When Songbyrde’s co-founder, Sumi Sastri interviewed Maya Angelou, the American author spoke passionately about how creativity frees the human spirit. Her words,”we all have a story to tell and every bird has a song to sing” left a lasting impression.
Angelou, did not speak for five years after a traumatic childhood. The man who sexually abused and raped her, Freeman, was her mother’s boyfriend. Though Freeman went to jail for a day, he was murdered four days after his release. Angelou believed her speaking up and naming him caused his death. Mute for five years of her childhood, in these years of silence, she found her voice writing poetry. It was only when a teacher encouraged to read her poetry aloud that she valued and trusted the spoken word once again.
The poem “I know why the caged bird sings”, and her memoirs by the same name, touched Songbyrde’s co-founders.
Songbyrde Publishing India is born
In the early 2000’s, Prema Sastri, a pioneering Indian author writing in English, was looking for a name for her literary publishing house. Inspired by Angelou’s uniqe life as a poet, cook, actress, screen-writer, director and producer of plays, the name Songbird emerged again and again. Prema, had lived through the 1950s Civil Rights Movement in America. Like Angelou, Prema was at the same time a writer, director and producer of plays both for the stage and radio. She returned to India from studies in the United States in the 1950s, in a patriotic move to contribute to the rich cultural heritage of post-colonial India.
The publishing house, however, could not purchase the Songbird domain name for its website. In discussions between the mother-daughter team, using the old English spelling of “byrde”, was a game-changer. The boutique publishing house, Songbyrde, was born.
Songbyrde, between 2008-2017, published literary fiction by writers in Bengaluru, India. In her legacy, Prema Sastri (1932-2017), transferred the intellectual property rights of Songbyrde Publishing to her daughter, Sumi Sastri.
The work of Songbyrde remained dormant between 2017 and 2024. In 2024, Songbyrde became a registered brand of concentric circles digital.
Songbyrde finds a new voice in London, UK
In April 2024, Songbyrde moved out of the Indian print publishing world to its new home in London. The logo, designed by Sumi Sastri, represents both the swan song of the old, print-publishing brand and the organisation finding its voice in new, unchartered waters.
No longer, just a publishing house, Songbyrde’s vision has expanded with the view to promote:
- the freedom of creative expression
- cross-cultural collaboration
- artistic innovation in any medium or format
The re-brand and re-launch was celebrated at the Bangalore Club India, the former residence of Winston Churchill who was the British Resident in Bangalore, in the early 20th century.
The organisation’s first donations were made to RASA, founded in 1989 by Dr. Ambika Kameshwar and CARE, or Charlie’s Animal Rescue Centre, founded by Sudha S Narayanan in 2013.
RASA builds confidence in differently abled children using theatre, music and dance as instruments of empowerment. Songbyrde’s funds will go towards fostering a greater use of performing arts to enable young people in Chennai, India to live a more creative and fulfilling life.
Courage against adversity is how Sudha, a former Income Tax officer, describes some of the animals that have been rescued by CARE in Bengaluru, India. Songbyrde celebrates Sudha’s courage and her unique expression of her creative spirit in the set-up and running of CARE.
Looking to the future with Songbyrde
Wholly funded by the commercial activities concentric circles digital, Songbyrde, primarily maintains the sites, copyright and intellectual property rights of authors Prema Sastri and Sumi Sastri.
Songbyrde aims to publish three anthologies of Prema Sastri’s short stories in the timeline 1950-1980, 1980-2000 and 2000-2017.
Working with Ashoka University, New Delhi, Songbyrde seeks to fund scholars interested literary criticism of Prema Sastri’s literary legacy to Indian writing in English. Prema Sastri’s original manuscripts and works were donated to the archives of Ashoka University, in March 2024.
In addition to these ongoing projects, Songbyrde will also fund other works that display artistic innovation, cultural diversity upholding the freedom of self expression in the work it seeks to promote. RASA and CARE are just the begining of a new and exciting chapter for the Songbyrde Foundation.