Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far
and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver

Culture of Solidarity and Resistance: Bangladesh and the July Uprising - A Conversation and Special Musical Performance | Solidarity with Bangladesh: A Special Concert featuring Samageet

Details

The UP Asian Center in collaboration with Focus on the Global South and the Asian Music for People’s Peace and Progress will conduct "Culture of Solidarity and Resistance: Bangladesh and the July Uprising," A Conversation and Concert with Samageet, on 30 September 2025, 2 PM (GMT+8) to 9 PM, PHT, at the ASEAN and Japan Halls, Asian Center, UP Diliman. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged due to limited seating. 

 ABOUT THE EVENT

In July 2024, Bangladesh saw widespread student protests against the job quota system, which decreased opportunities for the population, especially the youth. Demanding fair and merit-based opportunities, the movement faced state violence but grew into a mass uprising that toppled the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and has led to significant political shifts in the country.

A year after the uprising, this event seeks to discuss Bangladesh’s culture of resistance and solidarity that was displayed on the global stage in 2024. It will feature Samageet, a grassroots cultural organization involved in the protests and the movement. The activity will consist of two parts: a forum/conversation in the afternoon and a concert by Samageet in the evening. The forum-concert is part of the "Introducing South Asia" Lecture Series that the UP Asian Center started in 2023, and is co-organized with Focus on the Global South and Asian Music for People’s Peace and Progress.

 ABOUT SAMAGEET

Samageet is a grassroots cultural organization in Bangladesh. It started to practice a culture that aspires to build a society free of any kind of discrimination, to practice a culture that enables the community and the people to rise against colonial-racial-imperial aggressions, against patriarchy, to create a context where the peoples’ collective power and its beauty flourishes.  Know more about Samageet.

 

 ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS

This forum/conversation and concert is organized by the UP Asian Center; Focus on the Global South, an activist think tank in Asia providing analysis and building alternatives for just social, economic and political change; and the Asian Music for People’s Peace and Progress, a collective of artists across Asia, working together to build a community, share and promote people’s music, and support local struggles.

For inquiries, please contact us at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 891-8500 loc. 3586. 

The Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The UP Asian Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. It also offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. As an area studies institution, the Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website.