As We Sing, So Shall We Pluck

Event Details
In-Person: Humanities Building 1, Room 210
Address: 257 Cowell-Stevenson Rd, Santa Cruz California, 95064

Virtual:
https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/91843507391?pwd=ntHEJRwteZhHtbXMCCVRAUPIMggdFl.1
Meeting ID: 918 4350 7391
Passcode: 365533


Abstract
Within the everyday workspaces of Assam’s tea plantations, Adivasi tea tribes engage in listening, sounding, and music. At times, these sounds and music flow into Adivasi living areas known as “lines.” In this talk, Upatyaka explores the dynamic relationship between the sounds of the workplace and the sociocultural life woven through tea plantation labor. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted across Assam’s tea estates, and her experiences as a singer from the region, she listens to the voices of Adivasi women pluckers—their songs, conversations, and laughter; Adivasi and non-Adivasi interactions; and the broader soundscape in which they work.