Artist's statement

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As a trans man going through my transition surgery, I was seriously thinking about documenting my experiences that could last beyond the transition process. I had also been contemplating questions around gender and voice after years of music training, having constantly subverted the traditions of patriarchy, caste and gender.

 

Special thanks to Shals Mahajan, Sunil Mohan, Chayanika Shah and reFrame for helping me explore the subject in ways that went way beyond the initial ideas of my proposal.

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About the artist

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Rumi Harish, a queer transman started learning Hindustani classical vocal music at the age of 9 under Late Pandit Ramarao Naik, and trained for 17 years. He started performing at the age of 11 across different cities in different prestigious festivals. He has learned under many teachers like Pandit Yeshwanth Bua Joshi, Pandit D.S.Garud, Pandit Indhudhar Nirody and Smt. Aditi Upadhya. 

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In recent years, he has been experimenting a lot with different performance forms like monologue play on Raag Kalyani. He worked with S R Ramakrishna on fusion based Thumris and Sufi music. He worked with theatre directors Prasanna, B. Jayashree, B Suresha. He directed music for a feature film “Kaudi”. He has also performed abroad in Copenhagen, Malaysia, Serbia, Abu Dhabi.  Presently Rumi is learning music from Pandith Sudhindra Bhaumik. Rumi along with Sunil Mohan works as research consultant in Alternative Law Forum.