Big Devi Energy · 2026
The River Remembers
Water remembers.
Rivers carry stories across generations, landscapes, and lifetimes. Just as water holds memory, our bodies hold ancestral stories, inherited wisdom, grief, resilience, and possibility.
The River Remembers invites participants into a day of inquiry, movement, ritual, art, and collective reflection exploring the currents that shape who we are and how we belong to one another.
The River Remembers: A Self-Guided Labyrinth
With Shital Dalwadi
A self-guided labyrinth made for The River Remembers. Move at your own pace through remembrance, gratitude, and the cycles that shape a life. There is no destination and nothing to solve, only an invitation to slow down and listen. Enter any time during the day.
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10:30 AM to 10:45 AM
Opening Meditation & Water Ritual
With Anita Vyas
The day opens with sound, ritual, and meditation. Before we turn to memory and inheritance, we pause to honor water as our first teacher and witness.
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11:00 AM to 11:45 AMWaterside conversation
Water is Memory: The Interconnectedness of Water
With Janavi M. Folmsbee and Lynn Birdwell
A conversation about water as a carrier of memory across cultures. From the descent of the Ganga to the shared waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Indian Ocean, we ask what rivers can teach us about ancestry, responsibility, and the stories that move across generations.
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12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Tea Talk
Vivi Koehler, Kin Café, located inside Asia Society Texas Center
We ask what water carries into every cup of tea. Tracing the colonial history of tea in India, this conversation looks at how land, labor, and migration shaped the rituals we now reach for out of comfort.
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1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Community Lunch
A pause for food, rest, and conversation.
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2:00 PM to 2:45 PM
Letters & Water Inquiry
Facilitated by Godhuli Gupta & Sandhya Raghuraman
Poet Godhuli Gupta and dancer Sandhya Raghuraman invite participants into a reflective exploration. Through original poetry, Bharatanatyam-inspired movement, guided reflection, and letter writing, participants will consider what they have received from those who came before them, what they wish to honor, and what they hope to carry forward.
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3:15 PM to 4:00 PMPanel
Beyond Good and Bad: What Makes Art Matter?
This interactive panel brings together artists working across visual art, dance, acting, music, makeup, and bridal artistry to explore how we decide what is “good,” “bad,” meaningful, skilled, original, or worth our attention.
Moderated by Zainob Amao
With Sandhya Raghuraman (dance), Artee Kumar (acting and makeup artistry), Sneha Bhavsar (art), and Mohini Sane (actor).
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4:00 PM to 6:00 PMClosing
The River Remembers: Exhibition
An immersive exhibition exploring water as an archive, witness, and storyteller. Select artworks featured in the exhibition will be available for purchase, offering guests an opportunity to directly support the participating artists and take a piece of the experience home.