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Some of Bahrain’s leading poets are excited to see a return of one of the kingdom’s top poetry festivals to an ‘in-person’ format for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic locked them into boxes on Zoom calls.
The 11th iteration of the Colours of Life poetry festival is set to take place next Monday at the Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH) and will feature nine of the Bahrain Writers’ Circle’s (BWC) wondrous wordsmiths.
“Colours of Life has been held annually since the early years of BWC, and this would be our 11th consecutive year and the first year after the pandemic to host the event in-person,” Parvinder Kaur, who coordinates The Second Circle, BWC’s poetry wing and is curating the festival, told GulfWeekly.
“As always, the audience is going to lose themselves in rhymes and metaphors because our poets are ready to paint an intimate picture of colourful emotions.”
Each poem that will be recited during the Colours of Life festival represents a colour, and the evening will be a sojourn across the spectrum starting from ‘White’ before fading to ‘Black’ by the end of the evening.
The poets have been rehearsing their poems during the Second Circle’s monthly meeting and almost all of them are well-seasoned, having performed at other events like the Khwabgaah Poetry Festival recently held at the Indian Embassy, as well as the popular bimonthly Misfits Poetry Nights at the Raven’s Nest.
“It is important for writers to have platforms to share their work with an audience so that they can be reminded that the world needs their art, just as much as their need to create it,” Parvinder added.
“Sharing their work is an intimate act for any artist … and poets are no different. As poets we are used to pouring stories over the paper and have a tendency to forget that there is a very good chance that three-out-of-five people who we walk past relate to whatever we scribble and cross in our journals.”
The poets performing at the event, will be drawing on a mosaic of moods and their kaleidoscopes of cultural influences to add to a palette of poems capturing the many dimensions of the human experience.
For her piece titled Medicine Woman, Kaav Ranj, a 24-year-old Indian poet who has been writing for more than a decade, is drawing her ‘ink-spiration’ from her ‘third culture’ experience, as well as the likes of Ebony Stewart, Nayyirah Waheed and Ciara Chantelle for ‘the way they take concepts and completely turn them on their heads’.
“I think music really sets the mood and rhythm for my pieces, while symbolism from South Asian folk tales and my own cultural heritage really help to bring layers to what I’m writing,” the co-director at Create It added.
“Medicine Woman is about the doubt and subsequent strength that comes with making your first hard choice as an adult.”
Author, teacher and poetess Nivedita Roy, on the other hand, will be drawing on classical and Urdu poetic influences as she performs two poems about human life and relationships.
The Colours of Life festival will take place on Monday, June 19, at 7.30pm on the 45th floor of the BFH’s Western Harbour. Registration is required because of limited seating availability.
Follow
@bahrainwriterscirclebwc on Instagram for more details and to register.
