Chair Poetry Evenings, Kolkata’s International Poetry Festival, returns to the city with its fifth edition

Kolkata's International Poetry Festival Chair Poetry Evenings is once again here and will start in the last week of November (26th - 28th November, 2022). Like previous years, this three day festival will be an eclectic gathering of international and national poets, writers, and thinkers, and city residents will get to hear some of the best voices and verses from the literary world.International participants from seven countries include Sholeh Wolpé (Iran/U.S.A.), Erik Lindner (the Netherlands), Sandeep Parmar (U.K.), Endre Ruset (Norway), Jesús Sepúlveda (Chile), Anne Vegter (the Netherlands), Iryna Vikyrchak (Ukraine), Jennifer Jean (U.S.A.), and Preti Taneja (U.K.). Indian poets to perform at the festival include Padmasri Mamang Dai, Ranajit Das, Neelesh Raghuwanshi, Kumar Ambuj, Shikhandin, Badrinarayan, Sutapa Sengupta, Kynpham Singh Nongkynrih, and Hindol Bhattacharjee. The festival will take place in different historical venues across the city and will culminate with its signature event ‘Poetry on the Cruise’ on river Hooghly. Folk and Sufi musical band ‘Kartooz’ will be performing in the opening ceremony of the festival with their band members Rishi Chakraborty, Prajna Dutta, Shiladitya Chakraborty, Saikat Dutta, Ranojoy Singh and Ushnish Acharya.The event hosted by Chair Literary Trust has been made possible with the cooperation and support of the Dutch Foundation for Literature, Flanders, Belgium, NORLA - Norwegian Literature Abroad, and Ministry of External Affairs, Norway among others. Previous participants in Chair Poetry Evenings include literary stalwarts like booker prize winning author Ben Okri, Pulitzer Prize award winning poets Forrest Gander and Vijay Sheshadri, Ruth Padel, Nikola Madzirov, Ashok Vajpeyi, Sahitya Akademi award winning poets like Managalesh Dabral, K Satchidanandan, Rajesh Joshi among others. The festival in the course of five years has presented poetry from poets from more than 20 countries and languages.Renowned poet and festival director Sonnet Mondal said, ‘Appreciation of poetry and art remains crucial to mankind, especially in a world where we are going through wars, conflicts, demonization of democratic rights, and curtailment of basic freedom in most parts of the world. Kolkata, the cultural capital of India, has been consistently hosting various literature and art events, and our endeavour is to add the flavour and importance of poetry to them. Poetry has always set the base fire of national and international discourses, and through this festival, we wish to present voices that remain obstinate in the face of anything that comes against humanity. I hope this year’s festival, with the efforts of our core festival team members, especially Satyaki Mukherjee, Anindita Bose, Amit Das, Namrota Purakayastha, and others, will be able to present poems and thoughts that one can take along and keep with them in times to come.’Eminent Hindi poet and Festival director Tushar Dhawal Singh said, ‘In today’s tormented times when wars and terrorist activities, fanatic and radicalised mindsets, weaponisation of ideologies and greed, all are working in tandem to annihilate the human expression of life and living, I see poetry and creative ideas as a ‘push back’ against all these forces working against humanity. Through its primary engagement with the idea of being more and more human, poetry tends to permeate the minds of its readers with more fertile ideas of living and expressing. The Chair Poetry Evenings celebrates life, creation and humanity in all its diversities and hues. We look forward to presenting the humane voice of people who are being tormented by inhuman ideas and forces.’