Glass House Festival of Poetry unveils diverse talents

Bengaluru: The first day of the two-day-long Glass House Festival of Poetry was hosted at Bangalore International Centre, Domlur. Organised by The ArtMantram Trust, the event will also take place on March 24.

Hosted under the banner of ‘Planet, Prosperity, People, and Peace,’ the festival is the second edition following the previously organized online edition in 2020. The festival is set to host more than 100 poets from India and internationally, featuring a plethora of events such as workshops, panel discussions, open mics, performances, and awards.

Following the inaugural ceremony on day one, the event commenced with a session titled ‘Silence no Bar,’ chaired by the silent poet Vikram Kumar. Despite being mute and autistic, such obstacles do not deter him from being creative and producing poetry from his everyday thoughts.

The festival also featured two workshops on the first day, one by Kala Ramesh and another by Mani Rao. Known for authoring a dozen books and translating three, Mani Rao hosted a Paid Poetry Workshop where participants received personal feedback from the author.

Founder and director of Triveni Haikai India, renowned writer and recipient of the WE Trailblazer Poet Award 2020, Kala Ramesh also conducted a workshop on Haiku Writing. Haiku is a Japanese style of poetry that typically uses three lines and 17 syllables.

There were sessions on Hindi and Urdu Poetry, storytelling, spirituality, poetry and culture building, poems from the Bhakti Movement, poetry in film, and the origin of poetry. The day concluded with a Sufi performance by Kyoumars Freemen, Shaista Yacoob, Amir Zadeh, and Nima Khakiam.

The second day of the festival is set to host a plethora of poets and artists, along with a closing ceremony attended by three-time Grammy Winner Ricky Kej.