Durga, the goddess, around whom the festivities in Bengal are centered this time of year, is a symbol of strength and empowerment, conquering evil. While the city was getting ready to welcome the goddess with lights and decorations, the Satyajit Ray Auditorium at the Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR on the 22nd September celebrated the performative storytelling ensemble curated by artists from our very own city and around. It was presented in collaboration with the American Centre. What could be a better time than just before Durga Puja to talk about empowerment of women and gender equality?

Aloknanda Roy opened the show and spoke at length about the need to be more human and remove bias from our midst. She has been using arts, specifically traditional dance and music to change the lives of convicts at the Presidency Correctional Home in Kolkata.

The stories connected through theater, puppetry, dance, and folk music spoke volumes about what ails ours society today. The transitions from one story to the other was so smooth and hard- hitting. It spoke openly about harassment of both women and men in all strata of society. Gender bias came through very strongly from the performance.

One story at a time used a combination of modern and traditional methods of storytelling to directly empower and influence young leaders to combat gender imbalance and gender based violence within their communities. This project has been financially supported by the U.S. Consulate in Kolkata. It has partnered with Loka Kalyan Parishad, Kolkata Sanved, Bangla Natok dot com, Vikramshila and a team of creative people and artists from different parts of Bengal specialising in their own unique art forms.

Their art ranged from puppetry, scroll painting, dancing, singing, street theater, poetry and many more. This myriad ensemble began seven months back with training under the expertise of Raymond Caldwell, Washington DC-based artist and a theater professor at Howard University; Johamy Morales from California, a Director of Creede Repertory Theater and was a part of capacity development programs traveling to project areas across Eastern and North Eastern India to spread social awareness.

The performance has ever since then traveled through the different parts of India and has been presented to different range of audiences all across.

Like the goddess Durga slaying the demon, we all need to rise and break the silence and stand up for what needs to be changed one issue at a time.

Durga, the goddess, around whom the festivities in Bengal are centered this time of year, is a symbol of strength and empowerment, conquering evil. While the city was getting ready to welcome the goddess with lights and decorations, the Satyajit Ray Auditorium at the Rabindran