Kabir was a great mystical poet of fifteenth-century North India who is still enormously popular and influential. A provocative and challenging figure who can't be pinned down by any religious label, he is admired by Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, secularists, and atheists. His presence today can be sought in multiple social, religious, and political locations, and in vibrantly diverse forms of music. Prahlad Singh Tipanya, who lives in a village in Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh, India is increasingly recognized as a remarkable exponent of Kabir's music and meanings.

Prahlad Singh Tipanya is a teacher in a school in Kathbaroda village in Madhya Pradesh. He was drawn to Kabir music at the age of 24 and was initiated into the Kabirpanth in 1982. Although he bases a lot of music and Kabir compositions on Malvi folk tradition, he has evolved a unique style of his own. He represents a stream of creativity in our rural areas that is attracted to music and Kabir for the democratic ethos, the simple ways of devotion and opportunity they afford to both self exprssion and self interrogation. In March 2008, he received the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi award. Tipanya is accompanied by dholak, harmonium, khartal, manjira, tambor, and violin. Linda Hess, a Kabir scholar who teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University, will narrate and provide translations.