Over the years, Rupy C. Tut gradually pieced together details of her grandparents’ past lives. The older the Oakland painter got, the more she asked them — of their home in what was then British India, and of what would come to drag them from it. This year marks the 70th anniversary of what is broadly remembered as the year of Indian independence from British rule. But those circumstances also marked the historically bloody August 1947 partition of British India — the establishment, spurred by political and religious schisms, of the independent nations of Pakistan and India. The separation displaced millions, Tut’s family among them, and sparked widespread violence. Hindus and Sikhs fled into India, and Muslims into Pakistan — the respective national safe havens for their religious identities. In the process, riots and mobs broke out, mass rape and abduction occurred, and civilian violence took on an anarchic back-and-forth of religious cleansing. Click here for full article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Split with a hammer or sharp blade the exterior of a tiny seed, the earliest origins of life are on view. A microscope allows deeper inspection of individual membranes and cells. Even so, there is mystery in the plant that grows when a seed is pushed into soil. There is magic in the flowers, fruits, and other offspring produced. Given soil, water, and sunlight, even a broken seed grows.
Which is a loose allegory to the process undertaken by the primary collaborators in the multimedia project, Broken Seeds (Still Grow). The production Nov. 16–19 at The Flight Deck in Oakland brings together the collective talents and life experiences of Nava Dance Theatre Artistic Director and choreographer Nadhi Thekkek, Oakland-based visual artist Rupy C. Tut, and composer and flutist G.S. Rajan. For full article, click here. Editor’s Note: 70 years ago, the 1947 Partition of British India resulted in the formation of present day India and Pakistan, causing one of the largest displacements in recent South Asian history. Almost 15 million individuals were displaced and more than one million lost their lives coping with the tragic communal violence that occurred in the months before and during August, 1947.
The 1947 Partition is the inspiration for Broken Seeds (Still Grow) the dance theatre and visual art production co-created by Nadhi Thekkek, bharatanatyam dancer and Artistic Director of Nava Dance Theatre, and Rupy C. Tut, Indian miniature painter and calligrapher. The artists discuss their relationship and interest in delving into the complex history known to many as simply, Partition. For full article, click here. |
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