BKC to come alive with a festival of words!

Everybody loves a good story. No? Poetry? How about some music, then? What ties these three together is the voice of the person behind it. This weekend, you can be part of a confluence of such voices from India and around the world at the Spoken fest. Organised by Kommune, the two-day festival will feature a stellar line-up of poets, storytellers, thespians, lyricists, comedians and musicians, whose sole aim is to captivate you with words. Familiar names include Kalki Koechlin, Raghu Dixit, Piyush Mishra and Tanmay Bhat. How did a festival of this magnitude come together? "We started planning it nine months ago. And because we're avid consumers of such performances, it wasn't difficult to find the artistes," begins Roshan Abbas, who, along with Gaurav Kapur and Ankur Tewari, founded Kommune.

Roshan Abbas

Then came the task of getting international artistes such as storytellers Margot Leitman and Diane Ferlatte. "Each of the global artistes who is going to be at the fest is someone the team looks up to. I, for one, was keen on having The Handlebards perform," he adds. Abbas shares that all the artistes have special performances planned. "Kalki, for example, will be doing a piece accompanied by jazz musicians."

Apart from all this, there will also be buskers performing on small stages scattered across the venue, as well as a food court and beer garden for refuelling. "It's not just about coming and seeing these people perform. The international artistes will be conducting workshops on everything from lyric-writing to improv, so you can sign up and actually learn something new," he says.

ON: October 28 and 29, 3 pm to 10 pm
AT: JioGarden, BKC.
LOG ON TO: insider.in
ENTRY: Rs 799 (one day); Rs 1,299 (two days)

Artistes to watch out for

Poetik Justis

A.B.Y

A.B.Y and Poetik Justis
These two rappers will take the stage for a hip-hop performance unlike anything you've seen. "We will be performing eight tracks over 30 minutes, and graffiti artist NME will be creating a work of art through it all," says Aby Thampy, who goes by the moniker A.B.Y. The duo's track list includes tunes like Chalega, Tamasha and School Se Hi Seekha Hai. "I will be performing the last one alongside Noor Hasan, a 17-year-old rapper from Dharavi," shares Aby.

The Handlebards
The world's first cycling theatre company, The HandleBards pedal around with sets, props and costumes to perform environmentally sustainable Shakespeare. At Spoken, the all-female troupe will put up a performance of As You Like It' Expect plenty of laughter and energy.

Gaia Meera
She might be only 20 years old, but this singer-songwriter has plenty to bring to an audience, among them tracks from her soon-to-launch EP. "My music has a folksy, indie vibe. I'll be playing two original songs from the EP," she says. Gaia started performing with Beatmap, a Kommune property, earlier this year, and her melodious voice is accompanied by the upbeat strumming of a ukelele. "I started writing songs and realised I needed an instrument to make music. So, I taught myself to play a ukelele last year," she says.

Aranya Johar
This 18-year-old poet has, through her pieces, tackled mature social issues and topics surrounding by stigma, all with a youthful curiosity. A Brown Girl's Guide to Gender, which was released early this year, went viral within days of being uploaded, and has clocked over 30 million views till date. Mumbai-based Aranya is the co-founder of More than Mics, an organisation that curates creative platforms for poets, musicians and comedians.