The Open Cultural Center

Upcoming Events

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Teach to Teach-Teachers workshop
Wed May 22, 10:30 AM
Indira narayan
Teacher to Teacher.An interactive session related to teaching guidelines, methodology, class control ,professional ethics etc. conducted by 4 senior teachers with experience in teaching in premier schools.
Cultural evening by children
Thu May 23, 4:00 PM
L S N Foundation
This is an evening of children's skits, activities, and various cultural activities to share & reflect of our approaches, activities, achievements, failures of a Children's home along with well-wishers, partners, staff and representatives of residents of Rainbow homes for children, Night shelter, Home for elderly.
the stART - Graphic Design
Fri May 24, 6:00 PM
PENTXO CERVANTES
From 24th till 26th April, enjoy the exhibition of Hyderabad's new digital artists in a great display of photographs, posters, books and digital design... you can't miss it. Organized by the Multimedia Design and Visual Communication students from Raffles Millennium International Hyderabad.
Punchline Comics - Hyderabad
Fri May 24, 7:30 PM
Arun Nair
Punchline is a brand of Stand Up comedy, which travels the country seeking new and upcoming talent in the field. This event is open to ages 0-125 .
Anandapuram-Shadow puppet Play
Sat May 25, 7:00 PM
Sphoorthi Theatre fro Educational Puppetry, Art & Craft-STEPARC
Adapatation of 'Pied Piper of Hamelin' by Robert in Telugu and adapatation of Safdar Hasmi's story 'Red Flower ' in English. Rod Puppet play of Leo Tolstoy's story 'The Spark Neglected Burns the House' in Telugu as 'Erugu-Porugu'.
HWMF-Listening Post
Sun May 26, 4:00 PM
Hyderabad Western Music Foundation
17th Listening Post

Baroque to Big Band:
the development of the trumpet through the centuries

From the beauty and majesty of the golden age of trumpet music during the baroque period to the screaming lead playing of the big bands the trumpet has seen many changes both in its design and in its use in music. During our 17th listening post we’ll look at some of the pivotal changes and influential musicians that have shaped the course of the trumpet over the centuries.

Presented by Jonathan Hewitt, Trumpet player,
Music Coordinator at International School of Hyderabad.
PORUDAARI
Sun May 26, 6:30 PM
Navodaya Ramesh
The Story of Srikakulam tribal movement-
PORUDAARI
DVD releasing and screening on 26-05-2013,Sunday 6.30pm at LAMAKAAN
Speaking & Writing Skills -2days
Fri May 31, 10:30 AM
S.Indira Narayan
2 Day Workshop for children on Speaking and Writing Skills to enable effective communication .
Materials: Pen, pencil, colour pencils, Children's edition of any English Newspaper, Fevistic/ glue
Age group: 8 to 12 years
3 Day Farmer's Film unFestival
Fri May 31, 7:00 PM
Sumanaspati Reddy
It is a 3 day films screening on Farmer, Food & Environmental issues on 31st May, 1st & 2nd Jun, 2013.
India has more farmers than any country in the world, and they are in a crisis that is unprecedented in human history. Every 30 minutes a farmer in India kills himself in despair.
Docu Circle of Hyderabad (DCH)and National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM) invite you to a 3 days film screenings:
Fri 31st May - 7pm: "The world according to Monsanto".
Sat 1st Jun - 7pm: "Raithu Bathuku (Death of a Farmer)", "Bitter Sedds".
Sun: 2nd Jun - 7pm: "Unatural Selection".

Film screenings are followed by discussion with farmer activists.

Open for all. Entry: Free
The world according to Monsanto
Fri May 31, 7:00 PM
Sumanaspati Reddy
As a part of 3 day Farmer's film unfestival, today we screen "The World According to Monsanto", a 2008 film directed by Marie-Monique Robin.
The film reports many controversies surrounding the use and promotion of genetically modified seeds, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Agent Orange, and bovine growth hormone. Cases in the United States (including Anniston, Alabama), Canada, India, Mexico, Paraguay, the United Kingdom (Scotland) and France, are explored, claiming that the corporation's collusion with governments, pressure tactics, suppression and manipulation of scientific data, and extra-legal practices aided the company's attempts at dominating global agriculture. Scientists, representatives of the United States Food and Drug Administration and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, civil society representatives, victims of the company’s activities, lawyers, and politicians are interviewed.

