B'luru Poetry Festival begins, has something for everyone

Whether they were six or sixty, everyone who attended the first day of Bengaluru Poetry Festival enjoyed themselves as they took part in workshops, listened to recitals and discussions on the craft of writing verse. Organised by Atta Galatta, the festival had something for everyone.

Children attended workshops that explored poetry through music, painting, theatre and rhymes. Jessica and Leon James facilitated a workshop that gave children themes to paint and write poems on.

Madhulika Pathak, a student at IISc who attended the festival, said, “I think it’s the first time that we’re having a festival dedicated to poetry in Bengaluru.” Madhulika and her friend Amit Roy were excited that there were so many books on poetry for sale at the fest. “Usually you don’t find such a good collection of books on poetry in bookstores,” Roy said.

Physician-poet Dr Neil Hall recited poems on ‘colourism’ about discrimination people face because of their colour. Hindi playwright Vibha Rani released her book ‘Can’ on how she dealt with cancer. Leading up to the fest, a contest had been held to select poems by aspiring young poets to be published as an anthology. Of the 260-odd entries, 155 were selected and the book entitled ‘Po’try – Bengaluru Poetry Festival 2016 Anthology’, published by Raindrops Company, was released at the event.