Voices from Hopeless

Hello everyone! If you remember one of my previous blog posts, a while ago I was thrilled to be cast as a character for a silent short film, based on one of my favourite comics (tick that one of the life goals list!).
If you’d like a taste of what’s to come, I give Melisandra of Hopeless, Maine a voice in a short monologue on Saturday the 22nd!

There are so many talented people involved and I cannot wait to see everyone’s contributions! Please tune in during this dreary January for some eldritch mystery, wondrous strange creatures, live music, an interview with creators Tom and Nimue Brown and much, much more!
Meanwhile, the Hopeless, Maine graphic novel series is well worth checking out. It started out as an online serial, which is how I discovered it and has since grown in popularity and tentacles.

Art by Thomas Brown

🦑🌊🐙🧜‍♀️🦇🥄🐚🕷️🧿🔮🌊🦑

Originally posted on Druid Life: On the 22nd of January, there will be an online Hopeless Maine festival, which is an exciting prospect. I’ve already…

Voices from Hopeless

Season’s Greetings from Steampunk India

Christmas is close, how lovely! It’s nearly time to wrap up for the holidays. 

The last deadline of the year is looming: an article about Indian Steampunk for the next edition of SciFi Romance Quarterly. 2016 will see the release of the Steampunk Universe anthology edited by Sarah Hans, featuring my latest story, Internal Devices. I will be contributing to The SciFi and Fantasy Network and am excited about my involvement in a writing project instigated by fellow Steampunk Hands Around the World participants, which has been brewing for some time. February will of course see the 2016 edition of Steampunk Hands Around the World itself: the annual global effort to connect as many people across as many cultures through Steampunk as possible by local events, blog tours, themed articles, exclusive artwork and interviews and much more. Keep a weather eye on the Airship Ambassador’s site for details.

Work is ever ongoing for the Steampunk India-verse itself; short stories – and ,eventually, a book – are mapped out. I will delve into other genre writings as well as ongoing music projects. I will continue to work towards gender -and LGBTI equality in all creative industries. 

So please, keep your aural induction oscillators tuned to the aether, thank you for your support and enjoy the festive season, however you may celebrate! 

Merry Days from Suna Dasi.  

 

In Pictures: Indian Women through the Ages’

An extremely evocative cross section of Delhi’s photography exhibition ‘Indian Women through the Ages’, taken between the 1850s and 1950s, is available on the BBC website .

The image below shows a Muslim dancing girl, taken in 1900. I can only wish the full range of pictures are available online or at least in a book of the exhibition.

So many Victorian writings and imagery from the Raj focus on the men of the culture. It was partly because of selective and biased writing, though there was a plethora of intrepid British women travellers who broke with convention by going into the Deep Interior by themselves and writing about their experiences. It was also common for Western photographers to not be allowed entrance in women’s quarters, daily affairs or sections of a household.

Fred Bremner, another famous Victorian photographer from Scotland, captured hundreds of people and daily Indian situations. Some of these were on display in a Scottish National Portrait Gallery exhibition ‘From Lucknow to Lahore’ in 2012-2013. They were fascinating, but it was his wife who let into several courts and zenannas to take images of the women and there was only one photograph taken by her in the exhibit. My keenest wish is for all of Mrs. Bremner’s photographs to become available one day!

 The Begum of Bhopal, photographed by Bremner’s wife, as featured on the Portrait Gallery’s exhibition poster.
From the ‘Picturing India with Bremner’ article on the Traveller’s India website: “Fred Bremner married around 1902, and his wife — he does not disclose her name — ‘gifted with good taste, was greatly interested in the art of photography and gave every attention to reception room duties as well as applying her hand to use of the camera on the occasion of photographing a Purdah [i.e. ‘behind-the-veil’ lady whose face… men are not allowed to look upon’. She even assisted Bremner in photographing noblewomen. ‘The Begum of Bhopal was visiting Simla and Her Highness expressed a wish to Mrs. Bremner that she would like some photographs of herself to be taken at Bhopal. All arrangements were made and during the summer… we found our way to Bhopal, which was a long and somewhat weary journey from Simla. However, all went well, resulting in my wife securing some photographs of Her Highness in State dress which gave her every satisfaction’. Bremner also noted that ‘on several other occasions Mrs. Bremner had the pleasure of photographing Indian ladies of the Harem’. “

Diversity in Steampunk – Exclusion from Inclusion

Update: In documenting the journey of merging East and West more equally within Steampunk, the below post will remain visible. It needs to be clarified however that as far as the interviewees are concerned, the situation has been resolved to satisfaction and all Steampunk ties are intact.

The beauty of Steampunk, among other things, is that everyone is dedicated to civilised communication; the frankness and support of those involved have been a perfect example of this.

Original Post (04/09/2014)

Steampunk India’s letter to the Independent on Sunday regarding the New Review Steampunk feature from the 31st of August:

The great irony. To be asked by the Independent on Sunday for an interview on MultiCulturalism in Steampunk at the Steampunk Summer Fete Event in Greenwich.
And a white lady pretty much pushed in and said to the journalist ‘do you want to interview us both together?’ (I must say that she was also set to be interviewed on her own subject within Steampunk).

To see the article finally come out, and I am not in it all (not whining here, editorial decisions have to be made), and to see a huge picture of the white lady, with *her* quote about multiculturalism and inclusion in Steampunk, but not my perspective, is a massive dose of ‘Same Old, Same Old.’

I am aware this sounds like sour grapes, but that is really not what I’m saying.

It’s not just the fashion that has been transported through time; to hear a white person make my point must feel how a black performer felt watching The Black and White Minstrels.

I’m sure its all a massive coincidence. Culture is built from an avalanche of coincidences.

Best Regards,
Suna Dasi
Steampunk India

P.S. The event organiser, Yomi Ayeni, was also wholly absent from the article: strange in itself. Total coincidence he was the only black person.

Below: Writer Suna Dasi at the Greenwich Steampunk Summer Fete, acting the part of Tinku Ranbir as portrayed in The Clockwork Watch. Artwork by Jennie Gyllblad. Photo by Ziggy Gaji. (www.clockworkwatch.com)