The Prakriti Foundation is organising a Poetry Festival in Chennai starting tomorrow. Participating in Poetry with Prakriti are approximately 30 poets. Each poet will read at four different venues, over two days, making this the largest poetry event in the country to date. I think.
Venues include Fab India, art galleries, Cafe Coffee Days (this is the thing that really worries me. I've been to Caferati read meets at CCD's and they're not reader friendly), institutions and book stores.
The saddest thing about the festival, for me, is that I won't be there for the whole thing. Most poets, it turns out, are going to be there for the two days that they are reading and maybe one extra day. The exceptions are, of course, the poets from Chennai.
I would have liked to hear Anjum Hasan, Arundhati Subramaniam, Gieve Patel, Sukierhtarani, Kutti Revathi, Vasantha Surya, Meena Kandasamy, Sharanya Manivannan, Jeet Thayil, Tishani Doshi and Vivek Narayanan read. Old friend, Siddharth Menon will also be reading but on the same days I am, at different venues. What to do.
Which reminds me:
I am reading on the 28th and 29th of December. That's Friday and Saturday. At the moment, three of my four readings have been scheduled; the fourth venue is still uncertain.
All other details, including the schedule, (some) poets' bios and poems to be found on the Poetry with Prakriti site.
If you're in Chennai, come for at least one reading! And if you're a blogger I haven't met but have interacted with (and, well, even if I haven't), please come say hi there? I remember someone leaving frustratingly mysterious messages here after the Bangalore reading.
Friday, December 14, 2007
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4 comments:
If you had to pick two out of that list to hear, who would you pick?
I always wonder if it is my shortcoming that I truly prefer reading poetry than listening to... I need to see the printed words...how they have been arranged...the punctuations...their numbers...their lines...i get closer to the poems only by reading them...or maybe it reveals how I want to control my mind ...while listening, different things arrest my mind...the poem disappears gradually...sigh, i am of the blighted minority.
Have a fun reading!
"prefer" is followed by "to", never "than".
no wonder i need to read compulsively...blighted semi-literate .
Cat: How on earth can I answer that question?!
Swar: The most profound sympathies will actually come from Cheshire Cat. I admit that I also prefer to read poetry than to listen to it (aha! this has responded to your second comment also, no?), but I suspect that is often because people don't read terribly well. Which is an enormous pity.
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