Welcome to  Down Down Radio.  We are produced by the researchers at the New Politics and Afrofuturism Programme at the charity University of the Underground. This tuition-free programme- which ran from October 2020 to March 2021– was calling for Black Radical imagination and pop-culture as powerful vehicles for propelling progressive social justice narratives to mainstream audiences, with a focus on Afrofuturism, black activism, climate justice along with political theory and practice. As a part of the programme led by former mayor of Sheffield and European MeP- Magid Magid- the selected students have worked together on producing meaningful experiences and interventions answering: What would a world where both people and the planet thrive look like? What would the values, systems and culture of that world be? Together they explored constellations of new worlds that can shape possible futures. Through interviews, stories and experimental sounds, they explored and played with formats to tell stories that imagined the possibilities for other worlds.

In this podcast, Ananya Ray (she/her) from the University of the Underground engages in a conversation on poetry as a weapon of resistance against social inequality, injustice and oppression with Prof. Ishan Chakraborty (he/him) and poet Tania Banerjee (she/her).

Ishan Chakraborty is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Jadavpur University. 

Features:

Ishan Chakraborty is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Jadavpur University. His M. Phil thesis is entitled “Rabindranath Tagore’s Treatment of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in His Plays.” He is presently pursuing his PhD from the same department under the supervision of Dr Ananda Lal. He has been awarded the Abul Kashem Rahimuddin Samman in 2019 by the Government of West Bengal for his contribution in the field of elocution and Bengali poetry recitation. He has also received the State Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities 2019 in the category of Role Model from the Government of West Bengal. His areas of interest include Rabindranath Tagore, Translation Studies, Disability Studies, Body Politics, American Literature and 19th Century Bengali and English Literature. He has served the Centre for Disability Studies & Rehabilitation, Jadavpur University as a Co-Principal Investigator to oversee its Audio Book Project. He is one of the coordinators in the Jadavpur University RUSA 2.0 sponsored project “Bodies of Difference: Pedagogies of the Marginal in the Global South.”

Tania Banerjee is a second-year undergraduate student at the Department of English in Jadavpur University. Tania is an intersectional feminist, radio performer, theatre artist and poet. Her work focuses on a diverse range of topics including feminism, antifascist politics, mental health and human relationships. 

Ananya Ray is a third-year undergraduate student of English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. A published poet and academic author, she has a keen interest in gender, activism and Postcolonialism. She has previously presented research papers on Popular Culture and Posthumanism, at international conferences.

Produced by Ananya Ray.

Editors- Soumyadip Mukhopadhyay 

            Partha Madhu

Thank you so much for listening. This is Down Down Radio, produced by researchers at the New Politics and Afro-futurism Programme at University of the Underground. See you next time.