Reserved Compartment brings Dalit English poetry showcase to Chennai

Reserved Compartment brings Dalit English poetry showcase to Chennai A Dalit poetry collective brings its English-language showcase to Chennai, using performance, lived experience and conversation.

Key points

• India's First Dalit English Poetry Showcase will be hosted by the Reserved Compartment on August 22, 6pm tp 9pm at Medai, The Stage.
• While the poems are rooted in lived experience, Aleena is wary of reducing them to caste narratives alone.
• English poetry can sometimes come with its own set of barriers: the language, the rooms where it is performed, the individuals who fill those rooms.
• Their poems will speak of caste and protest, but additionally of food, love, memory, and the small, ordinary details of lived experience.
• That sense of community additionally extends to the spaces they choose to perform in.

English poetry can sometimes come with its own set of barriers: the language, the rooms where it is performed, the individuals who fill those rooms. For Reserved Compartment, a collective of four Dalit poets, the answer has been to walk straight into those spaces and bring their own stories with them.

After initial demonstrates in Mumbai and Banglore, this weekend, the Reserved Compartment partners with Mahad Productions, an artiste collective in Chennai, to bring its Dalit English poetry showcase to the city. The programme will be centred on protest and anti-caste poetry. The collective – Dr Abhijit Khandkar, Gautam Vegda, Daniel Sukumar, and Aleena, will be joined by Chennai poet C Nivetha for an opening performance in Tamil.

Their poems will speak of caste and protest, but additionally of food, love, memory, and the small, ordinary details of lived experience. On stage, these personal stories will become a way of asking who gets to speak. This person gets to be heard, and who gets to feel at home in a cultural space.

"We are not building a show, we are building a community. After the show in Chennai, we'll still be in touch with our audience and for the next event or workshop we do there, we want to invite them and might even have open mics going forward, " notes Daniel who is based out of Bengaluru.

That sense of community additionally extends to the spaces they choose to perform in. For Abhijit, who is based in Mumbai, the decision to take the showcase into established cultural venues is deliberate. As that is additionally our political statement, "We try to do our demonstrates in venues that are mainstream or the most sought-after venues in that city. We want to open those spaces for our individuals, so that they can additionally walk into those spaces and experience how it feels, " he notes.

"Spoken word in India is basically run by upper-caste people who have access to fancy cafes where many people cannot just go, buy a coffee for ₹200 and sit and listen to poetry, " notes Daniel. The collective additionally sets aside community tickets at every show, allowing those who may not be able to afford a ticket to attend.

But reclaiming a space does not mean filling it with only declarations of caste. The four poets bring their identities into their work without allowing them to become its only subject. Daniel, for instance, writes regarding his mother's favourite dish, and even his grandfather's habit of collecting coconut shells. "Most of the time we feel that this is only happening to us, but when you discuss this on a larger platform, individuals are able to resonate with it. We have stories like this throughout the board from the community, " he states.

While the poems are rooted in lived experience, Aleena is wary of reducing them to caste narratives alone. She points out that when an individual story travels beyond the person who lived it. "What we are doing through our poems is just telling our truths to power, and hopefully those personal truths resonate with the public. The personal becomes public and political, " she notes.

For Aleena, who is based in Kochi and began writing poetry in Malayalam before moving to English, the interaction with an audience is as significant as the performance itself. "It's a catharsis. You feel seen, you feel heard. We additionally have a separate interactive session with the audiences at the end of our show and numerous interesting and free-flowing conversations happen, " she notes.

India's First Dalit English Poetry Showcase will be hosted by the Reserved Compartment on August 22, 6pm tp 9pm at Medai, The Stage. For tickets log on to @thereservedcompartment on Instagram.

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