The “28th National Poetry Festival,” which began Saturday at Dhaka University campus, celebratedits second and last day on Sunday with more recitations and seminars.
The two-day festival, organized by the Jatiya Kobita Parishad, with the slogan “Kobita Sohena, Danab Jatona,” has seen participations by hundreds of prominent poets and cultural personalities from both home and abroad.
Earlier on Sunday morning, the festival resumed with a seminar titled “Kabita Sahena Danab Jatana,” and another titled “Kabita O Manobotar Mukti Sangram,” with Borhan Uddin Khan Jahangir presiding over both, which were attended by noted authors and scholars.
The last session for reading poems was allotted for Europeans poets, poet Nirmelendu Goon presided over this session.
The last session of the festival is titled “Kobitar Gan,” which is scheduled for 8pm, with Kamal Lohani presiding over it followed by the prize distribution ceremony.
In the two days of the festival, Poet Habibullah Shirazi, president of the Jatiya Kabita Parishad, Rafiq Azad, Rabiul Husain, Belal Chowdhury, Aslam Sani, Mohammad Nurul Huda, Asim Saha, Mohammad Samad, Tarik Sujat, Kazi Rosy, Abed Khan, Rafiqullah Khan, Nuh-ul-Alam Lenin, Shahriar Kabir and Kajal Bandopaddhay were among those who attended.
This year, in addition to native poets, poets from India, Norway, Sweden and Austria have recited their work.
Ashish Sanyal, Uttam Das, Shyamal Kanti Das, Shankar Chakrabarty, Dilip Das, Akbar Ahmed, Anubhab Tulsi, Samir Tati were among the poets of India attended the festival, while Swedish poet Kristian Carlsson, Norwegian poet John Y Jones, Austrian poet Dorothea Muller-Ott and Swidish poets Anre Ruth, Haideh Daragahi also participated.
On the February 1, 1987, Jatio Babita Parishad was founded to organize the Jatiyo Kobita Utsab (National Poetry Festival) against Ershad’s autocracy, with the slogan “Poetry for Braking Chains” initiated by eminent poets including Sufia Kamal, Shamsur Rahman and Faiz Ahmed.
Since then, Jatio Kabita Parishad has been organizing the Festival on February 1 and 2 every year.