Rachna Singh, Editor, The Wise Owl talks to Laksmisree Banerjee about her poetry collection 'The Red Woman'.

Rachna Singh, Editor, The Wise Owl talks to Laksmisree Banerjee about her poetry collection The Red Woman. Laksmisree is a Multiple-Award winning Poet, University Professor of English and Cultural Studies, International Scholar and a Vocalist.

 

Thank you Laksmisree for talking with The Wise Owl about your book.

 

 

RS: The Red Woman boldly fuses poetic craft with social critique, offering a tapestry of voices from across time and geography. What was the genesis of this collection, and how did you weave together such a wide spectrum of female experiences into a coherent poetic vision?

 

LB: Since childhood I was brought up in a cradle of faith with the Durga Puja being held every year with great pomp and glory. While growing up I strongly felt the contradiction in the tradition of bringing soil from the “red light area” of a prostitute’s home. The purity of womanhood cum motherhood with deep paradoxes in a Patriarchal society started stoking my deepest thoughts. Finally, after many years I have written THE RED WOMAN, born of the flames of such an imbroglio of thoughtless conventions of a male-dominated society. The title takes its birth from the “Red” of the “red light area inhabited by hapless women.

 

 

RS: The symbolism of “red” recurs throughout the collection—invoking fire, passion, pain, and defiance. What does “The Red Woman” embody for you, and how did you channel this potent symbol across different poems?

 

LB: I ruminated for a long period on the inconsistency of our traditions and discovered that the colour “Red” had the potent contradictions of our societal norms used against Women and that it signified the colour of intense Love, Tenderness and Powerful Motherhood / Womanhood as also of Blood, Violence and Trauma meted out to Women.

 

RS: The poems traverse multiple poetic forms—from traditional to experimental. How did the structure of each poem serve the emotion or narrative it carried? Were certain forms chosen deliberately to mirror the fragmentation or resilience of female experience?

 

LB: Very interesting question about the fissures and complexities in the wholesome life of a woman. The multiple poetic forms are born of these dichotomies and intricacies within the completeness of a woman’s life. So there are elliptical, conventional forms both in rhymed and free verse poetry. Often the forms were consciously chosen while at other times these evolved naturally. But of course there is an integration of structural forms and thematic content.

 

RS: Your work foregrounds women's stories that have long been silenced—whether through violence, erasure, or indifference. What sources—personal, historical, cultural—did you draw upon to resurrect these voices, and how did you balance empathy with urgency?

 

LB: I feel all literary writings are somehow autobiographical, though with our growth and evolution of our experiences and intellect as thoughtful writers, we create forms and entities which are very often inclusive and all-encompassing to serve as lighthouses and trailblazers curated from varied sources for social upgradation.

 

 

RS: While the collection doesn’t shy away from brutality—rape, mutilation, silencing—it also speaks powerfully of courage, rebirth, and phoenix-like resurgence. How did you emotionally navigate this spectrum while writing? Was catharsis part of the process?

 

LB: Yes definitely, catharsis is finally the desired outcome as one writes and evolves through the paths and flowing rivers of one’s journey as a writer. This book has started like a closely wound multi-hued fabric of my life. I have remained at the centre, as these threads of my life have slowly unwound and unfolded for blossoming into new entities. The coagulated experiences of Womanhood have gradually unfurled into meaningful poetry.

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RS:  You have said these poems go “beyond labels and categories,” eschewing borders or binaries. In a world increasingly obsessed with classification, how important was it for you to resist such boundaries in the way you framed womanhood?

 

LB:  Boundaries and artificial fences had to be negated since Womanhood for me includes very many strands of life and living. For me it is an intertwining of Humanity and Divinity, of the Loving Mother and the Fierce Warrior out to avenge injustice. Therefore avoiding categorisation was very important to present and poetise THE RED WOMAN in its unalloyed entirety.

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RS:  In an era where we pride ourselves on progress—technological, political, intellectual—your poems remind us that half of humanity still battles invisibility and injustice. What role do you believe poetry plays in provoking empathy and driving change?

 

LB: I must state here that it was the brutal rape and killing of a young female doctor inside the famous R.G. Kar Hospital of Kolkata on 9th August 2024, that brought speed and a fierce urgency to this book as I have dedicated it to the Abhayas and Nirbhayas (Fearless Ones) of the world. I believe this book is ordained to bring social change and justice. In fact Poetry, I am sure is a powerful instrument of Social Transformation.

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RS:  If readers could walk away from The Red Woman with a single resonant image or truth etched into their consciousness, what would you hope that would be—and why does it matter now more than ever?

 

LB: Yes, though these poems accentuate the multi-facetedness of Women’s experiences throughout the world, I would still wish to state (as my Illustrator depicts on the cover of the book, as conceptualized by me) the single resonant image of this book would be a blood-smeared Woman with an unfurled flag in one hand and a tight fist in the other, proclaiming a crying rebellion for a better world of equality and humanity.

 

LB: Thanks a lot dear Rachna and The Wise Owl for your perceptive questions and this Interview.

 

Thank you so much Laksmisree for taking time out to talk with The Wise Owl. We wish you the very best in all your creative pursuits.