Tribhang, a newly-formed Chicago nonprofit seeking to educate communities through performing arts-based entertainment programs, presented “The Heroine”, a compilation of the stories of 3 remarkable women in Indian history through music, poetry and dance at the Vittum Theater in Chicago Ill. Aug. 6
The program started with the story of “Andal”, one of the only female Alvar saints in South India who, through her unrelenting devotion to Lord Vishnu, succeeded in marrying him, defying societal norms. It was depicted through Bharatnatyam, choreographed by Shobhana Natraja.
Excerpts from her ancient literary works, Thiruppavai and Nachiar Tirumozhi, were used to depict her love for Lord Krishna and the sacrifices she made to marry him.
The second performance related to the story of “Sanghamitra”, daughter of emperor Ashoka who is credited with bringing Buddhism and liberation to Sri Lanka. It was performed in the Odissi style, choreographed by Ipishita Satpathy with lyrics in Odia provided by Sri Kedar Mishra and music by Ramahari Das.
The last piece, “I am Strength”, portrayed the stories of millions of women today as they struggle to balance their work and home lives, and pays tribute to modern-day heroines like Helen Keller and Malala Yousafzai. It was choreographed by Kiran Chouhan.
The idea of depicting themes from Indian culture was something that founders of Tribhang, Sonali Sinha Shrivastava, Shiwali Varshney, and Sean Tenner, who have all served on multiple boards of Chicago area organizations, were extremely passionate about. “The thing that we all three loved the most is having educated conversations about important topics, the performing arts, and of course giving back. It allowed us to have 3 different perspectives and we chose the topic dearest to our heart, women’s empowerment,” said Shrivastava.
“There are so many difficult questions that are coming to surface – from the refugee crisis to elections – that people are talking about but they are very rigid in their opinions. We wanted to bring through art a way of talking about these topics and having an open discussion and the ability to see someone else’s point of view to build a stronger community, and at the same time raise funds for the charities which are associated with the topic,” added Varshney.
Tribhang intends to continue host at least 1 anchoring event each year and add 2 others to support local artists and give back to the community. The profits from this event will be donated to Apna Ghar which provides services to immigrant and non-immigrant survivors of gender violence.
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