A celebration of prose, verse and music

Children’s Fest, from previous years Bengaluru Poetry Festival.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The Bengaluru Poetry Festival is back with its eighth edition. Presented by Atta Galatta, the two-day event will feature poetry performances that transcend language barriers.  It will delve into the connection between music and poetry, interactive workshops, and a storytelling festival for children.

The seven years of the festival have seen over 450 poets from across the country with a rich tapestry of regional and ethnic flavours, that celebrates India’s literary diversity. This year too, over 50 invited poets, artistes, and musicians are confirmed to participate.

From conversations with music maverick Shankar Mahadevan to interpretation of poetry through dance by the Bendre Project, the two-day event is a celebration of music and poetry in every form.

Subodh Shankar
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Subodh Sankar, co-founder of Bengaluru Poetry Festival and Atta Galatta said, “This year we are going to look at poetry through the eyes of singers, songwriters, musicians and lyricists.”

“We are also seeing poetry through other associated art forms, one of them is on the life of Kannada lyric poet Da Ra Bendre, which will be portrayed through a Bharatnatyam dance performance by the Bendre Project.”

The eighth edition will see an academic exploration of the poetry of music through Sadhana Rao, a research-led writer and art curator who will look into the ethos of poetry in a Hindi film song.

Preeti Das
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRAGEMENT

Preeti Das, a storyteller, theatre person and a stand-up comic, will be moderating a session with Gujarati singer and poet Saumya Joshi, whose song Khalasi stirred a significant buzz on social media last year. “He is the reason most of us entered theatre. As a contemporary poet and lyricist, he has been a major voice in the theatre space, addressing wide range of issues from gender to caste politics,” says Preeti.

Saumya is one of the writers and lyricists of the national-award wining Gujarati film, Hellaro, which portrays garba dance as a form of rebellion.  

Children’s fest

The Children’s fest will run parallel with the poetry festival, “Every time we do a festival like this, one of the things we make sure that there is a large number of children’s programmes that happen. I think children have to be included into any activity you do. Unless you invest in the children of today, you are not going have poets, writers or audiences of tomorrow,” says Subodh.

Preeti will be performing for the Children’s fest, she will narrate the story of The Khalasi who Ate Khakra, which is a story of a young sailor who fell in love with his khakras, “Through this I am trying to celebrate the idea of leftovers, or recycled foods in the Indian kitchens, some of which have turned into comfort food for us growing up, something that we also associate with our grandmas cooking.”

Preeti has already packed plenty of khakras for the kids, “As a story teller the idea is to evoke the five senses, I want it to also be a sensory experience when they hear the story.”

Vaishnavi Giri
| Photo Credit:
Ruth Dhanaraj

Among the many other sessions, author and illustrator Vaishnavi Giri will do a storytelling session on Into the Wild which talks about the delicate ecosystem of the Sunderbans. “There are different segmented forests in India, and they all hold equal importance as different habitations. Sunderbans is a place that is not a lot talked about to children like the desserts of Rajasthan or Gujarat. Sunderban is important as it prevents major floods. It is one of the oldest forests and the biggest mangrove forest in the world. Sunderbans, being the only mangrove forest that has tigers in it, presents a fascinating ecosystem,” says Vaishnavi.