Festival of Ideas and Resistance | Kozhikode

Students Islamic Organization (SIO) Kerala and Campus Alive is organizing the Festival of Ideas and Resistance, from 27-29 December 2019 in Kozhikode, Kerala.

Festival of Ideas and Resistance is a grand celebration of the subaltern Ideas and cultural resistances through academic discussions, seminars, workshops, art cultural exhibitions, music performances, food etc.

Political anthropologist Irfan Ahmad, Telugu story writer and poet Shaik Yousuf Baba, who writes under the name Skybaaba, Kashmiri documentary photographer, journalist, and artist Sanna Irshad Mattoo, acclaimed writer and women’s rights activist Susie Tharu, T. Arifali, General Secretary, Jamathe Islami Hind and Malayalam filmmakers Zakariya Muhammed and Leela Santhosh feature on Festival of ideas and Resistance’s list of 100 speakers.

Aysha Renna, Ladeeda Farzana and Shaheen Abdulla, the students of Jamia Millia Islamia who became the brave faces of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act movement will also join the festival in its inaugural ceremony. Aysha and Ladeeda are being hailed across India for their defiant bravery after a video went viral on social media, showing them confronting policemen to save their friend journalist Shaheen Abdul- la during a protest in capital New Delhi. They were among the thousands of people agitating against the controversial Citizenship Act and their picture has become representative of the struggle against the Citizenship Act.

The festival’s speakers list also includes a vastly diverse mix of scholars, activists, columnists, journalists, broadcasters and poets like transgender activist and founder of Trans Rights Now Collective Grace Banu, historian and author Bhangya Bhukya, activist and Delhi University professor Hany Babu M.T, Delhi University Assistant professor Jenny Rowena, writer and filmmaker Jyoti Nisha who directs a feature-length documentary on B.R Ambedkar, prominent social critiques in Kerala and Dalit thinkers K.K Kochu and K.K Baburaj.

Kashmiri actor and rapper Mu’azzam Bhat, rapper and student activist Sumeet Samos, also known as “Turuk, Da-Lit boy”, The Nagore Boys- Abdul Ghani, Ajah Maideen and Saabrumaideen Babha Sabeer- the three devotional singers from little town of Nagore in Tamil Nadu, Malabar’s famous musicians, Ghazal-Khawali singers, Sameer Binsi and Imam Majboor and Mehfil-e-Sama’a which is a Delhi based Sufi-Hindustani classical music ensemble are set to perform at the festival.

The presence of artists and more than 50 art installations at Festival of ideas and Resistance will confirm a platform for artists from conflict-prone and India’s marginalized societies.