A Celebration of Bengali Folk Musical Heritage – Curated by Anindita Ghosh

A tribute to, and celebration of Bengali folk music, that has shaped the cultural identity of Bengali communities both in South Asia and the diaspora, including the UK.

Especially in the North-West and among migrants from Bangladesh to the region from the 1950s onwards, who came to work in the textile mills and factories in significant numbers, music provided vital sustenance and cultural bonding, and strength to survive in an alien environment.

Research by Anindita Ghosh, School of Arts Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester, has established critical links between folk music and coping strategies in the studying of displacement and urbanisation in Bengal, and is currently extending the framework of her study to more recent contexts.

In a series of musical and dance performances by Krishno-Chura , embedded in narration and contextualisation, this one hour event will provide a rich showcase of Bengali musical traditions that are still critical in shaping Bangladeshi heritage in the region and the wider world. There will be an additional screening of a short film, called Our Songs, featuring an intergenerational dialogue on Bangla folk music.

This is part of Manchester Museum’s South Asian Heritage Month Festival.

Manchester Museum is celebrating South Asian Heritage Month with an unmissable two-day festival featuring film, music, workshops and more.

The South Asian Heritage Month festival is taking place on 22-23 July at the Whitworth on Oxford Road, while Manchester Museum is closed for its £15 million hello future transformation.

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Krishno-Chura is a Manchester based Bangali cultural organisation formed by British Bangladeshis in 2015 with the aim to perform, present and expand Bengali music, poetry, literature, dance and drama in the UK. The organisation works independently and also in collaboration with other Bengali cultural groups, mainstream British organisations and the Bangladeshi diplomatic mission as a source of research and information for Bengali culture. From 2020 the group has been hosting topical literary seminars and publishing an annual bilingual literary magazine. The literary magazine consists of writings and art submitted from different corners of the world.