Dhaka Lit Fest

9:00 – 10:00 AM | BAHA'I CHANTS | Lawn

10:00 – 11:00 AM | SHADHONA | Main Stage

Dance performance by Shadhona of the folk dance drama of Padmar Nachon, the epic story of the Goddess Manasha and folk hero Behula.

10:00 – 11:00 AM | IN OTHER WORDS: LIBRARY OF BANGLADESH| KK Tea Stage

10:00 – 11:00 AM | ENGLISH RECITATIONS 2| Lawn

Shehzar Doja, Syeda Ahmad, Fatema Hassan, Jeffrey Yang and Ahmatjan Osman

10:00 – 11:00 PM | CAN INDIA SPEAK? | Main Stage

Naresh Fernandes, Manjula Narayan, and Sriram Karri with Max Rodenbeck

10:00 – 12:15 AM | FILM SCREENING: BLOCKADE| Cosmic Tent

10:00 – 11:00 AM | HASHER PAYE GHURI| Bottola

A story-telling session by Nazia Jabeen for children of all ages.

11:15 AM– 12:15 PM | THE NEW WORLD DISORDER | Main Stage

Max Rodenbeck, Ben Judah, Rosamund Urwin, Zafar Sobhan and Justin Rowlatt discuss how this tumultuous new world can settle, and how much more trouble it might see before it does.

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM | NARI O NARITTO | KK Tea Stage

Nasima Anis, Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, Papree Rahman, Sadia Mahjabin Imam, with Udisa Islam

11:15 AM– 12:15 PM | 3 SECTIONS | Lawn

Vijay Seshadri in conversation with Karthika VK

Hear what Seshadri has to say to one of the leading editors from India about being a citizen of the world, the creative process of writing poetry, his influences, and the strangeness of growing up in Columbus, Ohio in the 1960s.

11:15 AM–12:15 PM | SUFI SOUL| BRAC Stage

Sadia Dehlvi and Salimullah Khan, moderated by Amina Yaqin discuss the enlightened, inclusive and pluralistic narratives of Islam

11:15 AM– 12:15 PM | DISCUSSION ON FILM: BLOCKADE | Cosmic Tent

11:15 – 12:15 PM | CHILDREN’S PLAYS- BIDDYABHUBAN | Bottola

12:30 – 1:30 PM | NASTY WOMEN | Main Stage

Lady Naipaul, Rosamund Urwin, Evie Wyld, Deborah Smith and Bee Rowlatt delve into cultural prejudices that make it easy to denigrate strong, accomplished women.

12:30 – 1:30 PM | ON RECORD | KK Tea Stage

Vidya Shah, a prolific performer and composer trained in Carnatic and North Indian classical music, in conversation with journalist and film-maker Simon Broughton, the chief world music critic for the London Evening Standard.

12:30 – 1:30 PM | BENEATH THE SURFACE | Lawn

With beautiful prose and acute observations, writers Amy Sackville, Dilruba Z. Ara and Leonora Christina Skov, talk to Nirupama Subramanian about how, as women, they bring out these realities through their writing.

12:30 –1:30 PM | THE SEASON AFTER SPRING | BRAC Stage

Nael Eltoukhy and Marcia Lynx Qualey with Max Rodenbeck

The Arab Spring created great expectations; but besides Tunisia, the uprisings only led to brutal crackdowns. People who know the region well discuss what comes after a season of such hopes, so brutally dashed.

12:30 – 1:30 PM | ARTFULLY INARTICULATE | Cosmic Tent

Nuhash Humayun, Kazi Istela, and Mahenaz Chowdhury with Prabda Yoon traverse love, family and dysfunctional relationships through graphic storytelling.

12:30 – 1:30 PM | STORY TELLING | Bottola

Chador Wangmo with stories from our neighbor Bhutan

2:00 – 3:00 PM | SHAHITTO JOKHON SHOBAR| Main Stage

Imdadul Haq Milon, Moinul Ahsan Saber, Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay and Imtiar Shamim with Andalib Rashdi

2:00 – 3:00 PM | PAVING THE WAY | KK Tea Stage

Bee Rowlatt with Firdous Azim

Bee Rowlatt’s book In Search of Mary seeks to answer as well as raise some important questions on motherhood and emancipation

2:00 – 3:00 PM | MONCHO JOKHON AMAR | Lawn

Sara Zaker and others, with Bonna Mirza

2:00 – 3:00 PM | PUBLISHING PAINS | BRAC Stage

Eddin Khoo, Prabda Yoon, Mahrukh Mohiuddin and Karthika VK with Shehzar Doja

2:00 – 3:00 PM | ON THE TRAIL OF GENGHIS KHAN | Cosmic Tent

Tim Cope and Vivek Menezes

Join Tim Cope’s unmissable session to hear a very personal story of extreme adventure and endurance.

2:00 – 3:00 PM | THE GOETHE INSTITUT: RECITATIONS | Bottola

Sajjad Sharif and Shahnaz Munni

3:15 – 4:15 PM | LITERATURE: ALWAYS POLITICAL | Main Stage

Nael Eltoukhy, Evie Wyld, Ben Judah, K Anis Ahmed with Nicholas Lezard

The four authors on this panel represent four different continents—Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia—and vastly different thematic preoccupations. With Nicholas Lezard, described as the ‘most influential’ reviewer in Britain

3:15 – 4:15 PM | BANGLAR TIKEY THAKA - AJ, KAAL, PORSHU| KK Tea Stage

Firoz Ahmed, Indranil Roychowdhury, Ahmad Mostofa Kamal, Manosh Chowdhury with Garga Chatterjee

3:15 – 4:15 PM | KOBI JIBON; JIBONER KOBITA| Lawn

Nirmalendu Goon, Kamal Chowdhury with Shamim Reza

3:15 – 4:15 PM | BIRANGONA: SURVIVING WAR, SURVIVING PEACE | BRAC Stage

Nayanika Mookherjee, Firdous Azim and Shireen Huq with Sadaf Saaz probe into the contemporary reality of Birangonas within historical and cultural contexts.

3:15 – 4:15 PM | JALSA | Cosmic Tent

3:15 – 4:15 PM | AMPERSAND | Bottola

Bangladesh’s first spoken word poetry group perform a range of pieces

4:30 – 5:30 PM | BREXIT BLUES | Main Stage

Ben Judah, Alex Preston and Rosamund Urwin with Justin Rowlatt

4:30 – 5:30 PM | DEATH OF LITERATURE | KK Tea Stage

Karthika VK, Arunava Sinha, Nicholas Lezard with Charlie Campbell

4:30 – 5:30 PM | SOCIAL CLIMBERS| BRAC Stage

Social economists Naila Kabeer and Hossain Zillur Rahman discuss the achievements, complexities and challenges of trying to reduce the equity gap with Riti Ibrahim, ex-Secretary of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Brac’s Legal and Human Rights Head Farisa Kabir, and Naresh Fernandes of Scroll, India.

4:30 – 5:30 PM | LAUNCHING LOCATIONS | Cosmic Tent

Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, Nayanika Mookherjee, Saif Ul Haque, and MK Aaref

Marking the Bangladesh launch of Locations, an international anthology of architecture and urbanism

4:30 – 5:30 PM | PALA GAAN | Bottola

Boyoti Shah Alam and team

5:45 – 6:45 PM | THE WRITER AND THE WORLD: VS NAIPAUL | Main Stage

One of the greatest living writers, Nobel Prize-winning VS Naipaul, in conversation with DLF director Ahsan Akbar about his literary work

6.45: 7.30 PM | TRIBUTE TO BOB DYLAN BY STONE FREE | Bottola