ONE DAY IN THE COUNTRY: BANGALORE

thankyou for participating Aruna, Atreyee, Balaji, Dev, Laura Neuhaus, Jose,Padma, Priyanka, Roshan Paul, Sanjana, Sarita, Soumya, Yamini Deen

We started an hour late. from the 18 confirmed 11 showed up and we needed about 14 women to form the sentence Y R U LOOKIN AT ME?!! Ofcourse there was panic: thanking Nirmala: Stress Control Dept.

No matter what, in the end, there will always be a show. Thankyou Priyanka, our new member, the alphabet A who readily joined us from the public!

Dev, Balaji and Jose distributed the pamphlets at traffic signals, Brigade Road and on MG Road.

But when you look back at them, when you stare right back at them, they don’t take it as an invitation, they don’t think we’re reciprocating.
They get the message. They get the vibes.
Back off!
All it takes is a little courage. -Sanjana

Some strange reactions of horror/suspicion/curiosity/amusement/hesitation in the women on Brigade Road, as we were walking up to them asking them to volunteer.
Also won some long astaring matches, leaning against the railing of Brigade Road footpath.
Felt strong frustration against policemen who were kicking a fuss- there were some ten of us- young women, unarmed, not stopping traffic(simply standing at the signal), not shouting slogans. Is it so unnerving to see women moving around, having fun? -Atreyee

Sunday's intervention was empowering and socially catalytic- thanks for the experience.
It's personally reassuring to discover a unified group of women and men who oppose the humiliation of women- and are dedicated to ending the passive, fearful silence about public harassment. -Laura Neuhas

I was disappointed with the fact that some people did not bother to read what was written in the pamphlet, throwing it away and some girls not even taking the pamphlets, even after mentioning it was a campaign against eve teasing.-Balaji

Couldn't help but laugh when I saw those gaping motorcyclists.
Shock and awe! -Dev

It was fun! Esp running between the signals... yeah the look on ppl's
faces was priceless :) - Soumya

ONE DAY IN THE COUNTRY

Blank Noise Project will intervene on the streets of the following cities:

BANGALORE DELHI CHENNAI CALLING VOLUNTEERS on Sunday the 28th of May between 5 and 7:30 pm (MUMBAI and HYDERABAD postponed until we get more volunteers in both places and the mumbai weather supports our activity) e: blurtblanknoise@gmail.com with your city name in the subject line to participate


Thankyou!

The Blank Noise Team
.............................

EVENT DETAILS BELOW:

HYDERABAD

INTERVENTION DATE: In Hyd on Saturday Jun 3rd, 2006.

participants: Prithvi, Uday, Ambrish, Lakshmi Kishore, Vrinda, Lakshmi, Soumya Divakarla.

MUMBAI :

INTERVENTION DATE: JUNE 4th SUNDAY

participants: Rajvi, Tejus, Nisha Chandwani, Varsha, Pallavi

CHENNAI
location: Besant Nagar Beach
meeting at Planet Yumm at 5 pm. 28th May

participants: Vivek Rai, Diya Shivlani, Vignesh, Sudhish, Jai krishna, Swapna Mohan, Deepti Ravi, Anu Vishwanathan, Mridula, Gayathri,Shilpa Rathnam....

DELHI
location: Assemble at Barista South Ex Part 1 at 5 pm

Intervention starts at 5 : 15 pm

At Delhi Blank Noise collaborates with Jagori for its Safe Delhi Campaign!
participants: Prashiela, Sharad, Harneet, Raj Shekhar, Sakthy Edamaruku, Apoorva Bhandari, Pawan Sharma, Siddarth, Sumati Panikar, Amit Ken, Shruti (JAGORI), Monica Mody, Svetha Venkatraman


BANGALORE
location: Brigade Road EVA MALL : Coffee Day
meeting at 5 pm

participants: Chitra, Soumya, Balaji, Yamini, Harini, Ruam Mukherjee, Dev Sukumar, Rekha, Suren Vikash, Padma, Laura Neuhas,Sanjana, Chandani, Alkaa Shankernarayan

majestic majestic!!

5 30 PM- platform no.5
MONDAY : MAY 22nd
MAJESTIC BUS STATION

purpose:
to introduce the idea of eve teasing in the bus station
direct public response to another event in the bus station in the coming week!

Volunteers:
Dev, Balaji, Pritesh, Chandani, Ratna, Vijay. Rahima.


here's what we did:

distributed pamphlets/ dispersed letters bearing eve teasing testimonials/ read them aloud inside a bus with a captive audience/

a detailed version of what we did is coming soon

Dear Stranger

There were some intimate moments on the streets of Bangalore this evening.

Alka, Chitra, Pritesh, Ratna, Vidya, Yamini dispersed testimonials from the Blank Noise blogathon as letters addressed to strangers on the street. These letters were given to people who reacted to the gaze of the participants in performance.

(Balaji distributed the Blank Noise bilingual pamphlets alongside)

Twenty different testimonials, randomly selected from blogathon entries.

The letters were hand folded and given to the few chosen ones on in the public. Anyone who made eye contact, walked upto the participants, asked a question got this little note instead thus creating intimate moments, secrecy, surprise, shock?

Each letter was a different blogger's testimony.

