Bulbule is a children's cultural festival organised by Swatantra Talim, a Lucknow-based organisation working in alternative education in rural Uttar Pradesh. I photographed the 2024 edition of the festival.
Swatantra Talim works with children in villages on the edges of Lucknow and beyond, using puppetry, storytelling, making, and tinkering as the basis for learning. Bulbule is where the children perform, exhibit, and are seen. Lucknow's first children's cultural festival, held over two days each year.
I followed the children through the day: performances, workshops, the time between things. What I was looking for was the quality of attention and energy that a space built entirely around what children make tends to produce. It is not something you can manufacture.