Robin travels to India, Mexico, Argentina, and Paraguay to see how Monsanto's genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have affected local farmers using it for their crops. The film claims that GMO use has increased suicide rates of farmers in India. However, research by IFPRI has shown that this is not the case.

Open to All. Entry: Free
Reduce,Reuse,Recycle - Clothes
Sun Jun 2, 10:30 AM
Rubina M
Please do drop in your used ,silk ,cotton sarees , dupattas and jeans at collection points in the city . Somajiguda ,Jubilee Hills and Secunderabad .The material collected will be used by women in the slums to create beautiful upcycled products for household use .
Contact rubina@safaindia.org
Fareesa@safaindia.org

We are an NGo and are interested in collecting used clothes which will used by our producer groups of women from the slums to make well desgned products and sold in the markets .
BT cotton in AP - a 3 year fraud
Sun Jun 2, 7:00 PM
Saraswati Kavula
As a part of 3 day Farmer's film unfestival, today we screen BT cotton – a 3 year fraud.
Bt cotton is the first genetically modified organism (GMO) to have entered India. It was introduced in 2002 in Warangal District, in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It has brought in its wake a trail of misery, destruction and death, particularly among small and marginal farming families. While Bt cotton made its entry into Warangal, it was backed up with a massive advertising blitz which promised three things to farmers who grew it: 1) your pesticide use will be less; 2) your cultivation costs will reduce; 3) your yields and profits will increase. However, a citizen-led study carried out over a period of three years chronicles the fraudulent promises of the industry and the impacts of Bt cotton in Warangal. While farmers did incur marginally less expenditure on their pesticide use, their cost of cultivation went up. Yields and profits came down considerably. This three-year study of Bt cotton was initiated by the AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity and the Deccan Development Society in collaboration with the Permaculture Association of India. The study, Bt Cotton in Andhra Pradesh: A Three Year Assessment, was published in 2005. The film "Bt Cotton in Andhra Pradesh: A Three Year Fraud" was part of the study and captured the more qualitative dimensions of the crisis experienced by farmers. The film brings alive the voices and images of farmers who went through a deadly nightmare as they tried to grow Bt cotton. The film vividly brings out the experiences of a number of farmers as they narrate their stories of terrible loss, deep pain, and cold anger, leading to explosive violence and even death. To make this film, the women film-makers of the Community Media Trust have traveled to Warangal month after month, braving the scorching sun, carrying their equipment, walking miles into farmers’ fields, talking to farmers, especially women, building friendships and generating insightful interviews. They have filmed the false promises of Bt cotton at every stage and analysed the reasons with farmers. The last year of their filming was led by Eedulapally Manjula, and was supported by Matoor Shakuntala, Nagwar Kavita, Ippapalle Mollamma, Humnapur Laxmamma, Borancha Sangamma and Pastapur Chinna Narsamma. Being small and marginal farmers themselves, the media women of CMT have sensitively captured the images and voices of the Bt cotton farmers in crisis. The brilliance and invaluable nature of their effort cannot be adequately described.

Open to All. and Entry is Free.
Unnatural Selection - A Film
Sun Jun 2, 7:00 PM
Saraswati Kavula
As a part of 3 day Farmer's film unfestival, today we screen 'Unnatural selection'.

This explosive exposé reveals what the biotech industry doesn't want you to know - how industry manipulation and political collusion, not sound science, allow dangerous genetically engineered food into your daily diet. Company research is rigged, alarming evidence of health dangers is covered up, and intense political pressure applied. Chapters read like adventure stories and are hard to put down:

* Scientists were offered bribes or threatened. Evidence was stolen. Data was omitted or distorted.
* Government employees who complained were harassed, stripped of responsibilities, or fired.
* Laboratory rats fed a GM crop developed stomach lesions and seven of the forty died within two weeks. The crop was approved without further tests.
* The only independent in-depth feeding study ever conducted showed evidence of alarming health dangers. When the scientist tried to alert the public, he lost his job and was silenced with threats of a lawsuit.

