Eunice de Souza’s city: Join this walk in Mumbai to celebrate the late poet's work

Mary Ville, an East Indian home on Waroda Road, is one of the spots covered in the walk; (right) Participants from a previous Eunice de Souza walk gather for picture at St Aloysius High School in Bandra. Pics Courtesy/Saranya Subramanian

Despite it being often viewed as an entertainment and financial hub, Mumbai also has deep roots in the literary arts. Bombay Poetry Crawl (BPC), a city-based community that focuses on poetry in the city will be conducting a poetry walk themed on the works of poet legend Eunice de Souza in Bandra West today. The trail involves discussing her poetry as well as visits to churches in this suburb. Founder Saranya Subramanian organises such walks with the aim to connect the city to its 20th century poets and their work. The verses will be read by her as she will be leading the walk.

Eunice de Souza. File pic

She elaborates about the walk, "We will be walking through the poet's city. For this walk, we will be reading De Souza's poetries, and will be visiting different sites of worship in the area. She is an iconic poet of 20th century Mumbai. We will be reading her poems that interrogate faith, community, womanhood, the city of Mumbai, and what it means to grow in femininity. Poetries will be selected from a mix of her known and lesser-known collections."

Saranya Subramanian

Subramanian chose this suburb because there are these eight churches that are also regarded as pilgrimage sites. According to her, this walk is a must for all those who like poems and exploring the city. "The most interesting bits about the crawl are the beautiful churches that we are going to visit, and De Souza's evocative poetry. They are sharp, powerful and the economic use of the language conveys so much," she signs off.

ON April 18; 8 pm
AT Bandra West (Exact meeting point to be disclosed after registration)
CALL 9819216692
COST Rs 800