces – Amber Fort and Jawahar Kala Kendra. The events are exclusively curated to bring the audiences closer to the diverse cultural heritage of India.”

Entry to the Heritage Evenings are by invitation only. Guests can enquire at the Information Desk at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival on the days the events are held.

About the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival 2019

Described as the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’, the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival is a sumptuous feast of ideas.

The past decade has seen it transform into a global literary phenomenon having hosted nearly 2000 speakers and welcoming over a million book lovers from across India and the globe.

The Festival’s core values remain unchanged: to serve as a democratic, non-aligned platform offering free and fair access.

Every year, the Festival brings together a diverse mix of the world’s greatest writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sports people and entertainers on one stage to champion the freedom to express and engage in thoughtful debate and dialogue.

Writers and Festival Directors Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple, alongside producers Teamwork Arts, invite speakers to take part in the five-day programme set against the backdrop of Rajasthan’s stunning cultural heritage and the Diggi Palace in the state capital Jaipur.

Past speakers have ranged from Nobel Laureates J.M. Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk and Muhammad Yunus, Man Booker Prize winners Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood and Paul Beatty, Sahitya Akademi winners Girish Karnad, Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, M.T. Vasudevan Nair as well as the late Mahasweta Devi and U.R. Ananthamurthy along with literary superstars including Amish Tripathi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Vikram Seth. An annual event that goes beyond literature, the Festival has also hosted Amartya Sen, Amitabh Bachchan, the late A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Fry, Thomas Piketty and former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai.

The ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival is a flagship event of Teamwork Arts, which produces it along with over 25 highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and literary festivals across more than 40 cities globally.

Over the years, Teamwork Arts has produced ZEE JLF at The British Library, ZEE JLF at Boulder, JLF at Houston, JLF at New York and JLF in Adelaide.

Website: www.jaipurliteraturefestival.org