bye bye Europe , kritya will come again soon

Upcoming  Events

Kritya is organizing a Workshop for Poets / writers at "Sameeksha" Near Angamali , Kerala on June 6, Sunday2010.

Topic-Why poetry matters?

A-Subject to be discussed

* Is there is any importance for poetry in contemporary time of social and political crises?

* Can a voice of a poet reaches to common man, if not than what are the causes?

* It is a common saying that there are more poets than readers, in this case what type of poetry can come under the category of poetry

* How to write so we can take poetry to our next generation.

B-Theme of poetry

* Social
* Political
* Love

* Social politics like feminism, Dalit, etc

C- Style of poetry

* Should we leave music
* Or come back to music again
* Or very experimental

D- Poetry and other art forms

* how to make combination of poetry and other art forms
* can poetry be as popular as other art form like music and dance

Organizing Team

Anoop T
Sumesh
Bineesh M.K
Bineesh
Srijith
Sarath chandra
Navaneeth
 

The Programme

Why poetry matters?


Welcome - Anju 9.30 - 10.15

Addressing the gathering by Chairperson - Aryad Vasudevan

Scope of the discussion - Rati Saxena

10.30 am - 12.00 pm

Session 1

Why poetry matters and what comes under the category of poetry?

12.00 pm - 1.00 pm

Lunch

1.0 pm - 2.30 pm

Why does one write and how?

Social Functions of Poetry and Poets

Session 2

How musical could/should poetry be?

2.30 pm - 4.00 pm

Is Experimentation possible in poetry with language style and fusion of other art forms?

Session 3

Poetry and other art forms

Vote of thanks - Sumesh

Why poetry matters has no definite answer. No doubt it is a pleasurable literary creation wherein the beautiful or sublime are evoked without the compulsive onus of engaging in rational thinking or resorting to narrative rendition. Poetry also has the power to reinvent history; critique the present and prophecy the future. Poetry may give the reader a taste of personal or cultural memory and make one reflect on the times.

What comes under the category of poetry?
Poetry has myriad avatars. It eludes the fixity of a definition and the convenience of classification even if one discusses it with reference to schools of poetry and literary movements. Like in the case of any other creative expression governed by imagination, emotion and sensitivity to surroundings and time, rules of poetry cannot be formulated, nor can one quantify its uses.
Why does one write and how?
It is impossible to decide whether poetry is inspired or it results from intentional contemplation; if one should be writing according to the norms to rhythm, rhyme and meter or ignore them altogether; if poetry fulfils some social obligation or is written for sheer aesthetic enjoyment; whether it responds to or grows out of a context or transcends the context; whether it dreams of a changed world or looks back nostalgically at distant or recent pasts and the like. The context(s) of the production and reception of poetry and the milieu of the poet are significant and one has to seek answers to all such queries with regard to these.
Social Functions of Poetry and Poets
Poetry has the potential to depict social crisis, the confusions and agonies of an era and the troubles and tribulations in a poignant manner. It has played a stunning variety of roles and fulfilled several functions in different contexts in history. But poetry cannot be reduced to propaganda. To seep into the psyche of people and influence emotions, poetry needs more techniques than mere eloquence and demagoguery. A poet's sway on society and people is an enigmatic phenomenon in that it cannot be measured in terms of the impact and its quality cannot be assessed.
Possible Theme(s) of Poetry
The theme of poetry is a debatable issue if one takes a prescriptive stand. Poetry may have a confessional vein, the need to reveal the unbearable joys and pains may motivate one to pen a poem of love, parting, loss, guilt and fear. Poets choose to respond to his times in nuanced ways and readers associate different themes and meanings according to their perspectives. Revolutionaries, feminists and marginalized groups like Dalits have used poetry as an eye opener and in their hands the pen became mightier than the sword.
How musical could/should poetry be?
The relationship between poetry and music is ambivalent. Rhyme and rhythm intensify the aesthetic experience poetry conveys and also help the meaning to linger longer in memory. At the same time, too much insistence on musical elements and rigidity of form may lead to certain compromises with the power and freedom of poetic expression.
Is Experimentation possible in poetry with language style and fusion of other art forms?
Poetry can explore the possibilities of innovativeness in language, music and visual impact by coining new words and idioms, inventing new rhythms and rhymes, structuring the appearance of the poem on paper and combining it with other art forms. It can play in the background of dance and give soul to music. Experimentation in poetry knows no limits and breaks up and breaks into boundaries.

