HYDERABAD: Kavya Dhaara, a poetic extension of the Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) — that celebrates creativity and linguistic diversity, is scheduled today. Thanks to the post-pandemic world, the poetry festival is in-person, online, and a recollection of events past: all at T-Hub Phase two, Madhapur. The event is supported by the tech in sync with the National Centre for Writing (NCW), Norwich, UK; the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK; the Government of Telangana; and the T-Hub.
“The poetry festival will be a rather holistic experience for anyone attending. We have diversified language discussions and readings followed by a virtual panel connecting authors in the UK and recollection of the past event,” says Professor T Vijay Kumar, Director of Hyderabad Literary Festival.
Both poetry and technology have imagination in common; Professor Vijay continued; “The intention behind choosing the venue was to have a commonality; we found it at T-Hub.
It is an opportunity for both T-Hub and us to intersperse technology with poetry to bring the best of both to reach wider audiences.” During the one-day event, UK poets and diversified language poets from India will read and discuss their work. This is a multilingual event. Eight sessions are planned after the inaugural function today, beginning with Telugu lyricist Gorati Venkanna’s talk, followed by a poetry reading session by legendary artist, writer, and educationist Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Nirmala Putul Murmu, who is award-winning Adivasi writer-activist from Dumka, Jharkhand, and others. Also there will be conversations with four leading poets from the UK (online) and four well-known poets writing in Indian languages (in person).In addition, six poets will offer (in person and online) short readings.
Hyderabad Literary festival launched its extension Kavya Dhaara, last year online. Then in 2021, while inaugurating HLF, the eminent poet Gulzar wished for an event where one could hear the sound and rhythm of poetry in different languages. It’s now offered in various mediums, thanks to the technology available. “The present multilingual poetry festival is a modest attempt to create one such platform and is perhaps the only multi-genre mainstream literary festival live at T-Hub,” one of the organisers of the lit fest said.
Since HLF is too big of a festival, Kavya Dhaara often gets sidelined or ghettoised in major literary events.
So, as a prelude to the annual HLF in January 2023, the organisers said HLF would organise two unique events in November and December 2022. The organisers will also host ‘ANUVAAD: The HLF Translation Festival’ on December 10 2022, T-Hub Phase 2, Madhapur.