Folk and classical singers from India to present concert in Syracuse Symposium keynote event

Folk and classical singers from India to presentconcert in Syracuse Symposium keynote eventOctober 30, 2003Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Indian folk and classical singers will present the traditions of the great religious poet Kabir at Syracuse University on Nov. 4. “Kabir in Song: Musical and Spiritual Journeys,” a keynote event in the Syracuse Symposium 2003: “Journeys” series, begins at 8 p.m. in Crouse College’s Setnor Auditorium and is free and open to the public. The concert is co-sponsored by the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Setnor Tuesday Concert Series.

Prahlad Singh Tipanya, a renowned folk singer from the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh, will sing the poetry of Kabir accompanied by Ashok Tipanya, Ajay Tipanya and Devnarayan Sarolia. Linda Hess, a Kabir scholar who teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University, will narrate and provide translations.

Kabir, the 15th-century weaver-poet of Varanasi, is still one of the most revered and popular saint-singers of North India. He belonged to a family of Muslim julahas (weavers of low caste status), is considered a disciple of the Hindu guru Ramanand, and often sang of inner experience using language of the subtle yogic body. Fiercely independent, he has become an icon of speaking truth to power. In a blunt and uncompromising style, he exhorted his listeners to shed their delusions, pretensions and orthodoxies in favor of a direct confrontation with the truth. He also cut through the absurdities of caste ideology and declared the equality of all human beings.

The Syracuse Symposium, presented for the University by The College of Arts and Sciences, is an annual intellectual festival celebrating interdisciplinary thinking, imagining and creating. The 2003 theme is “Journeys.”