Designers Shradha Kochhar and Adhiraj Singh created LOTA with a three-way mission. They wanted to break what they saw as a wasteful cycle in India’s fashion industry to build a product that would be ethically sourced, locally designed, and authentically represented. Kochhar, a knitwear designer, brought knowledge of the garment industry to Singh’s graphic design … Read More
SAMAVAI is launching a new collection, featuring the shirt silhouette Vedavalli, this week. The silhouette, named after Shriya Samavai Manian’s grandmother, is a classic button-down, calling back to 70s and 80s old school gems with broad collars and bright patterns. Samavai, the designer, namesake, and multi-disciplinary artist behind the SAMAVAI line, transforms saris formerly worn … Read More
a conversation is two mouths made one by a knot of string, strung taut and fluoridated and hamstrung and tasting one singular voice. one mouth indentures of the other to concur with silence as an outturn pidgin emerges. its decreolization subverts the first’s imagery and dreams of deification. the sway of rasa is the theme … Read More
In a word, Adeeba Shahid Talukder’s Kundiman Poetry Prize-winning collection Shahr-e-jaanaan: The City of the Beloved is virtuosic. It sings, thrums with the force of centuries of Urdu and Persian verse. In doing so, it owns the strength of a woman’s voice. In the title poem, Talukder writes, “At December’s end Benazir died / in … Read More
Granddaughter, When I was fourteen, I crossed fourteen rivers, walked to every village that fell under Big Mountain’s shadow, knocking on the door of every medicine woman that knew the mountain rock as her own altar—passing a message, trick of safety, ruse to rouge unmistakable into ordinariness. They hid their medicine in the rocks of … Read More
The Neel Murgai Ensemble, known for their self-described “raga-meets-jazz” sound, released their new album Reorientation this month. Led by Brooklyn Raga Massive co-founder and co-director Neel Murgai, the group experimented with hypnotic soundscapes on this album. Many of the pieces included on the album are reflections of Murgai’s experiences coping with loss and grief, transformed into … Read More
A sword and a gun: these are the weapons that Eboshi and Contra, together the duo Cartel Madras, brandish at the end of their striking video “Goonda Gold.” “Striking” feels like the perfect word for what Cartel Madras puts out. Their music, part of a new style of trap that they’ve dubbed “goonda rap,” strikes … Read More
She arcs an aural eclipse. Last night, the ashes swallowed us whole; a stream of rajgold bangles parting the brahma ghat, throat full of pink salt, ghazals spilling over the ornate moon’s boheme venture. I, milky meteors, trace your eye-lined courtyards slowly, ever so slowly. To remember the dead orphan who once named djinns after … Read More
New York musician and producer Ashou released a new single and music video this month, titled “Hair.” The track comes after Ashou’s 2019 debut, including the songs “New Beginnings” and “Lucid Dream.” The video, which similarly to “New Beginnings” is shot and edited by Mastermind Richy, features Ashou alternating between rapping about excess and extravagance … Read More
Singer, harpist, and producer ELSZ dropped a new single this week, the Bandcamp proceeds of which will go to a bushfire relief fund for First Nations communities in Australia. The song features ELSZ’s simultaneously sweet and haunting vocals, singing about seeking and finding peace “in a body that aches.” In the context of raging fires … Read More
