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A literary revolution by a 100 thousand

Updated on: 23 September,2014 08:05 AM IST  | 
Hassan M Kamal |

Starting from September 25, poets, musicians, authors and artists from all over India will come together over four days to celebrate, explore, and inspire literary works from all walks of life, as part of the global event, 100 Thousand Poets For Change

A literary revolution by a 100 thousand

schhol children

Organised in tandem with the annual global event, 100 Thousand Poets For Change (100TPC), the Mumbai chapter will have live music performances and readings on the first three days followed by a special performance and reading by children from Mumbai schools on the fourth day. The global event was started in 2011, to create awareness about social, political and environmental issues via poetry, and is currently in its fourth year.


School children
(Left to right) School children playing at the last edition of 100 Thousand Poets For Change at Kitab Khana; a poetry session in progress

“We keep telling people that nobody reads poetry. But I don’t think that’s true. People are interested in it. The fact that 100TPC has entered its fourth year, with people from across the world interpreting environmental, political and social issues, is proof that there’s interest about poetry,” says Menka Shivdasani, the curator of the Mumbai-chapter of 100TPC.


Menka Shivdasani
Menka Shivdasani

The inaugural day will have Neela Bhagwat, a Hindustani musician from the Gwalior gharana and author of Tihai, a book of Marathi poems, reading poems along with Marathi poet Mangesh Kale and Ignatius Dias. There will also be a reading of the poem, Sarhad written by the late Ali Sardar Jafri, by his grand daughter Noor Jehan. Sarhad is the same poem which former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee recited on his trip to Pakistan.

The second day of the event will see the launch of the fourth volume of the anthology, If the Roof Leaks, Let It Leak, by Sound & Picture Archives for Research on Women (SPARROW). The five-volume book features 87 women writers from 23 languages all over India. “It’s a compilation of interviews along with short stories and poems of 87 women writers, translated in English. It looks into the difficulties they had to face on a daily basis,” says Shivdasani, who edited the book.

Some of the women writers will be attending the event and reciting their works as part of the event. Day three will have readings by Anand Thakore, Jennifer Robertson, Raamesh Gowri Raghavan, Sarabjeet Garcha, Akil Contractor, Ajit Dayal and Vinita Agrawal.

“We have reserved the fourth day for children, as we believe it’s important to include them in literary events. There will be children from 8-10 schools coming together for a special programme, titled We are the World, where they will read their works on India and the world, and the need to break barriers and build bridges,” she signs off.

From: September 25 to 27, 5.45 pm to 7.30 pm; September 28, 10.30 am to 1 pm
At: Kitab Khana, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Fort.
Call: 61702276


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