Poet accuses artist of using protest work without credit

Poet Aamir Aziz, known for his viral spoken word performances since 2019, has accused artist Anita Dube of using lines from his poem Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega without his "knowledge, consent, credit, or compensation."

- Dhamini Ratnam

MUMBAI:

Aziz has reportedly demanded adequate compensation, and legal representatives for both parties are currently in talks. In a series of posts on X on April 20, a day after Dube's solo exhibition concluded, Aziz wrote: "My poem Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega has been used without my knowledge, consent, credit, or compensation by the internationally celebrated artist Anita Dube."

Aziz first performed the poem on YouTube in January 2020 during the anti-CAA and NRC protests. Dube, 66, a celebrated feminist artist and the 2018 curator of the Kochi Biennale, had also publicly supported the protests at the time.