{"id":8421,"date":"2024-01-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/?p=8421"},"modified":"2024-01-15T14:19:03","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T14:19:03","slug":"bhumika-billa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/2024\/01\/15\/bhumika-billa\/","title":{"rendered":"Bhumika Billa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Describe yourself in 3 words\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Alive\u2019, I think. Close friends call me a \u2018hustler\u2019 (I asked only the ones that like me these days!). My aspirational description would be \u2018kind\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What inspires you?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Anger on most days, at how unjust the world is. On better ones, beauty of all kinds\u2014in places and people.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tell us about your worst ever gig?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Not exactly a gig, it was the UK UniSlam finals where I was representing my University. I lost my words in the pin-drop silence of over 300 people increasingly rooting for me with every syllable rolling off my tongue (my UniSlam community always wants you to succeed and is undoubtedly one of the best audiences you will ever meet!). I thought I had the poem in my muscles but mid-way through, I found myself grasping for letters, words, lines (anything really!) in the blank brain polaroid of a page I had used during practice sessions. I had clearly trusted my preparation too much to make space for improvising. That was the first time I realised the risk of having more faith in my memory than myself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s your number one poetry pet peeve?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Usually adjusting the height of the mic stand and making a lame joke about being tiny before I start performing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Whose words do you love at the moment?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Kay made me fall in love with poetry and a little bit with the world. At the moment, I am a big sucker for words from Jasmine Gardosi, Fathima Zahra, Joelle Taylor, Bohdan Piasecki, Tishani Doshi, Diksha Bijlani, Sohini Chattopadhyay, Varun Grover, Srushti Tawade among many others.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To my younger and my present self: let\u2019s try and judge everyone a little less (including ourselves) shall we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">If you awoke one day as a flower, what flower would you choose to be?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Raat ki raani\u2019 aka \u2018queen of night\u2019 aka \u2018night jasmine\u2019. The flower blossoms in many regions of India right after summer, announcing the onset of monsoons as the sunsets get cooler. It will make you feel its presence on quiet nights through its fragrance, making your heart suddenly, and sometimes strangely, feel at home\u2014the second-best smell in this world (petrichor being the best one, of course). The plant seems to have been understudied for its healing properties and obviously, it\u2019s tiny.&nbsp;:o) <\/p>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-8421_83f07f-fe .kt-block-spacer{height:60px;}.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-8421_83f07f-fe .kt-divider{border-top-width:1px;height:1px;border-top-color:#eee;width:80%;border-top-style:solid;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-8421_83f07f-fe\"><div class=\"kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center\"><hr class=\"kt-divider\"\/><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bhumika Billa - &#039;My Mother Lives In Me&#039; (Apples and Snakes: Blackbox)\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N-Nm9z5kRyQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bhumika performs her poem My Mother Lives in Me<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-8421_5c4b76-17 .kt-block-spacer{height:60px;}.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-8421_5c4b76-17 .kt-divider{border-top-width:1px;height:1px;border-top-color:#eee;width:80%;border-top-style:solid;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-8421_5c4b76-17\"><div class=\"kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center\"><hr class=\"kt-divider\"\/><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/111-1024x683.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8432\" srcset=\"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/111-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/111-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/111-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/111-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/111-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About Bhumika Billa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Bhumika Billa is a UK-based Indian-origin poet, creative facilitator, Kathak dancer &amp; legal academic. A Button Poetry Grand Champion (2023), Out-Spoken Prize Finalist (2023), Hammer &amp; Tongue Cambridge Finalist (2022), and BBC Words First Finalist (2021), she has performed &amp; facilitated in the UK, US, Canada, Germany, France &amp; India. Her poems on the stage, on page, and on film have been featured on\/published by various organisations including Button Poetry, Southbank Centre, Apples and Snakes, UK UniSlam, Cambridge University, and Airplane Poetry Movement. She is currently exploring the themes of heritage, justice &amp; identity to bring together languages, art forms &amp; people.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instagram: @<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bhumikabilla\/\">BhumikaBilla<\/a> Twitter:@<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BhumikaBilla\">BhumikaBilla<\/a>                                    Read, Watch, Listen: <a href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/bhumikabilla\">https:\/\/linktr.ee\/bhumikabilla<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bhumika is part of Future Voices. Find out more about the project here: <a href=\"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/project\/future-voices\/\">https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/project\/future-voices\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Describe yourself in 3 words\u2026 \u2018Alive\u2019, I think. Close friends call me a \u2018hustler\u2019 (I asked only the ones that like me these days!). My aspirational description would be \u2018kind\u2019. What inspires you? Anger on most days, at how unjust the world is. On better ones, beauty of all kinds\u2014in places and people.&nbsp; Tell us&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_surecart_dashboard_logo_width":"180px","_surecart_dashboard_show_logo":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_orders":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_invoices":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_subscriptions":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_downloads":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_billing":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_account":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[119],"article_type":[116],"class_list":["post-8421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-as","tag-artist-spotlight","article_type-artist-spotlight"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":49,"label":"A+S"}],"post_tag":[{"value":119,"label":"Artist Spotlight"}],"article_type":[{"value":116,"label":"Artist Spotlight"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/111-1024x683.jpeg",1024,683,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Fiona Simpson","author_link":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/author\/fiona\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":49,"name":"A+S","slug":"as","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":49,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":192,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","cat_ID":49,"category_count":192,"category_description":"","cat_name":"A+S","category_nicename":"as","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":119,"name":"Artist Spotlight","slug":"artist-spotlight","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":119,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":41,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8421"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8434,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8421\/revisions\/8434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8421"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=8421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}