Voicing victims’ rage Born in Cambridge in 1962, Valerie Mason-John is an internationally-renowned playwright, author and performance poet. Her first novel, Borrowed Body (2005), winner of the MIND Book of the Year Award, is told in the voice of Pauline, a young black girl of Nigerian descent, who grows up in white foster homes and orphanages, and is then reclaimed by her mother. Detox Your Heart (2006), is a non-fiction work dealing with anger, hatred and fear. This evening, British Council launches Mason-John’s latest book, Broken Voices: ‘Untouchable’ Women Speak Out. Published by India Research Press, it is an emotionally stirring work about gender and racial discrimination, voicing the rage and anger felt by its victims. The launch will be followed by a discussion on the book by Ruchira Goswami, Sanjoy Ganguly, Vasundhara Shende and the author herself. Event: Book launch followed by discussion When: Today at 7 pm Where: The British Council, L&T Chambers, 16 Camac Street

art

February 26 - March 9 (except Mondays) at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, 4th floor AC gallery; 4 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings and drawings by Amit Banerjee. February 26 - March 9 (except Mondays) at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, 2nd floor; 4 pm - 8 pm: A group exhibition of paintings by Sumita Maity, Pradip Kr. Sau, Anjan Coomar and Arpita Chandra February 26 - March 9 (except Mondays) at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, 2nd floor; 4 pm - 8 pm: Kinkar Ghosh presents his recent works. Till February 26 at Gallery Sanskriti, 5C Alipore Park Road; 11 am - 8 pm: Nature Symphonique — paintings by Anju Chaudhuri. Till February 27 at Anant Art Gallery, 18-A Alipore Road, #32584832; 11 am - 7 pm: Nishshabda — paintings by Siraj Saxena. Till February 27 at Academy of Fine Arts, West Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Pallab Kanti Mitra. Till February 27 at Academy of Fine Arts, North Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Sujit Roy, Utpal Ghosh, Rajib Sur Roy, Pulok Karmakar and Biplab Chowdhury. Till February 27 at 1/42 Shahid Nagar, Dhakuria; 1 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of Aloke Paul’s latest creations. Till February 28 at Academy of Fine Arts, Central Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Ashis Pradhan, Bidyut Ranjan Dutta, Banani Singha, Dilip Kumar Maiti, Dipankar Karmakar, Joy Dutta, Manash Saha, Pinak Pani Nath and Sangita Chaudhuri. Till February 29 at Mon Art Gallery, 6 Picasso Bithi (Hungerford Street), Regency 3rd floor; #22895438; 11.30 am - 7 pm: In Search of the Abyss, a solo painting exhibition by Manoj Kachangal. Till February 29 at Idiyas Gallery, 15 Dover Road, #6550 8418; 10.30 am - 7.30 pm: Realism and Surrealism — an exhibition of the works by Tapas Sardar, Sanatan Dinda, Sukanta Das, Kartick Chandra Pyne, Prokash Karmakar, Suhas Roy, Ramananda Bandyopadhyay, Subrata Gangopadhyay, Atin Basak, Sibsaday, Bratin Khan and others. Till February 29 at Domus Art Gallery, 28/B Shakespeare Sarani, #22892546; 11 am - 6 pm: An exhibition of Indian contemporary art. Participating artists: Ashoke Mullick, Dewashish Das, Dipankar Ray, Partha Sarathy, Rabindranath Pal, Swapan Denra, Shekhar Pal and Saumya Bandyopadhyay. Till March 1 at Chemould Art Gallery, Queen’s Mansion, 12F Park Street; 2 pm - 7 pm: Biplab Sarkar and Sasanka Ghosh present their latest series of paintings, titled Ecstasy. Till March 2 at Gallery K2, Supra Court, 35 Lansdowne Terrace; 11 am - 7 pm: A New Fulfilment, an exhibition of paintings by Dhiraj Chowdhury. Till March 2 at Samokal Art Gallery, 23 Gariahat Road, 1st floor, Gol Park, #98362 76110; 4 pm - 8 pm: Art of Neo-Bengal School Today, dedicated to Abanindranath Tagore. Participating artists: Ajay Kumar Ghosh, Amal Nath Chakladar, Arpita Basu, Chandra Sekhar Basu Majumder, Dhirendranath Brahma, Krishna Banerjee, Narendra Chandra De Sarkar, Nemai Basu Majumder, Nilima Dutta, Rajarshi Adhikary, Ramananda Bandyopadhyay, Ratan Acharya, Sankar Nath Aich, Saumya Kanti Mukhopadhyay, Shanti Ranjan Mukherjee and Sukti Subhra Pradhan. Curated by Prasanta Daw. Till March 15 (except Sundays) at Gallery Kanishka’s, 2/1 Hindustan Road; 11 am - 8 pm: An exhibition of new works on paper by Ritesh Meshram and Vijay Bandar.

