With music in the air, can poetry be far behind? For 10 days from December 9 to 19, poetry lovers in Chennai get to listen to and interact with poets – emerging and eminent – in diverse venues across the city, as the fifth edition of Poetry with Prakriti kicks off.
With a line up that includes Ranjit Hoskote, Alok Bhalla, Maria van Daalen, Andy Jackson, Salah Stétié, Ravi Subramanian, Anand Krishnan... the venues range from schools, colleges, malls, parks to cafeterias. This allows different groups of people to enjoy the creative expression that is poetry.
Poetry can also be performance. The poetry slam contest on December 12 open to students between 18 and 23 years is meant to encourage youngsters to focus on what they are saying and how they are saying it. The contest will be judged by a three-member jury comprising Usha Aroor of Orient Black Swan, Sandhya Rao of Tulika Books and Neha Jaiswar from the British Council.
Those who want more than just readings and discussions have two performances to consider: “Light Within”, directed by Gowri Ramnarayan and featuring dancers, musicians and actors on December 13 and “Rashmi Rathi” by V. Balakrishnan, a solo performance of a popular epic poems by Hindi poet, Ramdhari Singh Dinakar on December 17. An all-night tribute concert for the victims of the 2004 tsunami features bands like Clarity in Confusion (CinC), Akatha Kahani, Oxygen, Madras String Quartet, La Pongal and Harmonize Projekt.
More details at >http://www.poetrywithprakriti.in/
