Book Launch – “They Sing the Wedding of God” by John Napier

Book Launch "They Sing The Wedding of God"  by John Napier

John Napier has been studying the performances of the Jogi, and itinerant caste of storytelling musicians in Rajasthan, since 2000. Their stories tell of kings who must renounce their kingdoms and their families to become mendicants, of an ascetic god who must leave his lair in the Himalayas to marry a princess, and of other people who must grapple with the demands of conflicting duties and desires. This book brings together a full text of one of their major stories with both ethnographic and musical analysis, and outlines the way in which these highly entertaining but increasingly marginalised performers weave story, humour, affect, self-identification and social criticism around a perennial choice: to remain in the everyday world or to renounce it to seek spiritual fulfilment.

John Napier is senior lecturer in Musicology in the School of Arts and Media at the University of New South Wales. His research also includes Indian classical music, other Indian folk traditions, and music amongst Asian migrant groups in Australia.

The book will be launched by Yudhisthir Raj Isar, Professor of Cultural Policy Studies at the American University of Paris, Dr Jill Stubington, ethnomusicologist and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales,  and Dr Bem Le Hunte, novelist and lecturer at the Journalism and Media Research Centre, University of New South Wales.

Drinks and nibbles, as well as a short musical performance by Sumathi Krishnan.

For more info visit the publisher

14th AUGUST 6.30pm, 7pm start.
FREE