A music video out on poems by survivors of domestic violence
The International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC) that’s based out of Chennai extends support services for women and queer individuals affected by domestic and interpersonal violence. The rights-based organisation strongly believes in a survivor-centric approach. Now, the team has launched 16-days of activism against gender-based violence campaign. As part of this, they have collaborated with Shreya Nagarajan Singh (SNS) Arts Development Consultancy and released a song called Ezhundhu Va: Song by Survivors. The music composer of the song, Revaa tells us, “When Shreya from SNS got in touch, I was happy to collaborate with them for a cause.
She sent me poems written by survivors of domestic violence. Most of the poems were heart-touching and inspiring. I adapted the lyrics from those poems and added my inputs. The song is touching and motivational. The song starts like this:
“Ezhundhu va ezhundhu va, kanmani ezhundhu va, kalangividamal ezhundhu va”. Instead of living in their sorrows, we wanted all the survivors to rise without any worries. We wanted them to be bold and blooming.”
The 3.47-minute video also shows the artwork done by survivors of domestic violence.
“The selected artwork featured in the video is from PCVC’s project Redrawing Resistance, which is a collection of paintings, photography, poetry, and videos from South Asian women survivors of violence, their families, and their artist allies. I wanted to keep the music very organic and didn’t go for any heavy music. We used guitar and flute to create an emotional feeling in the music. Popular singer Keerthana Vaidhyanathan has rendered the song so beautifully.”
Among other art installations and outreach programmess that SNS and PCVC are collaborating on, this song is one of the activities to help promote their 24x7 National Hotline for Domestic Violence.