Presented by Bini Sajil

Report on poetry workshop

Report of Workshop on Poetry

On 20 June2010, Kritya organized a workshop of poetry at Sameeksha in Kalady, ( Kerala). Almost 20 young poets participated in the workshop, and two Malayalam poets - Roshani Vapana and Aryad Vasudevan took part as experts. Amit kalla, a young Hindi poet and artist, came all the way from Jaipur to take part in it.

Sameeksha is an Ashram run by Father Sebastian Painadath S.J, who is doing a great job by promoting a dialogue between all the religions. He believes in the cultural roots of the human race. The most important thing is the love for nature and life along with nature. The Ashram is on the banks of the Periyar River, amidst lush green surroundings. All the buildings are built in traditional Kerala style. It is wonderful to see the Kerala architectural tradition preserved in the construction of this Ashram, when most of Kerala is changing into a concrete jungle.

The meeting was inaugurated informally with a short speech by Father S Painadath S.J, who is an expert in Upanishad philosophy. An artist of the Ashram Mr. Ray talked about the relation between colours and words.

Then the discussion was open for young minds, it was nice to see that young minds were so rich with ideas. A number of questions were raised and discussed. Why poetry matters, a question that itself contained a number of other questions, why a young poet writes poems in these modern times, where there is such limited space for poetry. No one can live as a poet these days. Poetry is becoming a part time or pastime affair. Then for whom should one write, just for oneself or for the society, and will society listen to a poet?

The young poets expressed their deep-seated hurt at the attitude of the senior poets, who were not showing them any direction or giving guidance. They were upset that their seniors were very self centered and not working for uplifting poetry.

Till lunch break, we could talk a lot, after lunch, we went to the banks of the Periyar River and afterwards we sat on the platform surrounded by nutmeg trees. We read poetry and talked about poetry. After evening tea, again a question came back to us, why do we write poetry, this is the time of cricket, football, films and so many other forms of entertainment.. Where is the place for poetry, and if we write, what can the society gain from it?

Time was running out; we had so many unanswered questions. But we were happy to provide a stage, where young poets could open their heart.

A fruitful workshop could be held in a beautiful environment; that was our satisfaction.

Rati Saxena

From kritya team

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kritya in Struga

The name “T’ga za Jug,” which translates as “longing for the south,” is taken from a historically significant poem by Konstantin Miladinov, considered to be the founder of modern Macedonian poetry. Miladinov wrote the poem while living in Russia. “He was disappointed and nostalgic in Russia and obsessed with the idea of going back (to Macedonia). The "south" in the poem is Macedonia. Stambol is Istanbul, then a significant cultural center in the "south," and Kukus is a city that today belongs to Greece. Ohrid is the most significant cultural and historical city of Macedonia to this day, as well as Struga (where the writer was from).” Every year the large poetry festival held in Struga in honor of Konstantin and his brother Dimitar is kicked off by a ceremonial reading of “

T’ga za Jug.”Longing for the South (T'ga za jug)

Konstantin Miladinov

If I had an eagle's wings

I would rise and fly on themTo our shores,

to our own parts,

To See Stambol, to see Kukus,And to watch the sunrise

is itdim there too, as it is here?

If the sun still rises dimly,

If it meets me there as here,

I'll prepare for further travels,

I shall flee to other shores

Where the sunrise greets me brightly

And the sky is sewn with the stars.

It is dark here, dark surrounds me,

Dark covers all the earth,

Here are frost and snow and ashes

Blizzards and harsh winds abound,

Fogs all around, the earth is ice

And in the breast are cold,

dark thoughts.No,

I cannot stay here, no;

I cannot sit upon this frost.

Give me wings and

I will don them;

I will fly to our own shores,

Go once more to our own places,

Go to Ohrid and to Struga.

There the sunrise warms the soul,

The sun gets bright in mountain woods:

Yonder gifts in great profusion

Richly spread by nature's power.

See the clear lake stretching white-

Or bluely darkened by the wind,

Look at the plains or mountains:

Beauty everywhere divine.

