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Centrepiece: New Writing and Art from Northeast India
Though the northeastern region of India contains eight ethnically diverse, politically complex, and historically different states, it is often homogenized into a problematic category called “the northeast.” Many stereotype it as a region of conflict clouding India’s periphery. The diversity of the region, its rich histories, its many literatures, and its women—who run businesses, fight for peace, and battle their men as rights-bearers—all of these admirable elements of the region tend to disappear in the face of such stereotyping.
Centrepiece brings together twenty-one women from across the northeastern states of India to reflect on the personal nature and meanings of work through their own words and pictures. Whether they are brewing beer, carrying cow dung on their heads, or selling food in the streets, these women confront, love, reject, and laugh at their men in myriad ways. Visually stunning, with full-color images, Centrepiece illustrates how traditional tribal art and modern sensibilities can intersect to create a new visual language for these women to share untold stories. They tell their tales here with both gravity and joy, bringing alive their cultures and showing us how to see a fresh perspective of this region and its people.
Centrepiece brings together twenty-one women from across the northeastern states of India to reflect on the personal nature and meanings of work through their own words and pictures. Whether they are brewing beer, carrying cow dung on their heads, or selling food in the streets, these women confront, love, reject, and laugh at their men in myriad ways. Visually stunning, with full-color images, Centrepiece illustrates how traditional tribal art and modern sensibilities can intersect to create a new visual language for these women to share untold stories. They tell their tales here with both gravity and joy, bringing alive their cultures and showing us how to see a fresh perspective of this region and its people.
213 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 6, 2019
"What we offer the reader is not so much a single, unifying narrative or a worldview, rather an invitation to trace a line, through a diverse, complicated and contrary universe, along the wings of an uncertain flight."
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RATING: 5/5.
Remember when I said five days ago in a TBR post that I will read Centrepiece slowly over the month and fully indulge myself in its beauty? Yeah well, that turned out to be a visibly incorrect assessment. This was such a glorious book that I had to keep turning the pages and finish it all as soon as possible. As I have mentioned before, I am really interested in exploring the literature coming from the Seven Sisters (and the One Brother) region, to use more colloquial phrases because the term "Northeast" is considered inappropriate as it homogenizes a region of great diversity, so I was really excited when I came across this book.
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Centrepiece was an eye-opening experience. It is a collection of art, poetry, stories and essays where 22 writers and artists, all from this region and all women, examine the idea of "work". It finds different ways to narrate the lives of women and their relationship with the various kinds of work they do with surprising humour and great compassion. Moreover, it helps the reader shed the monochrome and generalised popular image of the this part of the country in the collective unconscious of the citizens of the North and Central regions of India. The book strives to engender a pluralistic vision of the "Northeast" through a wild polyphony of assertive female voices.
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The range of the narratives presented herein is breathtaking in its vastness. The essays by Gertrude Lamare, about women hawkers in Shillong, Dolly Kikon, about gender, culture and customary law debate in Nagaland, and Rini Barman, about rice beer brewing, were my favourites. Aungmakhai Chak has a brilliant photo essay on the objects of everyday work which subverts gender norms beautifully. I have had the pleasure of listening to Nitoo Das in person and her two poems, along with illustrations, included here are marvelous. Minam Apang's artwork is mesmerising; the cover visual is hers. Mona Zote's masterful poem is yet another favourite.
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Gender lies at the heart of this anthology and, at the cost of sounding patronising, it provides the space for women to shine and etch their own mark on the world. The book is a testament to the fact that no one can tell the stories of women better than they themselves. The art especially cements the vision of Zubaan and Parismita Singh to create a one of a kind work of literature which is imbued with grace, enthusiasm, wit and, most importantly, a streak of rebellion. It can serve as a great starting point for people who don't belong to this region to get get acquainted with it in a wholesome, beautiful and unprejudiced manner. To be concise, this is one book that you must buy and read as soon as possible.
.
.
RATING: 5/5.
Remember when I said five days ago in a TBR post that I will read Centrepiece slowly over the month and fully indulge myself in its beauty? Yeah well, that turned out to be a visibly incorrect assessment. This was such a glorious book that I had to keep turning the pages and finish it all as soon as possible. As I have mentioned before, I am really interested in exploring the literature coming from the Seven Sisters (and the One Brother) region, to use more colloquial phrases because the term "Northeast" is considered inappropriate as it homogenizes a region of great diversity, so I was really excited when I came across this book.
.
.
Centrepiece was an eye-opening experience. It is a collection of art, poetry, stories and essays where 22 writers and artists, all from this region and all women, examine the idea of "work". It finds different ways to narrate the lives of women and their relationship with the various kinds of work they do with surprising humour and great compassion. Moreover, it helps the reader shed the monochrome and generalised popular image of the this part of the country in the collective unconscious of the citizens of the North and Central regions of India. The book strives to engender a pluralistic vision of the "Northeast" through a wild polyphony of assertive female voices.
.
.
The range of the narratives presented herein is breathtaking in its vastness. The essays by Gertrude Lamare, about women hawkers in Shillong, Dolly Kikon, about gender, culture and customary law debate in Nagaland, and Rini Barman, about rice beer brewing, were my favourites. Aungmakhai Chak has a brilliant photo essay on the objects of everyday work which subverts gender norms beautifully. I have had the pleasure of listening to Nitoo Das in person and her two poems, along with illustrations, included here are marvelous. Minam Apang's artwork is mesmerising; the cover visual is hers. Mona Zote's masterful poem is yet another favourite.
.
.
Gender lies at the heart of this anthology and, at the cost of sounding patronising, it provides the space for women to shine and etch their own mark on the world. The book is a testament to the fact that no one can tell the stories of women better than they themselves. The art especially cements the vision of Zubaan and Parismita Singh to create a one of a kind work of literature which is imbued with grace, enthusiasm, wit and, most importantly, a streak of rebellion. It can serve as a great starting point for people who don't belong to this region to get get acquainted with it in a wholesome, beautiful and unprejudiced manner. To be concise, this is one book that you must buy and read as soon as possible.
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March 25, 2018A very important addition to the very few books we have about the seven states in India's northeastern region, and with a specific emphasis on gender.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews