NEW DELHI:
A celebration of verses of all kinds is set to be held in the city beginning April 7 as 45 poets from 15 Indian languages converge here for the country’s first biennale of poetry, made possible by the Raza Foundation set up by the late illustrious artist Sayed Haider Raza.
VAK: The Raza Biennale of Indian Poetry has been conceived to be an “ambitious” project of the Foundation, spearheaded by Hindi poet and former bureaucrat Ashok Vajpeyi, the Executive Trustee of the Foundation
“We want to bring to the attention of the people of Delhi, the magic of poetry, not just in Hindi English and Urdu but also languages like Kashmiri, Assamese, Manipuri etc. For this inaugural festival, we are bringing in poets, both well known and those upcoming ones who have been recommended by stalwart poets,” says Vajpeyi.
Spread out from April 7-9, the festival will see each invited poet getting 15 minutes for reading selected poem, including translations. Each poet would have 15 minutes for the reading including in the original with translations in Hindi and English.
Among the invited poets are K Satchidanandan (Malayalam), Sharmila Ray (English), Kanji Patel (Gujarati), Kutti Revathi (Tamil) and Ratan Thiyam (Manipuri).
“We would through this poetry feel, see and hear an India which is on the move, which is changing and inventing new imagination, which is accommodative and inclusive, which lives and celebrates plurality. An India which is plural and, by the same taken, timeless and enduring,” says Vajpeyi.
The inaugural of the Biennale is being done by 5 poets from Odia, Assamese, Manipuri, Tamil and Kashmiri.
Besides readings there would be three panel discussions with writers and intellectuals on ‘Poetry as Freedom’, ‘Poetry 
A special book edited by senior Hindi poet, Ashok Vajpeyi and art writer, Shruthi Issac containing poems by all the participating poets will be launched. All poetry living academics, students and others from various universities and colleges are being invited to attend.
The poetry biennale is being entirely funded by Raza’s personal financial resources and no state or corporate assistance being sought, say organisers.
S H Raza, a widely acknowledged master of Modern Indian Art, was deeply interested in other arts specially poetry. Unusually, he inscribed many lines of poetry in his canvases reviving a convention of miniature painting. These lines came from the Vedas, the Upanishads, Sanskrit, Hindi and Urdu Poetry and included Kabir, Tulsidas, Surdas, Ghalib, Mahadevi, Agyeya, Muktibodh, Faiz amongst others.
In his diary Raza used to note down many lines of poetry that he liked in Hindi, English, Sanskrit, French etc. The diary which ran in several volumes was appropriately named ‘Dhai Akhar’ (Two and A Half Letters) a phrase Kabir used describing love.
‘VAK’ as the Raza Biennales are to be called is conceived as a three edition event. The first one in 2017 centered on Indian Poetry, the second in 2019 featuring Asian Poetry and the third in 2021 (the birth centenary year of Raza) would be devoted to World Poetry.
“The triptych, as it were, would bring forth the rich plurality of voices, visions, resonances, memories, styles, languages, rhythms, innovations, structures, furious innovative verve etc. in sharp focus.,” says Vajpeyi.
Hopefully the first biennale would affirm the vibrancy and vitality of contemporary poetic imagination as it manifests itself through different generations of poets, 45 in num
ber belonging to 15 languages,” he says.
