From 17th to 25th July GemArts award winning Masala Festival is back, with a mix and blend of the finest South Asian arts and culture from venues, places and spaces across the North East.
From international collaborations, award winning poets, new commissions, workshops, talks and incredible music, dance and visual arts spanning traditional and contemporary genres, Masala Festival has something from everyone!
Masala Festival 2021 – what’s on and how to get involved
This year, the Masala Festival has a blended programme of in person and on-line events.
Click here for the full Masala Festival programme and workshops and read on for some of the highlights of the Festival this year.
Launching GemArts Masala Festival on 17th July is Lingua Franca an international collaboration between poets from Borneo and the North East of England exploring identity, marginalisation, dualism and otherness.
Narivad (19th July) promises to be a fascinating on-line artist talk with Sofia Barton and Lady Kitt, who discuss Indian suffragettes who helped shape feminism.
Also on-line, award winning poet Tishani Doshi (20th July) reads from her new collection A God At The Door and is in conversation with author John Challis.
Check out Tattoo Stories (21st July), a brand new podcast by Vimal Korpal that takes you back to India pre-partition.
Masala Festival has an exceptional online dance performance by leading Kuchipudi dancer Payal Ramchandani (24th July); and there are a whole host of incredible music performances including khyal vocalist Apoorva Gokhale (online);
If you want that live experience head over to the Lit & Phil for a unique collaboration with Helen Anahita (piano) and Shahbaz Hussain (tabla) (23rd July); on 25th July Masala Festival culminates at The Globe with virtuoso sitarist, Jasdeep Singh Degun.
Further information
- For the full Masala Festival programme and workshops click here
- GemArts is a dynamic arts development organisation – we profile and programme new and exciting culturally diverse arts, by creating and developing high quality concerts, events, festivals, workshops and commissions with regional, national and international artists across all art forms. Click here for more information about GemArts