Dear reader, dear writer, dear friend of ILB,
This year I’m curating a part of the festival, a «festival within the festival,» and I want to tell you what this means.
I’ve invited an outspoken unruly collective of poets, novelists, dancers and musicians, among them Kamal Trilok Singh, Anthony Joseph, Tishani Doshi, Natsuko Kono, Omar Musa, Mariel Roberts Musa, Sarnath Banerjee, Mohammed Hanif and Eileen Myles. Some of them will share the stage with our dazzling ILB house band, led by Diego Piñera.
No script, no safety net, just an offering to the gods of improvisation, where the ego melts and remakes itself as inspiration.
Call it a live experiment in collaboration: sound as instigation, movement as invocation, failure as an option, risk versus beauty. Bring your own appetite for alchemy. You are part of the chemical reaction we seek.
Find the full schedule below. I’ll see you there.
Jeet Thayil
Curator in Residence
The Curator in Residence Program at the 26th ILB
Festival Opening with Jeet Thayil and Boualem Sansal
What can literature accomplish in times of upheaval? To open the 26th ILB, Jeet Thayil will deliver the keynote address “Singing in the Dark,” with music by the ILB House Band.
In German, English, and French, with simultaneous interpretation.
Sep 03 | 6:00 PM
Jeet Thayil: One Last Unending Night for the World
A performative reading of poems about inspiration, memory, and loss, accompanied by the ILB House Band. Followed by a conversation about writing in the apocalyptic present.
Moderator: Simone Schröder
Sep 04 | 9:00 PM
Sarnath Banerjee: Absolute Jafar
Of sultans, djinns, and street food: Every night, Brighu tells his son Jafar stories of a home that no longer exists as it once did. A reading on Graphic Novel Day.
Moderator: Julia Korbik
Sep 05 | 4:00 PM
Omar Musa & Mariel Roberts Musa: Just the Two of Us
What does it take to collaborate in life and in art? Poet and novelist Omar Musa and cellist Mariel Roberts Musa explore through performance where language and sound meet.
Moderator: Jeet Thayil
Sep 05 | 5:00 PM
Eileen Myles: How to Live Twice
Poetry rock star meets jazz improvisation: Eileen Myles joins the ILB House Band in an exchange of language and music. Plus, a conversation about whether poetry can exist without performance.
Moderator: Jeet Thayil
Sep 06 | 8:30 PM
Anthony Joseph & Diego Piñera: What is the Frequency of Magic?
Calypso, poetry, and magic: Anthony Joseph will be accompanied on drums by Diego Piñera. A coming together of percussion and the word.
Moderator: Jeet Thayil
Sep 09 | 6:00 PM
Come on in My Kitchen! Community Night
Writers from the Indian community offer insights into their work before Jeet Thayil invites them to the “kitchen table” for a conversation about Berlin, life and writing in the diaspora—and the recipe for a truly great text.
Featuring: Deepika Arwind, Abul Kalam Azad, Saskya Jain, siddhartha lokanandi, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan. Moderator: Jeet Thayil
Sep 09 | 8:30 PM
Mohammed Hanif: Rebel English Academy
Mohammed Hanif is one of the novelists redefining contemporary Pakistani literature—«one of South Asia’s funniest and most subversive voices» (The Guardian).
Moderator: Hasnain Kazim
Sep 10 | 6:30 PM
Tishani Doshi & Natsuko Kono: Movement is the Message
Body language takes on new meaning when Indian poetry meets the Japanese avant-garde: Tishani Doshi and Butoh dancer Natsuko Kono create spaces for language through movement.
Sep 11 | 6:00 PM
Generation Next: Kamal Trilok Singh
Indian literature in English is in good hands: In his debut, «happily ever after,» Kamal Trilok Singh dissects a relationship in intimate detail, with sensitivity and rhythmic precision.
Moderator: Hadnet Tesfai
Sep 11 | 8:00 PM
This Be The Beat. A Performance
For the finale of the Curator in Residence program, Tishani Doshi, Anthony Joseph, Omar Musa, and Jeet Thayil come together to perform poetry, enter into a lyrical exchange, and join the improvising ILB House Band in a performance made for the history books.
Featuring: Tishani Doshi, Anthony Joseph, Omar Musa, Jeet Thayil
Sep 12 | 6:00 PM