Over 360 poets, elocutionists to adorn Kabita Utsav on Friday

More than 360 poets and elocutionists will participate in the three-day 'Kabita Utsav', organised by the Paschimbanga Kabita Academy.

The festival will begin on Friday with a rally in which eminent poets and elocutionist would voice their views.

The rally would start around 4 pm from near the statue of Rabindranath Tagore and will end at Nandan after passing through the Kolkata Information Centre.

It may be mentioned that the setting up of the Kabita Academy – a first-of-its-kind institution in the country which promotes poetry and acts as a forum for poets all over the state – was the brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

'Kabita Utsav' will be held at Rabindra Sadan, Sisir Mancha and auditorium of Bangla Academy. This is the first time that such a major endeavour has been taken to organise a festival exclusively for poets and elocutionists. Poet Nirendranath Chakraborty will inaugurate the Utsav on Friday at Rabidndra Sadan. Fellow poet Monindra Gupta will be felicitated with 'Jibanananda Samman" and elocutionist Pradip Ghosh will be awarded the 'Kazi Sabyasachi Samman'.

Besides recitation of poems, there will be seminars on poetry which will be held at the festival. The festival will begin at 5.30 pm on all three days. Over 360 participants, including 100 up and coming poets and elocutionists, will be reciting poetry at the festival. Workshops were held in each and every district to select participants who have been given the opportunity to perform at Kabita Utsav.

Besides organising such programmes, the Paschimbanga Kabita Academy also has plans to bring out publications.

There will also be workshops on recitation and discussions on creative writing round the year at the academy.