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| Over the past four years, the Bengaluru Poetry festival has gone from strength to strength. Here's an interview with a member of the organising committtee. |
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Dear Reader,
The Bengaluru Poetry Festival is a big annual event in my city.
It is organized by Atta Galatta, which is a bookshop, café and event space in one of the suburbs.
When I first attended the poetry festival, I was pleasantly surprised with the response – thousands of poetry lovers, flocking in for panel discussions and workshops. Over the last four years, the festival has continued to grow. Here’s an interview with Sourav Roy, an accomplished Hindi poet, who is on the organizing committee.
How did the idea of a Poetry Festival come about?
Bengaluru has always been a centre of literature and arts. Being a centre for science and education helped create this environment in the city. The city had this active club of poets even in the early nineties, called the Shakespeare and Network. They used to meet at Koshy’s over Sunday breakfast and read and discuss poetry. Many such venues, institutions, and literary communities and groups have helped shape this.
Atta Galatta, in its capacity of a bookstore, cafe, and event space; had been a part of this journey for a few years. By 2015, it had also started publishing books. Many of us were witnessing, in their own ways, an emergence of strong communities of poets in the city. May it be Let Poetry Be, Anjuman, Airplane Poetry, Poetry in the park, there were independent events which were attracting youngsters and adults of the city towards poetry. While most of us were happy with what was going on, Subodh and Lakshmi, as founders of Atta Galatta, were the first to identify that this can pave the way for something much bigger.
The festival team that was formed next, in many ways, was always in place. When Subodh and Lakshmi brought us together, most of us knew each other already. Each one of us brought in our strengths and areas of expertise. Having Shinie Antony in the team was a big plus, because she had already been organising the Bangalore Literature Festival.
Soon, we were discussing how to organise the festival, where do we organise it, whom do we invite, how do we fund this. All this chaos led to the first BPF in 2016. Since then, year after year, our confidence about organising BPF has increased, but the chaos is always the same.
What happens at the Bengaluru Poetry Festival?
Lots of poetry, fun, and chaos. It is a two day festival, with events lined up from morning till night. There are poetry performances, workshops, recitals, art installments talks, panel discussions and of course, books on sale. The number of languages that get representation at the BPF is phenomenal. This year itself we had Kannada, Tamil, Odia, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Marathi, and German poetry.
The first three installments were at The Leela Palace. This year we organised it at the Taj West End. It’s a free and open for all event, and hence attracts a huge number of people to participate. Over the past four years, BPF has developed a strong cultural identity of its own, which is bound to grow bigger.
What has the response been? Was this the expected response?
The response has been phenomenal. First year, we had 4,000 footfalls, which has been steadily increasing each year. The book-sales are hitting the roof. The poets feel extremely welcomed and loved at the festival, thanks to the overwhelming response from the city’s people. Renowned Odia poet Manu Dash, in a recent interview to Bengaluru Review, called the event the Kumbha Mela of poetry in India.
To be very honest, we hadn’t expected this kind of response. It is really overwhelming for many of us.
What are the most rewarding aspects of organising such a festival?
The poetry, of course. And the fact we get to meet poets whom we’ve read. Also, the joy of meeting new poets and getting acquainted with their poetry. Every year brings its own surprises. Not just the established poets, but often young poets, and bhasha (language) poets also leave remarkable impressions on the audience members.
Being a poet myself, BPF is the time I relook at my work more closely. Sometimes it has helped me break from long spells of non writing, while at other times, the experience of meeting some poets at the festival is so humbling that I end up with long reading lists, and no plans for writing for the next few months. Each experience, in its own way, is very rewarding.
What's the most surprising response or comment you have had?
I read a poem at this year’s festival, which I’d written for my daughter when she was one month old. After I left the stage, a poet I personally respect a lot, said that this poem cracks her up everytime she listens to it. She was in tears. That was a moving experience.
Has your personal understanding of poetry deepened / altered due to the festival?
Absolutely! It happens every single year. Some of my longest spells of introspection have happened after BPF. I have also written some of my not-so-bad poems in the month of August. In fact, I mentally count the poems I write each year (which is usually in single digit) with BPF as the starting point. So my calendar year for poetry is generally from August to July.
What is the role of poetry in our personal lives / communities / education?
Poetry is the engine of language. A lot of things that language takes for granted, happen in poetry. Most idioms we know today are metaphors from poems of the past.
It is true that poetry’s space has shrunk significantly in public life. Poetry has lost a lot of ground to novels, films, and television. But in its applied form, we see poetry everywhere. From advertising, to lyric writing, to even political solganeering, poetry is everywhere.
I think the rise of the Internet is leading to a resurgence in poetry. Instead of trying to fit to existing poetry or ideological movements, young people are now telling their truth, delving into their memories, and reflecting upon their realities. This is a great trend.
I am also witnessing lots of good poetry written by young poets from all across the world, which reaffirms this belief.
Thank you, Sourav, and thank you, reader!
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My last Poetry Newsletter was before the Bengaluru Poetry Festival was launched! 
In this newsletter, I described one of the monthly poetry gatherings.
Thank you for the responses to "The Magical Feel of Live Poetry"
LostGhost: Seeking & Learning  I feel like coming to Bangalore next month. Spoken word poetry is so awesome and it conveys so many things.
Sally 
I love performance poetry so for us to see, and read about, a poetry group you go to (with photographs) is excellent! I thought all the ideas you described sound fun, and something we could incorporate into our poetry. Just imagining our poems being performed might encourage us to be even more creative when we are writing.
Thank you much, Sonali - an excellent newsletter!
Monty 
A fine News Letter with some well chosen picks.
Steev the Friction Wizurd
That was a fascinating description of the Bangalore gathering of poets. Enjoyed reading every bit it! |
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Poetry: September 18, 2019 Issue [#9757]
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