Artists internationally have come together to offer their support and voice to Slam Out Loud (SOL) – an Indian non-profit that brings art and artistic opportunities to children from disadvantaged communities.
To celebrate their fourth birthday last month, Slam Out Loud conducted their biggest crowdfunding campaign – with a goal to raise funds to further their mission of gifting voices to children.
To celebrate voices and raise funds, SOL put together a host of SOLful events. On Valentine’s weekend, SOL and Kommune hosted an evening of poetry featuring artists like Sriti Jha and Aranya Johar. The very next day saw SOL hosting ‘Love, Unmuted’ an evening for #AllKindsOfLoveStories featuring the stellar Storytellers Ameen Haque, Kafeel Jafri and Kena Shree.
To celebrate their birthday on February 16, their most recent open mic ‘Find Your Voice’ – a collaboration with the Sal Khan chaired organisation Hello World and SkillBox – featured the beloved comic, Rohan Joshi, hosting SOL artists and youth poets (aged 13-17) from 59 countries, sharing poems and stories themed around what it means to have a voice.
Celebrity artists aside, SOL moved the hearts and voices of creatives far and wide. The White Coat Poets for instance, a collective of doctors who love words and poems, hosted ‘Poets #Unmuted’: a warm evening featuring some beautiful poetry by their in-house poets and SOL's children.
To show her love and support, poet and actor Sriti Jha joined SOLmate Supriya – a 16-year-old poet part of SOL’s programs – for an Instagram live chat about their common love for poetry.
To add to the festivities, acclaimed artists Varun Grover, Simar Singh, Gaurav Tripathi, Hussain Haidry, Priya Malik, Ankita Shah and Neha Bahuguna came together to perform at ‘BOL: A Fundraiser to #UnmuteIndia’ hosted by none other than the beloved poet Ramneek Singh.
The final curtain on their fundraiser came with a SOLful evening of music, featuring the highly-acclaimed singer-songwriter Tanmaya Bhatnagar, Jaisalmer Beats and other musicians.
*Info: #UnmuteIndia