Open for all and Entry is Free.
20 Weeks of Liberal Arts-Lecture
Tue Jun 4, 6:00 PM
Hyderabad Institute of Liberal Arts
Lecture on "Innovations in Higher Education" by Prof. Ramakrishna at the launch of the part-time course in Liberal Arts.
The 20 Weeks of Liberal Arts is visualized as an experiment in collaborative learning using advanced technology for a mix of in-class and at home learning. The programme will begin from July 1st and is open to all age groups with a minimum of class 10 education. 20 Weeks of Liberal Arts will accommodate 30 students and will be offered from the City Campus of the Hyderabad Institute of Liberal Arts on Banjara Hills Road No 11.
A press conference follows the lecture
The Man who Planted Trees - Film
Wed Jun 5, 7:00 PM
Sumanaspati Reddy
On the world Environment Day, we sho 'The Man who Planted Trees', an Oscar winner for Best Animation film. It tells the story of one shepherd's long and successful single-handed effort to re-forest a desolate valley in the foothills of the Alps throughout the first half of the 20th century. The tale is quite short—only about 4000 words long.

The shepherd, Elzéard Bouffier, after being widowed, has decided to restore the ruined landscape of the isolated and largely abandoned valley by single-handedly cultivating a forest, tree by tree. The shepherd makes holes in the ground with his curling pole and drops into the holes acorns that he has collected from many miles away.

Over four decades, Bouffier continues to plant trees, and the valley is turned into a kind of Garden of Eden. By the end of the story, the valley is vibrant with life and is peacefully settled.

Entry Free
Kavisangamam - 6
Sat Jun 8, 6:00 PM
Kavi Yakoob
To promote Young poets every month Kavisangamam is organising a Poetry Reading session. ప్రతినెల రెండవ శనివారం ' లామకాన్ ' వేదికగా - ఒక సీనియర్ కవి + ఇదివరకే కవిగా గుర్తింపు పొంది,'కవిసంగమం'లో రాస్తున్నకవి + 'కవిసంగమం'లో రాస్తున్న ముగ్గురు ప్రామిసింగ్ వర్ధమాన కవులు పాల్గొని కవిత్వం చదువుతారు.
Entry Free
HWMF Listening Post
Sun Jun 9, 4:00 PM
Hyderabad Western Music Foundation
Around the World in 80 minutes

Jazz is the voice of a people trying to find their place in a constantly changing environment. Though the voices and the techniques may be contemporary, the issues are universal, stitching cultures and milieus together across time.

In 1872, Phileas Fogg and his valet, Passerpartout set out to travel around the world in eighty days to win a wager. 140 years after the publication of Jules Verne's amazing novel, we set out to recreate the journey - musically. This fortnight's Jazz Listening Post presents the music one can hear as one retraces this epic journey. A journey of discovery of our collective roots through Jazz.

Presented by Subhorup Dasgupta, Jazz-Lover & Writer at http://subhorup.blogspot.in/
Sex,likes and Pokes(Repeat show)
Sun Jun 9, 7:30 PM
Chaitanya Varad
Sex, likes and Pokes is the comical stripping of facebook and the whole online dating phenomenon. In today's online driven world three friends make a wager whether it is still possible to find the ideal women through old school way of wooing a women. Sex, Likes and Pokes is a satire on the modern guy-girl relationship that men and women share these days.
Farmer Suicides - A Play
Tue Jun 11, 7:00 PM
Caring Citizens' Collective and Laamakaan
This is a Play on the issue of Farmer suicides in AP by the volunteers of Caring Citizen’s Collective Medak district. Followed by a Discussion and an Appeal for Supporting Children’s Education from these families.
As you are aware, due to severe agrarian crisis in India the farmers in various states including the state of Andhra Pradesh have been committing suicides for more than a decade.

During recent years, rural India has been stalked by the deadly epidemic of terminal despair that shows no sign of ending, due to various factors including drought, famine, rapid and drastic shift in agricultural and economic policies, taking the lives of more than 2,50,000 farmers owning less than two hectares. They borrow from money lenders at exorbitant rates of interest. They cannot get credit on time as they cannot show enough security for the loan. When the monsoon fails them, they are harassed for re-payments, driving them to suicides, conclusively proving that suicides are forced deaths.

Various factors contribute to the intense human distress in the surviving families. In many cases the next meal is uncertain. When mother succumbs to starvation, the trauma and vulnerability of children is particularly striking. Children become orphans and are forced out of education. Government admitted its inability to stop the suicides. Moreover in many cases women of these families, especially wife/mother, are blamed for the deaths by the villagers and also by officials.

