VERSE DAYS AHEAD IN DELHI

In a first of its kind, Delhi will play host to the country's first poetry biennale, VAK: The Raza Biennale of Indian Poetry, from April 7. The Raza Biennale has been spearheaded by Foundation's executive secretary, Hindi poet and former bureaucrat Ashok Vajpeyi. “We want to draw people's attention to the magic of poetry, not just in Hindi, English and Urdu but also in regional languages such as Kashmiri, Assamese and Manipuri. The inaugural festival will see the participation of 45 poets, both well known and upcoming ones, who will get 15 minutes to read their selected poem, including translations,” says Vajpeyi.

The Biennale will be inaugurated by five poets from Odia, Assamese, Manipuri, Tamil and Kashmiri. Among the invited poets are K Satchidanandan (Malayalam), Sharmila Ray (English), Kanji Patel (Gujarati), Kutti Revathi (Tamil) and Ratan Thiyam (Manipuri). Besides poetry readings session, there would also be panel discussions.

“The triptych, as it were, would bring forth the rich plurality of voices and visions, styles and languages, rhythms and innovations in sharp focus,” says Vajpeyi. Keki Daruwala, Sitanshu Yashaschandra, Shiv Visvanathan, Udayan Vajpeyi, Ashis Nandy, Ramin Jahanbegloo, Shamim Hanfi, Ananya Vajpeyi, Krishna Kumar, Apoorvanand, and K Satchidanandan are among those participating in the seminars.

A book edited by Vajpeyi and art writer Shruthi Issac containing poems by all the participating poets would be released. ‘VAK’ is a three edition event. The first one in 2017 is centered on Indian Poetry, the second in 2019 will feature Asian Poetry and the third in 2021 (the birth centenary year of Raza) would be devoted to World Poetry.

Conceived as an “ambitious project”, Vajpeyi hopes the first biennale would affirm the vibrancy and vitality of poetic imagination as it manifests itself through different generations of poets.