DRAMA

February 26 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Taki Natyam presents its latest production, Good Morning Nishikanta. Drama & direction: Ramaprasad Banik. February 26 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.45 pm: Rang Roop presents its latest comedy, Byaram Biram. Direction: Seema Mukhopadhyay. February 28 at Bharatiyam Cultural Multiplex, IB 201 Salt Lake; 6 pm: EZCC’s monthly theatre show features Dhruva Swamini (Hindi), produced by Abhinay and directed by Pratap Jaiswal. February 29 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Ajantrik Natya Sanstha will stage Pratham Paath, written and directed by Ramaprasad Banik. February 29 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 6.45 pm: PUNCH in aid of charity presents Mrs. Soriano, a play in Bengali by Choopkatha. Direction: Dolly Basu. Tickets at hall. February 29 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Little Thespian will stage ? (Question Mark). Design & direction: S.M. Azhar Aalam.

TALK

February 26 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Vivekananda Hall; 6 pm: Raj Lakshmi Varma will speak on Dharma: Significance and Signification. February 26 at Bidhannagar Ramakrishna Vivekananda Kendra, DD-44 Salt Lake; 6.30 pm: Dr Kalpana Sarkar will speak on Matri-sannidhye. February 26 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Atmabodhananda will discuss in Bengali Sri Sri Mayer Katha.

PERFORMING ARTS

February 26 at Sisir Mancha; 6 pm: Abritti Parishad presents songs from the Bengali theatre and a programme of recitation. Participants: Devajit, Riddhi and Riddhadev in theatre songs; Tagore songs by Subir Nandy; group recitation by Shanti Kalyan; and solo recitations by Suktisri Saha, Tuhina Dutta, Sarmistha Chatterjee, Swapna Bhawal, Prabhati Ganguli Basak, Shantanu Chatterjee, Swapan Basu, Nayan Basu, Basudev Nandy and Swapan Ganguly. February 26 & 27 at Chhatubabu-Latubabu Natmandir, 67E Beadon Street; 6 pm: Mars presents its 37th classical music conference. Participants: Ashis Saha, Tapan Maitra, Ketaki Goswami and Krishna Majumdar in vocals; Bishok Seal (rudrabeena), Mita Sen (sitar), Tapas Sengupta (santoor), Sanjoy Ghosh (violin) and Nilkanta Mukhopadhyay (sarod); and dance by Swati Adhikari (Bharata Natyam) and Rumpa and Sangita (Kathak). Till February 26 at Kala Mandir; 6.30 pm: HSBC Premier and Ustad Amir Khan Foundation present Sur-Rang Festival. Today: Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar (sarod), and Pandit Rajan Mishra and Pandit Sajan Mishra (vocal).

POETRY READING

February 26 at Jibanananda Sabhaghar; 5.30 pm: Souhardya 70 presents its monthly poetry-reading session, dedicated by poet Pranabendu Dasgupta and in memory of Buddhadeva Bose centenary. Featuring a discussion on art by Jogen Chowdhury, songs by Sumita Das, a discussion on Buddhedeva Bose’s poetical works by Sumita Chakraborty; reading from Bose’s Pratham Partha by Kingshuk Roychowdhury and Aparajita Pal; and poetry-reading by Phanibhusan Acharya, Pranab Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Bejoya Mukhopadhyay, Kali Krishna Guha, Ram Ratan Mukhopadhyay, Namita Chowdhury, Durgadas Midya, Abhik Basu, Gayatri Gupta and Tanusree Bhattacharya.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till February 27 at the seminar hall of Howrah Distt. Library, 5/4 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Howrah 1: Society of Photographers’ 40th Howrah Colour Salon and Members Annual Prints Exhibition. Projections at 6.30 pm daily. Till March 8 (except Mondays) at Bose Pacia Kolkata, Stephen’s Court, 18 Park Street; #4001 0148; 11 am - 7 pm: Gauri Gill - The Americans.

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