Jibanananda Festival that celebrates mainly the works of a major poet of the 20th Century is returning to the Rich Mix in East London for the fourth year on Sunday 19 February at 5pm. Hosted by a leading institute of South Asian arts – Saudha Society of Poetry and Indian Music – the festival is bringing renowned academics, poets, writers and performers together to promote the time-winning literature of a great modernist poet in Indian subcontinent at post-Tagore era (Rabindranath Tagore, the first Nobel laureate from the East) of Bengali literature, said poet Ahmed Kaysher, the director of Saudha.
Curated by poet Ahmed Kaysher, the festival brings re-interpretation of major poetic works by Jibanananda Das through talks, spoken-word performances and presentation of his translated works in German, Spanish,Uzbek, Polish, Italian, Oria, Urdu and other major languages by poet and playwright John Farndon, BBC Slum champion poet Dr David Lee Morgan, poet and translator Stephen Watts, poet Amy Neilson Smith, Uzbeck poet Khosiyat Rustamova, Polish poet Alexandra Smerechanska, poet Mona Dash, poet Erik Schelander, poet and fictionist Shree Ganguly, poet Sarwar E Alam, poetTanjina Nur E Siddique, spoken-word artists Poppy Shahnaz, Dr Zaki Rezwana Anwar, Cllr Jasmin Chowdhury, Sanjoy Das, Soma Das, singer and songwriter Samia Malik, Flamenco dancer Mercedes Avila Caballero.
Indian classical dancers Aritri Kundu, Monidipa Seal, Ishita Sinha, Esha Chakravorty Bhattacharjee will render visual interpretation of the spoken-word performances.
The director and the founder of Saudha Ahmed Kaysher said, ‘we have been running this festival for the last three years with new contents each time to highlight the essential oeuvre of one of the ignored voices of world literature in the 20th Century and the response is now tremendous. I am sure this year, with so many intellectual talks, re-interpretation and new performances, will bring a new turn to the festival’.
The Rich Mix, the Gronthee and RadhaRaman Society are collaborating with this festival as partners.
More information and registration at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/saudha-jibanananda-festival-tickets-500154634977
