curating-a-forest-in-a-seed-a-poem

Narmada, Gujarat

Apr 26, 2022

Curating a forest in a seed: a poem

Languages, says this Adivasi poet from Gujarat, carry literature, knowledge, worldviews and more. He celebrates this treasure through poems in the Dehwali Bhili language. This is the first in a series

Illustration

Labani Jangi

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Author

Jitendra Vasava

Jitendra Vasava is a poet from Mahupada village in Narmada district of Gujarat, who writes in Dehwali Bhili language. He is the founder president of Adivasi Sahitya Academy (2014), and an editor of Lakhara, a poetry magazine dedicated to tribal voices. He has also published four books on Adivasi oral literature. His doctoral research focused on the cultural and mythological aspects of oral folk tales of the Bhils of Narmada district. The poems by him published on PARI are from his upcoming and first collection of poetry.

Illustration

Labani Jangi

Labani Jangi is a 2020 PARI Fellow, and a self-taught painter based in West Bengal's Nadia district. She is working towards a PhD on labour migrations at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata.