Join us for the Closing Reception of The Paglees: Between Reason and Madness

Musical Offerings
4:00 – 4:30 PM & 5:10 – 5:50 PM
Performed by Joyjit Ghosh, musician and sound healer, born in India

4:00 PM
A soft opening into sound — Joyjit Ghosh invites guests into an informal space of resonance, with guitar, gongs, and Himalayan singing bowls. This is a time for gentle conversation, curiosity, and shared vibrations.

4:30 PM
Artist Indrani Nayar-Gall will guide a final passage through the exhibition — a contemplative walkthrough that illuminates the collective’s vision and voice, one last time.

4:50 PM
A stirring performance of contemporary Indian dance by Kaustavi Sarkar, PhD — a Dance faculty member at UNC Charlotte whose movement speaks across time and tradition.

Kaustavi will present two contemporary pieces from The Epilogue, a collaborative, cross-disciplinary project combining video and live performance,coordinated by Indrani Nayar-Gall.

5:10 – 5:50 PM
The evening deepens in stillness. Joyjit Ghosh returns with “Sonic Meditation: Healing Sounds of Gaia” — an immersive experience woven from gongs and the ancient tones of Himalayan singing bowls, carrying us gently toward the event’s close.

The Paglees is a feminist collective of artists of South Asian origin living across the United States. Paglee or pagli means crazy woman in a number of South Asian languages. The Paglees are: Fawzia Khan, Indrani Nayar-Gall, Monica Jahan Bose, Nirmal Raja, Pallavi Sharma, Renluka Maharaj, and Shelly Bahl.

The Paglees investigate – with fierceness, beauty, and wit – the impact on women of generations of patriarchy, religion, white supremacy, colonialism, violence, capitalism, and environmental plunder.

The title of the exhibition derives from Rosa Parks’ words: “There is just so much hurt, disappointment and oppression one can take. The bubble of life grows larger. The line between reason and madness grows thinner.” (Rosa Parks: Writings, Notes and Statements,1956-58).

Featuring mixed-media works on paper, fabric, and canvas, sculpture, performance, photography, installation, and moving image, The Paglees: Between Reason and Madness, questions and reframes the labeling of non-conforming women as crazy and the marginalization of immigrant women of color. This collective exhibition presents new decolonial narratives that center the reason and wisdom of brown women of the Global South and diaspora, and provide pathways to a creative feminist future. The Paglees believe in working in collaboration with other marginalized communities to build bridges and demand social, environmental, and legal justice for all.

The exhibition was previously exhibited at the South Asia Institute in Chicago, IL.