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Explore the complex issue of folk music ownership in this thought-provoking TEDx talk by Shilpa Mudbi Kothakota. Begin with a captivating song about low-caste communities traveling to a Sufi dargah in North Karnataka, India, setting the stage for a deep dive into the challenges of preserving folk music's authenticity in a market-driven world. Examine how removing folk music from its original context affects its connection to collective memory, labor, faith, caste, gender, and work. Question whether this process constitutes appropriation and confront the myths of castelessness and classlessness in art and performance. Gain insights from Mudbi Kothakota's experiences as a performance artist, social activist, and artistic researcher, drawing on her work documenting women's movements, agrarian lifestyles, and cultural politics in Karnataka's rural areas. Discover how she uses the human voice as a tool to understand and challenge societal hierarchies, and learn about her ongoing research into folk music forms and efforts to establish experiential learning spaces for folk knowledge systems in Gulbarga.
