Chai & Chats with Kasturi Wren

As part of the Third I Festival — a month-long celebration of storytelling, culture and connection - join us for Chai and Chats, an interactive day of storytelling through performance and conversation curated by Kasturi Wren at Kolkata Social. The program features three captivating performances, each offering a unique lens on culture and community, followed by open dialogue with the artists.

The afternoon concludes with a shared lunch and a chance to continue the conversations, connect and reflect over food.

An intimate exchange of art and ideas over a cup of chai.

Artists & Curator:

Kasturi Wren – Curator & Host

Kasturi Wren is a lawyer, writer and creative curator whose work sits at the intersection of justice, identity and storytelling. Born in Sri Lanka and raised in Western Sydney, she has navigated careers across law and the arts, from law firm partner to artist, from devout faith to spiritual freedom. Founder of Wren and Whippet, Kasturi leads her own legal practice advocating for the injured and displaced while exploring queer love, memory and cultural dislocation in her writing. Her memoir-in-progress, Pomegranate, traces her journey through exile, reinvention and creative rebirth. As curator and host of Chai & Chats, Kasturi invites audiences into tender, transformative spaces—celebrating stories both finished and still unfolding.

Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad

Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad is an Indian-Australian artist, poet and improv pianist based in New South Wales on the traditional lands of the Eora Nation. Her work has appeared internationally in journals and anthologies, including Cordite Poetry Review, Bracken Magazine and Sidhe Press (Germany). She has been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize and Sundress Best of the Net Anthology and has won several poetry competitions in Australia and the Netherlands. Oormila is the author of three micro-chapbooks published by the Origami Poems Project (US), including her debut collection Patchwork Fugue (2024) and A Second Life in Eighty-eight Keys (2024). Her artwork features internationally in literary magazines and private collections.

Stacey Cotter Maniere

Stacey Cotter Maniere is a poet, storyteller, and creative director whose work weaves poetry, mindfulness, and presence. Her debut collection, The Punctuation of Days, explores joy, loss, love, and time, inviting readers into a deeper connection with the everyday. Her poems have appeared in SMEAR: Poems for Girls, The Alphabet of Women, and Poetry for the Planet.

Devika Brendon

Devika Brendon is an academic, teacher, reviewer and editor of English Literature, as well as a creative writer of poetry and prose. She was Consultant Editor for FemAsia Magazine, and a Poetry Editor with Girls On Key; and is currently Content Editor for the New Ceylon Writing Literary Journal, and Executive Editor of Glitterati Quill Magazine. Her work has been widely published in anthologies and journals,both in print and online.

Devika is also a journalist, whose opinion pieces and articles have been published in The Sunday Times, The Daily Mirror, Groundviews, Ceylon Today, The Morning, and The Sun.

Her first novel, ‘Aversion’, set in contemporary Sri Lanka, has recently been published by Jam Fruit Tree Publications.