K. Gandhar Chakravarty
Watch K. Gandhar Chakravarty's interview on OMNI TV here.
Watch a short video of Gandhar reciting at the IFPR on youtube.
Born in Montréal, K. Gandhar Chakravarty is a poet, singer-songwriter, scholar, and visual artist. He has visited over thirty countries during his life, which lends an international sensibility to his work. In particular, Gandhar spent half a year living in West Bengal, India where he discovered not only key elements of his personal history, but also refined both his poetic and singing voices. His poems have been published throughout the world and several have been translated into Bengali, the mother tongue of his most immediate ancestors. Kolkata Dreams (2009) represents his first full-length work of poetry. As for music, Gandhar started performing as a solo artist when he returned to Montréal after completing an Honours B.A. in English Language and Literature at the University of Western Ontario (2002). In his music group, Far From Shore (FFS), he is the vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist. FFS' first album, Wazo (2006), and their EP, Touch the Sky (2008), have received much critical acclaim and their music video for bilingual love song, "Amané," was nominated at CraveFest (2007). (Full length songs are available for download here.) Throughout these artistic endeavours, Gandhar has received two one-year arts grants from the Government of Québec to record music and write poetry. In terms of academics, Gandhar completed an M.A. in Theological Studies at Concordia University (2007) and he has also published several articles. He is currently working on a volume of poetry entitled Maple Vedas and pursuing a Ph.D. in Sciences des religions at Université de Montréal.
K. Gandhar Chakravarty
Photo © Anna Waclawek
