And now, this is what I’ve been busy with.

All of 2008, I organised readings and open mics in Chennai, and then got fed up with it and stopped. A year has passed since, and in this time I have come to understand why certain formats work here better than others, and have also been fortunate enough to meet the amazing Sajani Gm, who revived my optimism in an open-hearted, indie-minded arts subculture. At the time I met her, I had been intending to start a new performance series called The Madras Sessions (I know, I know, way too sophisticated for this town. I cut my teeth reading underage in jazz bars, okay?). She, meanwhile, had been meaning to start a new performance series called The Chennai Local. We met in the middle, and like a suburban train, The Madras-Chennai Local was born.

We envision this as an ongoing series. We are open to all forms of expressions, as long as the content is original, and welcome both local artists and national and international artists passing through. The first show will have performance poetry, music, movement theatre and visual art.

The inaugural edition is on December 22nd at 7pm at Chandra Mandapa, Spaces, 1 Elliots Beach Road, Besant Nagar; and it features the talents of: Ng Yi-Sheng, Sid & Krish, Srijith Sundaram, Shireen Thomas, Sajani Ganapathy Murugan, Sharanya Manivannan and photographers from David H. Wells’ “Light, Shadow, Twilight and Night in India” workshop.

Check out full details, with artist bios, on the Facebook event page. You can also become a fan of TMCL, and stay updated about any future events, on the fanpage. Please do spread the word.