Second edition of Chair Poetry Evenings concludes on cruise over river Ganga

Kolkata: The second edition of Chair Poetry Evenings, which is an international festival, concluded on a cruise over river Ganga on Sunday.

The festival presented by The Chair Literary Trust hosted poets from across the world and some from our home too.

The inauguration of the festival took place on November 22 at Rathindra Mancha, Jorasanko, where poets recited poems in their mother tongue followed by a reading of the same in English translation. The festival continued in different parts of the city, including Jorasanko and Ganges Art Gallery on the next day and culminated with the unique Poetry on Ganges event on November 24.

Poets such as Brian Turner from USA, Sara F Costa from Portugal, Elmar Kuiper from the Netherlands, BalázsSzőllőssy from Hungary, HajnalCsilla Nagy from Slovakia along with Indian poets, including Arundhathi Subramaniam, Devi Prasad Mishra, Ashutosh Dubey, Hemant Divate, Yashodhara Roy Chaudhuri, AshwaniKumar, Angshuman Kar, Katyayani, Bina Sarkar Elias, Prabodh Parikh, Koushiki Dasgupta and Abhimanyu Mahato attended the festival.

"Chair Poetry Evenings is a platform where poets across the globe come together. I am attending the festival for the first time. My message to the young poets is that they use social media to promote their poets," said Mahato.

He reiterated that the festival was highly successful and was bigger than the imagination and all the participating poets not only had a fulfilling experience of the city but they also added that these three days felt like three years of togetherness.

"They (poets from the across globe) said that they felt like a family and the festival was warm, family like yet extremely professionally executed. This is only because that poetry acts as catalyst to restore values, experiences and togetherness," Mahaton said.