The on-going ‘festival of conversations’ in Dewsbury, funded by Kirklees Council to support the cultural community in Dewsbury, have added two new events this month, widening the scope of conversations the festival aims to give a platform to.
Launched in May 2023, with ‘In Conversation with Dame Evelyn Glennie’, being the first event, the festival, a project by Manasamitra, aims to bring forward a series of interaction and talks about the topics that the local community is interested in. The idea of the festival to provide a safe platform to discuss about various topics.
The next two events is a talk by Alok Jha, who will speak about the ‘weirdness of water’ and the other event is titled ‘Jay Courtney and Juicy Corns’ hosted by acclaimed author Jay Courtney.
The event with Alok Jha, author of ‘The Water Book’ is scheduled on 15 June, while Jay Courtney speaks on 9 June.
Speaking on the talk by Alok Jha, Supriya Nagarajan, founder of Manasamitra said: “Water came up quite a lot in conversations. A lot of people in Kirklees have been affected by floods, where they live here. The community in India and Pakistan, where they come from, have also been affected by these issues.”
“A lot of conversations have happened around water in the last six months. Alok had written a book on water, so he was the person we wanted to approach to speak about the topic.”
She, further explained about the event hosted by Jay Courtney: “The topic of women, leadership and menopause came up time and again. Discussions around the older women community came up with this, because we talked to women’s group. Thus Jay was the best person we could approach”
Jay Courtney, in her book “the juicy crones” speaks about the challenges faced by older women in their post-menopausal stage.
Speaking about the event scheduled Jay Courtney said: “My book ‘Juicy Crones- Free for the Strangest Adventure’ (Bradt Guides), was born out of my feeling rather foggy and lost post-menopause. Having retired from my work leading for children’s health and wellbeing in Gloucestershire I realised I didn’t know how to do this part of my life.
I set out on a quest to meet other post-menopausal women who were ‘adventuring’. Women like Supriya Narjarajan, who after a successful professional career in banking, decided to embrace her first love of Carnatic singing… and is now enjoying a full and exciting life as a musician.”
“Growing old is a privilege, learning to embrace being a crone, a wise woman who loves life with all its ups and downs is a poignant yet laughter-filled joy.
I look forward to being part of the festival and to sharing more of my journey and that of other twelve women who feature in the book. ”
Surpiya Nagarajan, further added : “We have another series of events that are lined up this autumn”
Speaking on the impact of South Asian voice in the festival, she said “The artistic direction and the vision of the festival is coming from me, I am the South Asian voice in the festival in a way”
“The festival itself does not have any specific South Asian plans so to speak, even though a lot of the Dewsbury community come from a South Asian heritage”
“The festival, vision itself is more topic based rather than heritage based” she added.
The events by Alok Jha and Jay Courtney are scheduled on 9 and 15 June respectively at the Dewsbury Townhall.