The letters read as:

Dear Stranger,
Coming back from college, if the bus was too crowded, I used to try and walk the seven kilometer stretch. Even in the bloody summers. Even when I kept away from the crowded bus, and walked - some asshole would drive by, roll down his window, and ask persistently if I wanted a lift. No. I'll give you a lift. No. Please come. No. Come you bitch. No. Walk. Five minutes later - another car. No. No. No.
So are you victim, perpetrator or mute spectator to eve teasing?
Sincerely,
Just another girl.

or

Dear Stranger,
NOT GLARING AT EVERY PASSERBY SUSPICIOUSLY CAN BE INTERPRETED AS AN INVITATION
So are you victim, perpetrator or mute spectator to eve teasing?
Sincerely,
Hyper women amidst 'fathers', 'husbands' and 'brothers' .


The next intervention is in Majestic bus stand, Bangalore. We are meeting on Sunday 14th May to get it going.

(Kannada speaking bloggers are encouraged to contact Blank Noise at 98868 40612)

FOR MEET UP ANNOUNCEMENTS IN YOUR CITY

Blank Noise Bangalore meets on Friday the 5th of May at 6 pm to plan a street intervention scheduled for the following Sunday ( 5-7 pm). This event will also work with texts from the blogathon.
You are invited to attend and participate in this event. Your participation will strengthen the impact of what we want to say, and how we can say it.
Another part of the meeting will discuss and distribute campaign material for clothes project DID YOU ASK FOR IT .
The meeting will be held at the Blank Noise Studio . Please email and confirm your participation.
For questions such as " BUT WHAT ARE WE GOING TO ACTUALLY DO? " : I sincerely request you to attend the meeting.
Email: blurtblanknoise@gmail.com or phone me at 98868 40612
FOR INFORMATION ON MEET UPS IN MUMBAI, DELHI, BANGALORE, CHENNAI AND HYDERABAD CLICK HERE. (the same is posted on the side bar in green.)

NOT GLARING SUSPICIOUSLY AT EVERY PASSER BY CAN BE INTERPRETED AS AN INVITATION

NOT GLARING SUSPICIOUSLY AT EVERY PASSER BY CAN BE INTERPRETED AS AN INVITATION- (click here to hear)

This audio piece was created by Rehaan Engineer with actor Ayesha Raza. The piece was created after the Blank Noise blogathon in March 2006. This was performed at Kitab Mahal recently.

Thankyou bloggers for participating, for sharing, confronting, healing.

Thankyou known turf for the title.

Thankyou Ruchi Mehta for the photo.

Blank Noise would also like to thank our very own Smita Jain for coming up with the blogathon in the first place!

DELHI EVENT POSTPONED

Hello,
Mangs has been unwell and the Delhi event has been postponed to saturday may 6th.
Please mark 6th May for Blank Noise.
Apologies for inconvinience caused.
here's wishing mangs a speedy recovery.
thankyou.

contact: blurtblanknoise@gmail.com

At Mumbai: kitab mahal

Blank Noise Project was invited to participate in Ek Aur Level Chalte Chalte, an event put together by Gabriel Sirosis and Srimoyee Mitra on April 20th and 21st. A part of the clothes received from the DID YOU ASK FOR IT, project were installed, along with a video performance that questioned passive news consumption. ( the clothes project is still on. We wont stop until there are a 1000 and we will then install them on your streets.)

Rehaan Engineer gave a new form to the blogathon with actor Ayesha. The blogathon was revisited, scripted and heard out loud to the audience at Kitab Mahal. Rehaan's audio piece titled, " Not glaring suspiciously at every passerby suspiciously can be interpreted as an invitation"

( thanking all bloggers for participating in the blogathon. Thankyou all!!

Sincere apologies to those who showed up on saturday at Kitab Mahal and could not find me, I had to run to Carter Road.)

Thank you Rehaan! Thankyou Ayesha!

Mumbai- Carter Road: Y R U LOOKING AT ME

Thank you -

Avni
Ashok
Aparna
Archana
Hirawaman
Indu
Jasbir
Ketan
Leela
Mini
Ms Duseja
Milind
Namita
Naveen
Nisha
Pearl
Priti
Pranita
Pallavi
Rajvi
Rashmi
Shruti
Sangeeta
Shefali
Savita
Sheila
Saran
Trishala
Tejus

For being at the intervention on Saturday, April 22 on Carter Road. More photos and narrative will be posted soon.

that one night stand

thanking participants:

Ratna, Arpita, Chitra, Soumya, Yamini, Tanusree, Maithilli, Molly, Pooja, Pritesh, Pramada Abhishek, Joshua and Balaji!

Some statements we heard that one evening:

“ Why else would you come to brigade road?”

“ I can stare because Im a man. Ofcourse I will stare.”

“ You were staring at me, so I thought maybe you are interested.”

“ He came upto me and asked me if I was waiting for someone, then offered me a ciggarete.”

“ He has been smiling at me, I feel like I look available to him.”

“ The collective staring worked best for me, I cant belivee that he actually moved away!”

“ Taking a photograph without permission is illegal! “

“ Street sexual harassment is also illegal.”

“ If I want I can break this camera of yours in 5 seconds!”

“ It was hard for me to stand straight, walk straight without moving my shoulders and giving way. Im so conditioned to it.”

“It was the first time i walked on brigade road without feeling violated.”

“I am a man , I’m not a hermaphrodite, I will stare”