AT A GLANCE
Shabnam Virmani
Area of Practice:
OVERVIEW
The Kabir Project journeys were initiated by filmmaker, writer and artist Shabnam Virmani in the year 2002. Along with a small but inspired team she has been exploring the philosophy of Kabir, Shah Latif and other mystic poets through a deep engagement with their oral folk traditions for over two decades. Her deep inspiration in this poetry and its wisdom has taken the shape of four award-winning documentary films on Kabir and the creation of a vast digital archive on mystic poetry and music called Ajab Shahar. Her film βππ’π£πͺπ³π’ ππ©π’π₯π’ ππ’π»π’π’π³ ππ¦πͺπ―β won the Special Jury Prize at the 52nd National Awards in 2011. Working closely with diverse folk and Sufi musicians she has curated and presented them to diverse audiences, and her work has spawned Kabir festivals and rural yatras in different parts of the country. This work is enabled by the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, where she is located as artist in residence.
Her writing and translation work includes Burn Down Your House: Provocations From Kabir (Speaking Tiger, 2024) and two books co-authored with Vipul Rikhi – π ππ’πΈ ππΊπ΄π¦ππ§: ππ°πΆπ³π―π¦πΊπ΄ πΈπͺπ΅π© ππ©π’π© ππ£π₯πΆπ ππ’π΅πͺπ§ ππ©πͺπ΅π’πͺ (Penguin, 2019) and ππ―π¦ ππ’ππ’π€π¦, π’ ππ©π°πΆπ΄π’π―π₯ ππ°π°π³πΈπ’πΊπ΄: ππ°π―π¨ππͺπ―π¦π΄ π΅π©π³π°πΆπ¨π© ππ©π’π¬π΅πͺ, ππΆπ§πͺ & ππ’πΆπ ππ³π’π ππ³π’π₯πͺπ΅πͺπ°π―π΄ (Speaking Tiger, 2019).
Incubated in the lockdown, she has envisioned a schools’ program called βShabad Shaalaβ in partnership with Manzil Mystics and the Shabad Dhun Foundation to infect school students with the challenge and wonder of mystic poetry. This 8-month curriculum is currently unfolding in 40 diverse schools with the support of folk and Sufi musicians from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bengal.
Shabnam also curates, interprets and sings a diverse repertoire of folk songs of the mystics to both rural and urban audiences herself.
EDUCATION
Academic Qualifications – Masters of Professional Studies (MPS) degree in Development Communication, Cornell University, USA. 1988-1990. Sage Graduate Fellowship Award for two years study at Cornell University. – Post-Graduate diploma in Journalism, Times Research Foundation School for Social Journalism, New Delhi. 1986-87. Times Award for Excellence in Reporting, 1987.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Work Experience: (1991-2002)
– Journalist with The Times of India, Jaipur edition, 1987-1988.
First to break the story of Roop Kanwarβs sati in Deorala village, Rajasthan, Sept 1987
– Co-founded Drishti Human Rights & Media Arts Collective in Ahmedabad, a non-profit group of professionals working with media to document and strengthen grassroot struggles for gender justice, human rights and development, 1991-2002.
Current Work: The Kabir Project (2002 β ongoing)
Artist-in-Residence at the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology,
Bangalore and director, Kabir Project.
INTEREST AREAS
– Research and translations of the poetry of Kabir, Shah Latif and other mystics.
– Role of music and orality in social formations, solidarity building, peace building and spiritual practices, especially in Sufi and folk music traditions in central and western India.
– Intersections between mystic wisdom/poetry and ecosophy and other philosophies of ecological harmony and equilibrium.
CURRENT PRACTICE AT SRISHTI
Partnering with other faculty to offer immersive real-world contexts for design interventions in the fields of Filmmaking, Illustration, Animation, Game and Graphic Design etc. Teaching courses related to mystic poetry & folk music Being part of ongoing juries
TEACHING PORTFOLIO
βGaaye So Paayeβ: A bi-weekly singing class for Srishti students dedicated to an immersion in oral folk traditions of Bhakti, Sufi and Baul songs.
‘Poetry in Performance’: Diverse courses creating an appreciation for mystic poetry as performed and embedded in social contexts
‘Shabad Shaala’: Design for education lab including illustration of wisdom tales & game and other designs
CREATIVE PRACTICE & OUTREACH
Filmmaking
Building archives of poetry and music
Writing and Translation
Social mobilization through creative arts
Pedagogy and curriculums with arts and music
Singing, storytelling and performance
