From the margins to the centre stage

Caste and oppression are rarely understood fully when studied as concepts.

Key points

• The Reserved Compartment, in collaboration with Mahad productions, will be performing in Medai, Alwarpet, on August 22.
• Ready to unsettle Chennai are poets, under the banner The Reserved Compartment.
• Daniel asserts that the showcase is an effort to simply present the performers' art.
• This becomes significant as writing in regional languages restricts widespread visibility and even those who have managed some visibility risk their works being appropriated during translation.
• He shares, We wanted to find individuals who wrote concerning caste for a long time.

Caste and oppression are rarely understood fully when studied as concepts. When learnt through lived experiences, from within the world of the subaltern rather than through the language of theory or observation, the narratives bring a human presence to history and struggle. And when allowed to encounter oppression, wounds, feelings, and experiences through the lives of those who endured it, it unsettles.

Ready to unsettle Chennai are poets, under the banner The Reserved Compartment. This person are arriving in the city this weekend after three successful demonstrates – one in Mumbai and two in Bengaluru.

Since 2014, the mission to start a poetry collective with Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi poets was in the minds of Daniel Sukumar and Abhijit Khandkar, co-founders of The Reserved Compartment. "Not everyone from the marginalised communities come from privileges that allow them to walk into a café for an open mic and perform." Even within mainstream spaces, Daniel believes that there is little representation for marginalised communities, and that visibility is shaped by a narrow aesthetic economy that only rewards poets who are considered "good-looking" and who embody certain socially approved standards of beauty and presentation. He shares, "We wanted to find individuals who wrote concerning caste for a long time. We didn't find plenty of as a lot of subaltern works are in regional languages. Eventually, we discovered Gautam Vegda, a PhD scholar, and Aleena, an author and poet. We all realised we wrote on the same lines and wanted to commence a collective late last year." Together, the four co-founders set out to perform.

In practice, the format of their demonstrates is standard. After which the four poets perform individually, a poet from the region, who writes in the regional language opens the show. At the end of the one-and-a-half-to-two-hour-long showcase, the audiences are encouraged to ask questions and the floor is opened up for discussions. At the Chennai show, C Nivitha, hailing from Manjolai in Tirunelveli, will perform the opening act.

Daniel asserts that the showcase is an effort to simply present the performers' art. But in their previous demonstrates the audiences turned into a community. "It (the showcase) is turning into a community-building exercise even though we didn't plan for it to be one. Those who came to our demonstrates realised that they shared similar difficulties that don't obtain discussed, or have even realised how similar their experiences have been with caste, " he states.

But the hope for Daniel is for their poetry to start conversations. "On the internet, it is regarding who is winning an argument. No one seems to be learning. Comments just obtain personal, they turn into threats and abuses. We hope that individuals secure to take something from our art and have conversations regarding it. It seems highly significant in this political climate, " Daniel states.

Notably, the Reserved Compartment is additionally looking to commence an incubation programme to support writers who are writing in regional languages from the marginalised communities to write in English. This becomes significant as writing in regional languages restricts widespread visibility and even those who have managed some visibility risk their works being appropriated during translation. "That is the next step, but for now, we are coming to Chennai to perform, " Daniel signs off.

Meanwhile, the Reserved Compartment, in collaboration with Mahad productions, will be performing in Medai, Alwarpet, on August 22. Tickets are priced at Rs 599.

For now, from the margins to the centre stage remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.