CELEBRATION OF HOPE GALA 2025
CELEBRATION OF HOPE GALA 2025
Also at the Gala we will presentthe 5th Annual Swami Agnivesh Memorial Awards, honoring extraordinary leaders whose moral courage and commitment to justice carry forward the fearless legacy of Swami Agnivesh.
This year, we honor Ajay Kumar, our beloved colleague and collaborator whose brilliance, humility, and lifelong dedication to Dalit, Adivasi, women, and climate-frontline communities continue to guide our work. We also celebrate Ani Zonneveld, a global voice for inclusive, rights-affirming Islam; Anuradha Mittal, whose groundbreaking advocacy has transformed global conversations on land and human rights; and the UK–Indian Muslim Council, a vital force for healing interfaith tensions and defending vulnerable communities.
These awards will be presented during our Celebration of Hope Gala, an online gathering uplifting movements for justice, solidarity across faiths, and the liberatory vision that shaped Swami Agnivesh’s life.
Swami Agnivesh taught that vasudhaiva kutumbakam—the world is one family—must be lived through fearless protection of those targeted by caste, nationalism, and discrimination. This year’s honorees embody that spirit, reminding us that faith is a mandate for justice and a call to defend the marginalized.
We are thrilled to announce our Hindus for Human Rights Gala 2025, A Celebration of Hope — an online afternoon of artistry, justice, and community.
This year’s program brings together extraordinary performers whose work speaks directly to our mission and honors amazing the world we’re trying to build
Featuring: Amritarupa brings a stunning fusion of Bharatanatyam, waacking, and jazz to explore both devotion and doubt.
Vaibu Mohan and Zachary Catron share powerful selections from Sati: Goddess Incarnate, a bold new Carnatic–Western musical re-imagining divine rebellion and liberation.
Rajna Swaminathan transports audiences with her groundbreaking mridangam artistry, weaving tradition and experimentation into a sound unlike anything else on today’s stage
READ MORE ABOUT THIS YEAR’s Swami Agnivesh Memorial Awards RECIPIENTS HERE
ARTIST BIOS
Amritarupa's journey has been unconventional. Having an initial background in theatre and creative writing, she found her love for dance quite late in life. She went on to train in Bharatanatyam, waacking, and jazz, to eventually come up with her own version of presentation - one that blends movement with it's socio cultural context. She believes that dance is not just an art, but a scientific tool for getting a message across.
Through her short and long form works, she has talked about the politics of religion, caste and gender discrimination, and also covered themes like modern day migration, South Asian ethnic identities, and spirituality. In her peformance, she shall explore 2 sides of devotional love - being a seeker, and being a skeptic.
Rajna Swaminathan is an acclaimed mrudangam artist, composer, and scholar. Rajna has been described as “a vital new voice” (Pop Matters), creating “music of gravity and rigor… yet its overall effect is accessible and uplifting” (Wall Street Journal). In her music and research, she explores the undercurrents of rhythmic experience and emergent textures in collective improvisation.
One of only a few women who play the mrudangam professionally, Rajna received her creative foundation on the instrument from her father, P.K. Swaminathan, and mrudangam legend Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman. Through extensive experience performing in the Karnatik music and bharatanatyam scenes, an affinity for various streams of South Asian film/popular music, and deep collaborative work in New York's jazz and creative music scene, Rajna developed experimental approaches to improvising on the mrudangam, piano, and voice.
Rajna’s orientation as an improviser-composer blossomed through a search for resonance and fluidity among musical forms and aesthetic worlds. Her ensemble RAJAS has been a prominent medium for her expansive compositions, which involve a lattice of rhythmic, textural, and modal approaches. The ensemble's sound has been described as “unlike any other on the scene” (New York Times), and their debut album, Of Agency and Abstraction (Biophilia Records, 2019), received much critical acclaim. A new record with RAJAS, titled Apertures was released on Ropeadope in April 2023.
Rajna’s scholarly work also intersects with her musical study and informs her creative curiosities. Since 2021, she has been an Assistant Professor of Music (Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology) at UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts. She holds a PhD in Music (Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry) from Harvard University, and degrees in Anthropology and French from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her dissertation, titled Time, Virtuosity, and Ethics Otherwise: Queer Resonances for Diasporic Play, catalyzes a creative dialogue between artistic and academic engagements with uncertainty and openness in geography, archive, and embodiment.
In addition to her work with RAJAS, Rajna has composed for JACK Quartet, Del Sol Quartet, violinists Jennifer Koh and Lucia Lin, among others. Recent commissions include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Sawdust, Chamber Music America New Jazz Works, and fellowships with the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. Her interdisciplinary work has included collaborations with playwright Anu Yadav, visual artist Zahyr Lauren, the Ragamala Dance Company, dancer/choreographer Mythili Prakash, and poets Mahogany L. Browne, Sarah Kay, and Jon Sands. (Photo Credit: Adrien Tillmann)
Vaibu Mohan is a writer, musician, dancer, director, and producer specializing in bringing South Asian forms of storytelling and theater making into the Western sphere. She is the winner of Atlanta Opera’s 96 Hour Opera Competition and her full length opera, Jala Smriti, will premiere at Atlanta Opera in 2026. Selected works: Life of a Lemon (NYU/AOP Opera Labs), Keep It Cheery (Brooklyn Children’s Theater), and the concert presentation of Sati: Goddess Incarnate at 54 Below in July 2023. Upcoming: Sati: Goddess Incarnate developmental workshop (August 2025).
As a Bharatanatyam performer and creator, Mohan creates pieces that stretch the genre and explore connections between disparate artforms and is the Associate Artistic Director of Silambam Phoenix. Mohan has performed at 54 Below, Greenroom 42, La Mama Theater, Lincoln Center, and Midnight Theater. She is a graduate of the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.
Zachary Catron (he/him) is an award-winning composer, lyricist, and performer. New York City premieres include: the ballet Training in Love (Rovaco Dance Company), incidental music for Fuente Ovejuna: A Disloyal Adaptation (The New School for Drama), the chamber operas Tin Man and The Walt Whitmans of Fort Greene Park (NYU/AOP Opera Labs), and the full-length musical The Battle, Not the War. The Battle, Not the War received its concert premiere at Feinstein’s/54 Below in June 2019 as part of NYC WorldPride, commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
Catron received his off-off- and off-Broadway songwriting debuts in the Spring of 2022 with WAR STORIES at The Tank NYC, and Village Songs at the Rattlestick Theater (in collaboration with the Tenement Museum). He has recently composed for film and TV, including the indie shorts La Dame de Monte-Carlo (Arthouse Film Festival 2021 Official Selection), 988 (2025 Global Health Film Days), and an unannounced TV animation pilot.
A composer of many styles, Catron released his first J-pop single, “Tokimeki (Heart Pounding)”, as part of the East-Meets-West project, with lyrics by Momo Akashi and vocals by Joo Won Shin (Squid Game). Currently in development are his Carnatic-Western-fusion musical epic, Sati: Goddess Incarnate with librettist Vaibu Mohan and Slow Down with Momo Akashi. With Vaibu Mohan, Catron was the recipient of the Fall 2024 Songbyrd Demo Fund. Catron has performed at Lincoln Center, Studio 54, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center; and he was a pianist for Brooklyn Youth Chorus between 2017 and 2022.
In May 2022, Catron received his M.F.A. from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He is a proud member of ASCAP, the Dramatist Guild, and the Society of Composers and Lyricists. (Photo Credit: Dominique Shipmon)