Writer and Bengaluru Poetry Festival (BPF) director Shinie Anthony observes: “Poetry is a religion and a way of life for poetry lovers.” Poetry strikes a chord for its lyrical beauty. Poets have a remarkable skill of weaving magic with rhyme and giving expression to our innermost thoughts. However, poetry is often not given its due in mainstream society.
So to pay tribute to poetry, in a first, Atta Galatta presents BPF at the Leela Palace. Apart from the fact that it brings together the best poets from across India, the festival will celebrate not only English, but regional language poetry too. With 34 sessions spread across August 6 and 7, BPF will provide a platform to about 67 poets and performers, in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Maithili, Bundelkhandi, among others. BPF will also include performances, interactive sessions and workshops. Subodh Shankar, co-founder of Atta Galatta, said: “There will be sessions and performances on one stage from morning till evening, and on the side, there will be workshops.”
The workshops aren’t just run-of-the-mill. Plenty of thought has gone into conceptualising them. As Lakshmi Shankar, co-founder of Atta Galatta, observed: “There will be workshops for children and adults; by a musician, heritage activist, theatre actor, understanding poetry through art, and on publishing poetry.”
Showcasing the poetry talent in Bengaluru, about a dozen young, city-based poets belonging to groups such as Ink Weaver, Airplane Poetry Movement, Open Sky Slam, Let Poetry Be, Anjuman and Haikujam, will perform.
Among the highlights of the event are: Bindhumalini Narayanswamy will perform compositions of Bendre, Bharati and Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan. Javed Akhtar, in ‘Poetry His Art His Heritage’, will read a selection of poetry by his grandfather Muztar Khairabadi, and will also talk about his own poetic journey. There’s a session on Dr. Neal Hall’s award-winning book, Winter’s A’ Coming Still. Varun Gandhi, in ‘Stillness’ will talk about the pauses and silences in his verse. Padma Bhushan Teejan Bai will perform Pandavini, a traditional performing art form, in Ektara Ditties. Shabnam Virmani and Vipul Rikhi, in Shabdi Ki Chot, where they will share their musical and poetic treasures they have found during their journey into the oral folk traditions of Bhakti, Baul and Sufi poetry.
The line-up for BPF includes Akhil Kaytal, Radha Thomas, Anand Thakore, Raj Shekhar, Anjum Hasan, Rakshanda Jalil, Arundhati Subramanian, Robin Ngangom, Bina Sarkar-Ellias, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, C.P. Surendran, Sachin C. Ketkar, Dolly Singh, Sampurna Chattarji, Hemant Divate, Sarabjeet Garcha, Indu K. Mallah, Satchidanandan K.
Savita Bhargava, Jayant Kaikini, Shreekumar Varma, Jennifer Robertson, Shobhana Kumar, Kamalinee Mukherjee, Sudheer Ranjan Singh, Kutti Revathi, Tanya Mendonsa, Mamta Sagar, Usha Rajagopalan, Manohar Shetty, Usha Rao, Menka Shivdasani, Mustansir Dalvi, Vasundhara Das, Nabina Das, Vasu Dixit, Vickramm Sampath, Nitoo Das, Piyush Mishra, Vivek Narayanan, Prathibha Nandakumar, Volga (Lalitha Popuri) and Priya Sarukkai-Chabbria will also be part of the festival.
The event will also have a photo exhibit on view, titled ‘Life in Troubled Waters’, by award-winning city photographer Selvaprakash Lakshman.
BPF will be held at the Leela Palace. For details visit bengalurupoetryfestival.
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