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  The Poetry of Mirabai - “Don't...

  Mirabai

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  Mirabai was a Rajput princess born to the Rathore clan in 1498 in Kudaki, Rajasthan in northern India. Despite being one of the most significant saints in the Bhakti tradition and an immensely popular Hindu mystic and religious poet, very few facts are actually known about her life including her date of birth.  
   
  It is clear that her mother died when she was very young and she was greatly influenced by her father, also a worshipper of Krishna. From a young age Mirabai’s devotion to Krishna was absolute surrender and complete devotion. It was only with great reluctance that she entered a marriage, arranged by her uncle, to Prince Bhoj Raj of Chittor in 1516.  
   
  The marriage ended after 5 years with the death, in quick succession, of her husband and then father-in-law, who was her protector.  
   
  Her now public display of faith, mainly demonstrated by attending religious meetings, or Satsangs, with their devotional singing and dancing, brought persecution by her remaining in-laws who insisted she stop.  On hearing that her brother-in-law, Vikramaditya, the then king of Chittor, might harm or even kill her, she fled. 
   
  She travelled through northern India expressing her love for Krishna with some 1300 bhajans or sacred songs, usually composed with a simple rhythm and a repeated refrain. Her use of everyday language, infused with a sweetness of emotion and charm brought her a growing respect and popularity  
   
  It is popularly believed that she spent her last years as a pilgrim in Dwarka Gujarat and miraculously merged with the image of Krishna in 1556.

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  January

  Helen Hunt Jackson

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  LibriVox volunteers bring you 8 recordings of January by Helen Hunt Jackson. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 13, 2013.Helen Maria Hunt Jackson, born Helen Fiske was an Amewrican writer and activist for the improvement of treatment of the Native Americans by the U.S. government.  Her books A Century of Dishonor and Ramona both attracted considerable attention to her cause. (Summary by David Lawrence)

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  His Dark Materials (Stage...

  Philip Pullman

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  A two-play dramatisation of Philip Pullman's extraordinary award-winning fantasy trilogy, first seen at the National Theatre.
  His Dark Materials takes us on a thrilling journey through worlds familiar and unknown. For Lyra and Will, its two central characters, it's a coming of age and a transforming spiritual experience. Their great quest demands a savage struggle against the most dangerous of enemies. They encounter fantastical creatures in parallel worlds – rebellious angels, soul-eating spectres, child-catching Gobblers and the armoured bears and witch-clans of the Arctic. Finally, before reaching, perhaps, the republic of heaven, they must visit the land of the dead.
  Note to performers: although conceived for a theatre with rich resources, this adaptation can also be staged in imaginative ways without the aid of sophisticated technology.
  'Nicholas Wright... has risen to the challenge with brilliance' - Mail on Sunday
  '"Unstageable" was the first reaction of the National Theatre's artistic director, Nicholas Hytner, to the idea of dramatising His Dark Materials. But last night's opening has triumphantly proved him wrong' - Sunday Times
  'Children's theatre of an uncommon maturity and ambition... dazzling in just the right way... moments of heart-stopping simplicity' - Independent
  'The hottest ticket in town long before press day... Book to see it next Christmas' - Financial Times

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  Mother Night

  James Weldon Johnson

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  Librivox volunteers bring you fifteen different readings of Mother Night, by James Weldon Johnson. This weekly poetry project (for the week of 2/26/2006) was selected to celebrate Black History Month.(Summary by Annie Coleman)

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  I Am Shakespeare

  Mark Rylance

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  A fascinating, witty and characteristically exuberant dramatic exploration of the Shakespeare authorship debate.
  Is it possible that the son of an illiterate tradesman, from a small market town in Warwickshire, could have written the greatest dramatic works the world has ever seen? It's a question that has puzzled scholars, theatre practitioners and theatregoers for many years. The philosopher, Francis Bacon; the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere; and Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke: all of them have been put forward as the real author of the plays. But why would they hide behind an anonymous actor? Who was the real Bard of Stratford? Why should we care?
  Mark Rylance is one of a number of leading actors who seriously question the idea that William Shakespeare was the man behind the thirty-seven plays that have moved, inspired and amazed generations.
  First performed at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2007, Rylance's provocative play introduces us to four candidates and their respective claims - whilst asking fundamental questions about what makes a genius, and why it all matters anyway.
  'Witty, gloriously funny and wonderfully well-written... the best thing I have seen for years' The Stage

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  City Of Rain

  Alvin Pang

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  “One of Singapore’s most visible poets, Pang grows with each book. In his poems we hear a voice unhurried, confident, and capable of carrying diverse humors, and read a rhetoric shaded to ironies, surprising us with glimpses of contemporary experience that affirm yet mock, celebrate and unsettle. His poetry adds a rich and complex presence to the critical mass of urban literature now fully emergent from Singapore. His poems, at once recognizably national and international in reach, offer a fresh edgy energy to this tradition.” 
   
  - Professor Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, 1992 and author of Joss and Gold

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