Festival to celebrate poetry of all kinds

45 poets writing in over 15 Indian languages will come together for an upcoming poetry festival that aims at promoting not just the literary genre, but also provide a platform for the regional languages of the country.
Organised by the Raza Foundation, the first edition of "VAK: The Raza Biennale of Indian Poetry" will celebrate "verses of all kinds" with a special focus on Kashmiri, Manipuri, Urdu, Tamil, Assamese, English, Malayalam, Gujarati and others.
"We want to bring to the attention of the people of Delhi, the magic of poetry, not just in Hindi, English and Urdu but also languages like Kashmiri, Assamese, Manipuri and others. For this inaugural festival, we are bringing in poets, both well-known and the upcoming ones who have been recommended by stalwart poets," says Ashok Vajpeyi, Executive Trustee of Raza Foundation.

Set to open on April 7, the festival will be inaugurated by five poets who write in Odia, Assamese, Manipuri, Tamil and Kashmiri languages.
The three-day festival will feature poets like Sharmila Ray (English), K Satchidanandan (Malayalam), Kanji Patel (Gujarati), Kutti Revathi (Tamil) and Ratan Thiyam (Manipuri).
"Through this, we would feel, see and hear an India which is on the move, which is changing and inventing new imagination, which is accommodative and inclusive, which lives and celebrates plurality...An India which is plural, timeless and enduring," says Vajpeyi.

The sessions will see poets reading their respective works, along with translations in both Hindi and English.

Participating litterateurs will include Keki Daruwala,
Sitanshu Yashaschandra, Shiv Visvanathan, Udayan Vajpeyi, Ashis Nandy, Ramin Jahanbegloo, Shamim Hanfi, Ananya Vajpeyi, Krishna Kumar, Apoorvanand among others.
The Raza Biennales are being conceived as three edition events. The upcoming event (2017) is centered on Indian Poetry while the second (2019) seeks to feature Asian Poetry and the third (2021) (the birth centenary year of Raza) will be devoted to the World Poetry.
"The triptych, as it were, would bring forth the rich plurality of voices, visions, resonances, memories, styles, languages, rhythms, innovations, structures, furious innovative verve in sharp focus, "says Vajpeyi.
Seen as a tribute to modern artist and painter S H Raza and his love for poetry, the festival will also witness the launch of a special book containing poems by all the participating poets.

"Raza was deeply interested in poetry. Unusually, he inscribed many lines of poetry in his canvases reviving a convention of miniature painting. These lines came from the Vedas, the Upanishads, Sanskrit, Hindi and Urdu Poetry and included Kabir, Tulsidas, Surdas, Ghalib, Mahadevi, Agyeya, Muktibodh, Faiz among others.
"In his diary he used to note down lines of poetry that he liked in Hindi, English, Sanskrit, French etc. The diary which ran in several volumes was appropriately named 'Dhai Akhar', a phrase Kabir used describing love," says Vajpeyi.
The festival will culminate on April 9.