The Festival, observed every year in honor of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)– poet, dramatist, musician, philosopher, and humanist, who became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 –commemorates the Nobel Laureate’s visit to the UIUC campus in 1912 when he delivered a series lectures at the Channing Murray Chapel. Tagore’s creative genius has been celebrated here over the years with novel presentations of music, art, poetry, prose, and his overall philosophy. The Tagore Festival presents a unique, cross-cultural forum within which the Champaign-Urbana community explores not merely this rich heritage but the prophetic quality of Tagore’s work, which frequently lauded the connectedness of a global culture.
2018
XXIX TAGORE FESTIVAL, 2018 Saturday, September 29 Theme: Rabindranath Tagore and World Literature
Keynote Lecture by Dr. Elleke Boehmer, Oxford University, England
The Festival, observed every year in honor of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)– poet, dramatist, musician, philosopher, and humanist, who became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 –commemorates the Nobel Laureate’s visit to the UIUC campus in 1912 when he delivered a series lectures at the Channing Murray Chapel. Tagore’s creative genius has been celebrated here over the years with novel presentations of music, art, poetry, prose, and his overall philosophy. The Tagore Festival presents a unique, cross-cultural forum within which the Champaign-Urbana community explores not merely this rich heritage but the prophetic quality of Tagore’s work, which frequently lauded the connectedness of a global culture.
2017
XXVIII TAGORE FESTIVAL, 2017 Saturday, September 16 Theme: 100 Years of Tagore’s Urbana Lectures on Nationalism
Keynote Lecture by Dr. Sukanya Banerjee, Department of English, University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee)
“On Tagore’s Nationalism: The Object and The World”
See flyer for more details, including information on dinner reservations.
2016
XXVII TAGORE FESTIVAL, 2016 Saturday, September 10 Theme: Chalachchitra, the“Poetry of Movement”: Tagore in Contemporary Indian Cinema
Dr. Neepa Majumdar, Department of English & Film Studies, University of Pittsburgh, will deliver the keynote address.
Please see the attached FLYER for full details of the program.
Organizers of the Tagore Festival express their gratitude to National Film Development Corporation, India, for the permission to screen Ghare Baire (Dir. Satyajit Ray).
The evening will also feature an innovative presentation of Tagore’s dance drama Chandalika, by community and campus members of the East Central Illinois Bengali Association.
2015
XXVI TAGORE FESTIVAL, 2015 Saturday, September 19 Theme: Tagore’s Gitanjali
5:00 PM Reception and check-in
5:30 PM Invocation by Jagriti group of East Central Illinois Bengali Association (ECIBA) Welcome: Nani Bhowmik Lighting of the lamp and Remarks by Honorable Consul General Ausaf Sayeed Remarks by Rini Bhattacharya Mehta on Tagore Chapel
6:00 PM Keynote Lecture: Translating Tagore: Revisiting theGitanjaliand the History of its Reception in the West Sudipta Sen, Professor of History, University of California, Davis
7:00 PM Cultural Program by East Central Illinois Bengali Association
5:15 -6:15 pm: Keynote Speech, Professor Kathi Kern, University of Kentucky
Tagore the Feminist Professor Kern’s talk will focus on how American suffragettes deployed Rabindranath Tagore’s writings to challenge the hegemony of Western gender relations. Specifically, she will discuss Clara Colby, the long-time editor of The Woman’s Tribune, who read Tagore in translation extensively; the play Chitra (based on the character Chitrangada) prompted her to entitle one of her manuscripts ‘Tagore the Feminist.’ Professor Kern will discuss the historical context of Colby’s ‘discovery’ of Tagore, analyzing Colby’s place in a long list of Americans influenced by Indian philosophy and literature. Professor Kathi Kern teaches history at the University of Kentucky. Professor Kern’s research centers on the women’s rights movement in nineteenth-century America and focuses particularly on how politics, gender, and religion have mixed to create new ideological positions and social change in the United States. She is the author of numerous articles and the book, Mrs. Stanton’s Bible (Cornell University Press). Choice Magazine selected this work as an Outstanding Academic Book for 2001.
6:15 pm: Cultural Program East Central Illinois Bengali Association
7:15 pm: Performance Mithya: The Indian Dramatic Society
7:30 pm: Catered Dinner (vegetarian and non-vegetarian) $15 for adults; $13 for students; $10 for children (6-12 years)
4:30 pm: Reception: Welcome Speech by Dr. Nani Bhowmik
5:00 pm: Kabir’s song; Aditi Das
5:10 pm: Tagore’s Songs by Unitarian Group
From The Living Tradition: No. 185: Your Mercy, Oh Eternal One; No. 191: Now I Recall My Childhood; No. 197: There are Numerous Strings; Piano: Barbara Hudgings; Singers: Jody Hanger, Claire Barker, Pamela Van Wyk, Jerry Carden, Marsha Clinard and Charlie Boast
5:30 pm: Scenes from Tagore’s Red Oleanders (Raktakarabi, 1925); MITHYA: The Indian Dramatics Society Participants: Subhro Roy as Kishore; Radha Venkatagiri as Nandini; Sridhar Duggirala as King; Achal Asawa as Bishu :: Music: Subhro Roy :: Direction: Sonal Mithal
6:00 pm: Rituranga: Splendor of the Seasons llinois students and Champaign-Urbana Residents
8:15 pm: Keynote Speech
Rabindranath Tagore and the Unitarians
Rebecca Manring; Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington
9:30 pm: Rabindranath Tagore (1961, 50 min.); Documentary by Satyajit Ray
2011
XXIII TAGORE FESTIVAL, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Theme: The Life and Legacy of Rabindranath Tagore
PROGRAM 5:30 pm: Reception
6:00 pm: Invocation by Professor Hans H. Hock, University of Illinois
6:15 pm:Cultural Program Performance based on Tagore’s Music and Poetry, featuring members of the Urbana-Champaign Community
7:00 pm: Catered Dinner; $15 for adults; $12 for students; $10 for children (6-12 years)
8:00 pm: Keynote Speech
The Lonely Road: Rabindranath Tagore and Visual Modernism
Keya Ganguly, Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota
9:15pm: Rabindrasangeet Performance, Debojoy Chanda, University of Illinois.
2010
XXII TAGORE FESTIVAL Saturday, September 25 Theme: Tagore and Social Change
PROGRAM
5:30: Reception
6:00: Invocation
6:15: Cultural Program
7:00: Dinner
8:00: Keynote Speech
Changing the World at Home: Rabindranath Tagore and the Concept of Social ChangeProfessor Tithi Bhattacharya, History, Purdue University
9:15: Rabindrasangeet
Performance by Madhuri Das; accompanied by Atul Dixit on the Tabla.