To pipe there to my heart's content.

Ah! Let the sun set, let me die.

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Kritya in Medellin

"At the 21st Medellin Poetry Festival, directors of 37 Poetry Festivals worldwide discussed the relationship between poetry and peace and reconstruction of the human spirit, nature reconciliation and recovery, unity and cultural diversity of the peoples, material misery and poetic justice, and actions to take towards the globalization of  poetry."
I, from my Indian background still don't understand it very well. Can poetry change the world, or at least the hearts of a few people? Did we ever use word power against any type of crime in modern times (especially in India)? Isn't it true that very often the wrong words used indiscriminately are the root cause of most of the problems we encounter? Is it possible that the right words spoken in the right manner at the opportune moment bring about positive outcomes?
Can we create at least peace through poetry, though we have a number of spiritual poets in different languages? The poetry is used as prayers in our society, but are we able to bring peace through poems? Forget about unity, we poets do not have unity in our country; we talk about our different ideologies, but never try to search for and identify a common thread linking all the ideologies. We have cultural diversity, which is the most beautiful thing in the world, but do we have unity? Globalization for us means money or blind technology. Can we change this attitude through poetry....?
Is it possible...?
Is it impossible ....? 
It is possible; just take the example of Medellin. The city which was called the most dangerous city in the world for a long time ... the city, which still carries the embers of those bad days in her heart .... The city which is still struggling with a number of issues, welcomes the poetry from all around the world with an open heart. 
How come thousands and thousands of people gather in an open ground and enjoy poetry? Because of fear? Yes, that was what Fernando Rendon, Director Festival International de Poesia de Medellin (Colombia) acknowledged. When I asked him, how he could believe in poetry, even when his city was passing through such bad times, he replied-I was afraid, I was afraid of cruelty, unkindness and darkness of the heart. Poetry was the sacred sanctum for me and other poetry lovers like me. We were not allowed to go out in the evenings, we were very much afraid, and then to fight against the all consuming fear, we started poetry reading in public places - where people could come out from the grip of fear and interact with each other.  
I read the words from history, where Fernando Rendon says-
 "Pain sensitizes us. Poetry enables us to cope with the crisis and to identify with our city despite the hostilities of the war. People welcome poetry because it is a way of living life again. It also reminds us of the past, when poets spoke directly to a community rather than through the print media. Poetry is a real test: the search for the unknown and the resurrection of humankind. It also provides certainty that life has not been completely lost or destroyed. That is why the people who live in and around Medellin heed the call of poetry." 
I was astonished- I asked Fernando Rendon, how come you have faith in poetry, and he replied - I got this faith from poetry
And his faith took 20 years to grow and bear fruit in the form of such an amazing social moment. It is said that Medellin is not so difficult these days (though people still harbor the fear of old days in their hearts) but it is true that poetry festivals over these 20 years have definitely made an impact on the people. It has instilled in the common people the passion to understand poetry and make it an effective medium for constructive social interaction. People do not want to go back to the dark hours they had recently experienced. .... 

One has to acknowledge that the full credit for this remarkable achievement has to be given to Fernando Rendon and his team, the amount of hard work they put in and the pain and agony they experienced in the process. But as Rendon himself says, the most important factor here is poetry,  its live, breathing spirit which gave them the strength they needed so desperately.
So?
Why should I doubt at all about the immense power of poetry?
Why should I feel insecure about the future of poetry? 
Poetry does have an intrinsic social connection, and undoubtedly the power of poetry can bring about many essential social transformations, but it requires a lot of pain and selfless hard work on the part of the poets with a social obligation.  
It is important that poetry is brought to the mainstream and within easy reach of the common people. The present system in which the world of glit and glamour occupies a front seat and poetry is confined to an insignificant corner has to change. The sooner that change is ushered in, the better. 
This road is not an easy one to tread, but we can with committed team effort, driven by genuine love for poetry.
Kritya is learning from each moment and each experience thrown in her path, and trying to work along those lines that will bring the best results for poetry.  
Kritya works in a humble manner, but tries to club together all the art forms and go hand in hand with them in search of the right direction, in search of that welcoming beacon of light.
Kritya still has faith in poetry . . .