Poetry session in Chennai gives a taste of lit fest

December 04, 2014 02:08 am | Updated April 07, 2016 02:41 am IST - CHENNAI:

The inaugural session of ‘Poetry with Prakriti’ was presented by The Hindu Lit For Life 2015, on Wednesday — Photo: R. Ragu

The inaugural session of ‘Poetry with Prakriti’ was presented by The Hindu Lit For Life 2015, on Wednesday — Photo: R. Ragu

A poem in Singaporean slang of English (referred to as ‘Singlish’) about candles stolen from a church, another poem with just the number one, a poem made up of sounds and one on an ‘i-human’.

These were some of the gems that glittered at the inaugural session of ‘Poetry with Prakriti’ (edition VIII) presented by The Hindu Lit For Life 2015, on Wednesday.

Alvin Pang, who is mentioned in the 2nd edition of The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry in English , made the audience laugh with his lines on thinking and reading during his extensive air travels. His second poem for the evening was in Singlish and is a dialogue between a father and a son.

“It is the language that I hear on the streets. But the government is trying to do away with it. They want English to be spoken the proper way,” he said. Sound poet Dirk Heulstrunk and travelling poet Jessy James Lafleur, too, held the audience captivated with their works.

Ranvir Shah, founder, Prakriti Foundation, which curates the festival, said eight years ago, when he proposed such a festival, it was his friends Nirmala Lakshman (director, Kasturi and Sons Ltd), V. R. Devika (founder Aseema Trust) and Geeta Doctor (writer) who encouraged him to go ahead with the idea. “It has grown over the years and this year we will feature 200 poets at 30 venues, including schools and colleges,” he said.

Ms. Lakshman said Mr. Shah was involved in a host of activities including running a hospice, an Ayurveda hospital and curating a poetry festival. She said this event was a precursor to the Lit For Life Fest 2015 that has been slated for January.

Director of Alliance Française of Madras Pierre-Emmanuel Jacob, director of Goethe Institute Helmut Schippert, and deputy consul general of the Australian High Commission Stuart Campbell also spoke at the event, which is on till December 10.

On Thursday, sessions will be held at the British Council (5 p.m.) and at Spaces in Besant Nagar (7 p.m.)

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.