Source : The Indian Express
In its third edition now, the children’s literature festival, started by storyteller Vaishali Kulkarni and artiste Ishan Kshirsagar, will be centered around the theme ‘Environment’.
Written by Sayan Gosh
From a musical on city’s rivers to storytelling sessions and workshops on parenting, all of these will come true when artistes from various fields of literature and art will collaborate during ‘The Lit-Bug Festival’, scheduled to take place on April 21 at Banter’s YASHADA.
In its third edition now, the children’s literature festival, started by storyteller Vaishali Kulkarni and artiste Ishan Kshirsagar, will be centered around the theme ‘Environment’. The duo who have founded The Story Station, a literary centre that hosts the event each year, have collaborated with Jeevitnadi, a NGO working towards the cause of cleaning of rivers.
Storytellers, publishers and workshop facilitators from all around the country will take sessions at the event. Sessions will take place simultaneously across four groups, allowing visitors to choose from their area of preference. The four main groups are interactive sessions that include events like book launch, author interactions, narrations and even DIY sessions; work stations that include workshops on story writing and quizzes; story station where stories would be told all day long; and the performance station where stories would come alive through theatre, song, dance and other performance arts.
Amongst the events include the launch of Arun Iyer’s new book, Nainapur Adventures, workshops for parents by Dharitri Krishnamurthy and Piyush Sekhsharia, storytellers like Yamini Vijendran, Dola Dasgupta narrating stories to audiences, a Waldorf puppet show, performances by the theatre group Pushkar Rangmanch, Kathak and contemporary dancer Nikhil Ravi Parmar’s performance based on stories and so on.
Keeping in line with the theme of the festival, Do It Yourself (DIY) sessions to teach participants about making toxin-free products and other eco-friendly techniques by Jeevitnadi, have also been organised. The event will conclude with a musical on Pune’s rivers, based on a story written by Prabha Venkat. “The festival is an opportunity for young readers to experience the works published, which the children cannot find at bookstores. Also, we aim to make this a zero-waste event and we have collaborated with a waste management to achieve the same,” said Kshirsagar.