1. According to wikipedia, the Ramayana is an epic which tells the story of a prince whose wife is abducted by a demon. The story "contains the teachings of the ancient Hindu sages and presents them through allegory in narrative and the interspersion of philosophic and devotional."
2. In other wikipedia info, Annette Hanshaw was a flapper and a blues singer of the 1920s.
3. Lastly, Nina Paley is an animation filmmaker living in New York.
The amazing thing is that combining these three things has created something wonderful. Nina Paley is in the process of creating a 72 minute animation film of the Ramayana from Sita's perspective. It's called Sitayana, or Sita Sings the Blues. Paley is using Annette Hanshaw's stunning blues songs as the background for each beautifully crafted scene. It's like a graphic novel come to life, with a great soundtrack. You can and should watch completed parts of it here: http://www.ninapaley.com/Sitayana/
Nina Paley came to combine these two disparate cultural icons through personal upset, as she was dumped by her husband over email after their marriage fell apart in India. She identified with Sita from the Ramayana and listened to Annette Hanshaw to overcome this, and it lead to this art.
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