In view of the above circumstances, social activists, academicians, intellectuals and journalists came together in 2006, and formed ‘Caring Citizens’ Collective’ (CCC) in 2007 in Andhra Pradesh. The CCC’s volunteers are working in Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh where the farmer suicides are high specifically in Medak, Mahabubnagar and Warangal Districts. A beginning has been made to support the education of the children belonging to farmers families affected by suicides. In addition to supporting the children’s education, CCC also working hard to assist the suicide and starvation deaths affected families to obtain financial and other required assistance from the government. The CCC also works together with victims/survivors and other organizations to pressurize the govt. administration in a democratic manner to implement applicable policies. To create awareness and to seek support from the civil society, CCC organizes civil forum and meeting in schools and colleges. With the help of volunteers in the village, teachers, people’s representatives, media and based on reports filed in police stations, CCC identifies the children in the affected families, and ensures that the children are provided with education and reasonable care by joining them in appropriate schools/educational institutes.to be filled
TLabs Mixer
Wed Jun 12, 4:00 PM
Arpit Agarwal
TLabs Startup Accelerator in Delhi has just launched its next batch applications. For this purpose, TLabs is hosting mixer events in many cities of the country including Hyderabad. This is going to be an evening event with networking and discussion about offerings of TLabs.
Bhakti Varsham-Sufi Fusion Music
Wed Jun 12, 7:00 PM
Roots, a collective for Holistic Expression
An evening of Baul & Sufi Music celebration. Each community has its own music. There is one unifying thread between Kabir and Sri Chaitnya; Lalon and bulleh shah; Meera and Khusru - The Mysticism.

Bhaki Varsham or Bhakti Movement is an effort to see the unifying thread by renditions of all different poetry of different prophets of different time and geography at the present time on the stage of Lamakaan.

Lose and Find yourself and help our Indigenous ethnic Musicians with your presence at this evening!

An initiative by Studio E1E.

Entry Free.
The Open Couple - Play
Fri Jun 14, 7:30 PM
Vaishali Bisht
In this farce about politics in marriage, a man persuades his suicidal wife that an open marriage is politically correct and embarks on dalliances with younger women, to her dismay and fury. After deciding to be on her own, the tables are turned when she confesses to a new man, Nobel prize nominated professor and inspired singer-songwriter; it is the husband who becomes suicidal.

The Open Couple is a play by Dario Fo is a romantic play which was written with his wife Franca Rame.
The Open Couple - Play (encore)
Sat Jun 15, 7:30 PM
Vaishali Bisht
In this farce about politics in marriage, a man persuades his suicidal wife that an open marriage is politically correct and embarks on dalliances with younger women, to her dismay and fury. After deciding to be on her own, the tables are turned when she confesses to a new man, Nobel prize nominated professor and inspired singer-songwriter; it is the husband who becomes suicidal.
The Open Couple is a play by Dario Fo is a romantic play which was written with his wife Franca Rame.
Ghazal Evening -Sanjiv Bhatnagar
Sun Jun 16, 7:30 PM
Sandeep Kelkar
An evening of ghazals - some own and some known ghazals to make a summer evening pleasant.

Swar Ninad is presenting a talented artist in Hindustani Classical, Ghazal, Geet and Bhajan, Sanjeev Bhatnagar. A disciple of Pt D V Jadhav, an exponent of Jaipur Gharana, Sanjeev is known for adding emotions to his music.

Sanjeev is a B-high grade artist of All India Radio, Mumbai, since 1985.
Play With A Cobra
Tue Jun 18, 7:00 PM
Theatrewaey
Karnad’s Nagamandala has perhaps always been a play ahead of its time, dealing with the complex theme of female sexuality in the language of modern theatre characteristic of the 80s decade. Today, in the wake of raging debates on rape, desire, sexuality and morality, the text appears strikingly relevant.

The plot of Play With A Cobra traces the journey of a young girl called Rani from naivety to eventual womanhood in a traumatic marriage, while toiling upon the complex theme of desire. Drawing on the experiences of exclusion, confinement and the inferno of desire that abets transgression, the text revolves around the events of Rani’s mistreatment by her husband, her finding camaraderie in an old widow, to eventual fulfilment of her desires in dubious circumstances. But in fulfilment lies the germ of an impending turmoil - that of moral questioning and judgement.

This adaptation of Nagamandala takes liberties with the original script in two ways. First, it presents the inherent ambiguity of the plot in blatant words to an urban audience. Second, it attempts to shift the focus from the written text to a performative language that relies more on the use of space, lights, and visuals. Play With a Cobra hopes to be not a stage play, but an experience.