A story-telling extravaganza

“I wanted to create a platform that would make ideas come alive,” says writer, theatre actor and radio jockey Roshan Abbas, who feels that everyone has a story that needs telling and is only waiting for the platform to do so. It was with this in mind that he first started Commune, an initiative that provided a stage for a variety of performing arts — especially those pertaining to storytelling. 

With spoken word poetry gaining momentum, the initiative soon saw not only a variety of poets and performers jump on the bandwagon, but also a large number of young audiences. When the number of subscribers crossed a couple of lakhs, Roshan felt that the time was right for a bigger initiative and hence the idea for Spoken Fest was born. 

“Spoken Fest, which is taking place over this weekend is going to be an amalgam of spoken word, music and comedy. It has a number of well-established personalities like Piyush Mishra, Swanand Kirkire and Kalki Koechlin as well as a number of young artistes,” explains Roshan, who made the event a reality with help from casting director Tess Joseph and spoken word poet Shamir Reuben.

“When we started Commune, the response was so overwhelming right from the start. We realised that we not only had a number of performers but also a lot of dedicated audiences. There were only two rules we adhere to — one is that the stories need to be real and personal, and the other is that we give multiple people a platform at one go,” explains Roshan.

Unlike the smaller performances and workshops that Roshan and his team have been hosting heretofore, Spoken Fest will see two days of concentrated workshops, masterclasses, spoken word performances, music and more. “Most of the performances will be light-hearted and relatable. That’s where the comedians come in — stories don’t always have to be serious and comedians like Zakir Khan and Tanmay Bhatt both jumped on board because they said that they would also like to tell stories,” adds Roshan.

One such performer, who will be adding some warmth to the Sunday afternoon with her ukelele and mellifluous voice, is Gaia Meera. “One way to describe my songs would be homey. I think that the ukelele is one of the happiest instruments there are and I also really like to concentrate on the lyrics of my songs, so that I can convey my stories through them. I write from experience and though I like performing, writing trumps that joy,” smiles the young singer-songwriter.

Another young artiste who is struggling to create positively using rap is Aby Thampi, known by the stage name of A.B.Y. The young rapper will be performing with Vineet Nair, another rapper who is known by the stage name of Poetik Justis for a 30-minute slot of around right rap numbers. “While we are singing, graffiti artiste, NME will also be painting live — so we will essentially be covering three elements of hip-hop — rapping, beeboying and graffiti art,” says the rapper, who is particularly looking forward to performing a number called School Se Hi Seekha Hai. “It’s to educate kids so that they realise that school is not just about academics and it needn’t be boring. You learn a lot of street smarts there too. I want to keep my lyrics positive and relatable — the reliability factor is why I started rapping in Hindi,” explains Aby.

It is this group of young performers that Roshan feels most proud of having brought together. “It is the young poets and performers that we really wanted to give a platform to, since they bring fresh perspective. Of course, we also have a number of international stars coming in as well. It was as though we made a wish list of people we wanted to see and got them to come down,” he smiles.