On the first day of the 10th edition of the Dhaka Lit Fest, a session titled “Poetry in a Virtual Age?” was held on Thursday afternoon.
Poets Bibhas Raychowdhury, Hasanat Lokman, Sakira Parveen, Banani Chakraborty and Sayim Rana participated in the session held in the PSR Seminar Room of the Bangla Academy.
The session was moderated by poet Zahid Sohag.
Bibhas Raychowdhury said: “Poetry has a place for institutionalization, but poets are free beings. When I post my poems on Facebook or my blog, it gives me a sense of freedom.”
He added that poets had the power to interrupt, but that is lost now.
Meanwhile, poet Altaf Shahnewaz, in response to the moderator's question whether the “authoritarianism” of literary editors has declined, said: “Each newspaper has a specific policy, it has literary editors and the authoritarianism has changed due to the virtual age.”
“I think that writing needs to go through an editing process. I think of Facebook as a personal diary. Now we have virtual mediums. How can we recognize art and poetry?” he asked.
In this regard, Hasanat Lokman said in the virtual age, poets have the freedom to post their creations online. “We can post whatever we want, but that's not poetry. There should be self-censorship, conscience — what will I print, what will I not print.”
Later, Banani Chakraborty said she thinks it is a good thing to write poems online. “If one writes poems on Facebook rather than stealing and robbing, what's the harm in it? I think virtual mediums are important.”
“I think virtual mediums are an excellent way to judge. Everyone has freedom here, literature is being published. If a poem remains unpublished then how will one understand how one's poetry was,” said Sayim Rana.
Besides, Shakira Parveen said the virtual world has enhanced individual heroism. “Both good and bad sides of it are being discussed. Perhaps the answer is self-censorship, self-publishing.”
The 10th edition of the Dhaka Lit Fest attracted a huge crowd on the opening day on Thursday.
The venue, Bangla Academy, was vibrant with artists, writers, actors, musicians and enthusiastic people from all over Bangladesh.
Following a three-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 10th edition of the festival officially raised its curtain on Thursday morning.
