Among the list of things making a comeback to the physical space after the pandemic is the Bengaluru Poetry Festival (BPF) organised by Atta Galatta, a bookstore and events space.
Many poets from across the country and even abroad will be present at the festival, which will take place on August 27 and 28 at The Leela Palace on Old Airport Road.
Literary enthusiasts can enjoy the various performances across many languages by old and new poets, lyricists, singers, and musicians during the festival.
This will be the sixth edition of the city’s only poetry festival. While the first four festivals between 2016 and 2019, which attracted over 5,000 people in attendance, took place physically, the previous edition in 2020 went online.
During the previous editions, popular poets and artists including Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, Shabhana Azmi, Jayanta Mahapatra, Usha Uthup, Kavita Seth, Chandrashekhar Kambar, Mamang Dai, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Sadhguru, Perumal Murugan, T.M. Krishna, and others had recited their poetry and delivered talks.
This year, the organisers said that they had received confirmation from international poets and artists about their participation.
Famous Hindi poet Uday Prakash, novelist Anita Nair, Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathi’s grandson Niranjan Bharathi will be speaking at the event.
For those who want to learn more about poetry writing at the festival, workshops and interactive sessions have been organised.
Children who visit the festival can enjoy specific activities like clown play, ‘stories with Yogasanas’, and others.
The concept for a dedicated poetry festival came around after Subodh and Lakshmi, founders of Atta Galatta, realised that although the country’s poets and poetry were gaining recognition all over the world, the opportunities to present the same within the literary festivals which were being organised here were quite limited.
A core team, which consisted of poets and poetry lovers, joined them to put together the festival which aimed to engage poets, readers, performers, and audience in a single space.
“Poetry goes on when nothing else does. It is our only weapon against mortality. Long after we are gone, the hard truths that came howling out of our hearts in the middle of the night will remain. Bengaluru Poetry Festival is coming with song and strange new rhapsodies, with magic poems, shock poems and poems that whisper tenderly. Verse is flying at you” said Shinie Antony, Festival Director.
Entry is free for the festival.
