FUSION
People. News. Information.
SHARADA ESWAR
VOLUME 17, ISSUE 1
2020 Group Publisher Sanjay Agnihotri Editor Ramya Ramanathan rramanathan@metroland.com
Taking control of her narrative
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By Ramya Ramanathan
S
harada Eswar refers to herself as an inter-disciplinary artist with roots in India. Writer, storyteller, singer and arts educator, her work spans across multiple disciplines and art forms. A graduate in Literature Studies, she has trained to be a writer and a storyteller and has also immersed herself in several styles of music including Indian classical music. Prior to coming to Canada, Eswar has had the opportunity to represent India at various international cultural forums. Since her move to Canada in 2001, Eswar has been performing and teaching in Toronto and internationally, drawing on her South Asian ancestry and heritage. Through the Artist in Education program of the Ontario Arts Council, she teaches storytelling through shadow puppetry and music in schools, and narrative writing for the Toronto District School Board’s International Languages Program. Most recently, Eswar was with the Art Gallery of Ontario as a Community Activator. She is also a published children’s author.
What are you currently working on? At any given time, I have at least two or three projects on the go (I guess those are the perks of being a freelance artist! Or is that the hazard?!). I am currently in Stratford with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, working as a Directorial Dramaturg on a play (Two Gentlemen of Verona) directed by Peter Hinton. I am also facilitating artistic workshops for a Newcomer Project that will culminate in an exhibition during the Luminato Festival in June 2020; writing two plays that are supported by Soulpepper Theatre; and also working with Whynot Theatre and Shaw Festival on their production of the Indian Epic, The Mahabharata.
What inspires you the most? Stories and people inspire me the most. Community and stories are very intertwined for me. In my own personal life, stories have always been how I have experienced the world: made and found meaning, dealt with and responded to the extraordinary and ordinary things. It’s a sense of the importance of hospitality and Tell us about your work. Storyteller, writer and vocalist, I effortlessly combine not having or creating barriers or eliminating categories the three worlds of art. My work synthesizes the stories, between people. legends, the folklore and the mythologies and aesthetics of India and the eclectic influences of the world we What key challenges did you have to overcome? I believe that everyone has their journey and everyone live in. My work reflects the hybridity of our lives and has their struggles. I had been working in multi-national transcends borders of culture, religion and ethnicity. advertising agencies before I moved to Canada and thought it would be easy getting into one of them, but How has moving to a new country impacted your I never got past the front desk. I would constantly be journey as a storyteller? As a storyteller and writer, working with children asked if I had Canadian experience... till today I haven’t and youth, I am constantly faced with the challenge of understood what that has meant. So that’s when I started engaging audiences’ minds, redefining my boundaries creating my own work and here I am today happy that I as a storyteller and an artist and exploring new artistic made that choice. directions. My personal vision of storytelling is continually inspired by tradition. Tradition is the cornerstone for the Can you share a special memory about Canada? Catching my first snowflake! I had never seen snow in creation and practice of my art, and it will always be the touchstone for the art I create and perform. However, the my life before and the joy of seeing the first snowfall is demographics of my audience is heterogeneous and at something I will never forget. Even after all these years it times largely Eurocentric. Which means, my work needs holds the same magic for me. to be relevant and accessible to everyone. As a storyteller therefore, I have had to strive to reflect a contemporaneity What is your advice to newcomers? Don’t let others tell you how to tell your story. Take that makes my storytelling Indian in technique but at the control of your narrative! same time universal in context.
CANADIAN IMMIGRANT Volume 17 Issue 1 | 2020
