“Weaving Relations: Poetry and People across Continents”

Hosted by Department of English & Other Modern European Languages
VISVA-BHARATI University
Santiniketan
12 Jan 2015

The Department of English & Other Modern European Languages, Visva-Bharati, is proud to host Lionel Fogarty and Ali Cobby Eckermann, two internationally renowned indigenous poets from Australia, in course of a day-long literary and cultural meet to be held on 12 January 2014 and at the New Bhasha Bhavana Conference Room (First Floor, Room No.202) from 10 AM to 4 PM.

Besides its own faculty and students, the Department hopes to involve a wide spectrum of artists, activists, performers, independent scholars and academics in what is slated to be a meeting of minds, arts and cultures.

The meet will feature multiple forums for cultural sharing, including readings by the guest poets from their works of poetry, screening of a documentary on remote ethnic communities of Bengal, live musical performances by specially invited members of such communities and, above all, several interspersed sessions of moderated and spontaneous discussion about our individual and collective negotiations with politics and cultures from the many margins and the many centres and the many spaces in-between that together constitute history.

Dr. Mridula Nath Chakraborty of the University of Western Sydney and Mr. Dheeman Bhattacharya of the Department of Comparative Literature, Visva-Bharati, two worthy academics with rich and long-standing experience of working and communicating with indigenous cultures, will coordinate the proceedings.

Debarati Bandyopadhyay
Professor & Head
Ananya Dutta Gupta
Event Convenor

2 January 2014

Programme

10.00 Inaugural Song

10.05 Welcome Address and Presentation of Mementoes
by Head of the Department

10.15 Tea

10.30 Poetry Reading
by Lionel Fogarty.
Chair: Sukla Basu Sen

11.00 Poetry Reading
by Ali Cobby Eckermann.
Chair: Abhijit Sen

11.30 Introductory Remarks on Documentary
Vimukti Ruchira Gupta & Dheeman Bhattacharya

11.45 Screening of Documentary Vimukti(in Bangla with English subtitles, 56 mins 12 secs)

12.45 Presentations by:
Prasanta Rakshit and Megnad Sabar (Sabar, Purulia), Sitaram Sikari and Jayanta (Birhor, Bagmundi, Purulia), Sibdas Lohar (Dhekaru, Rajnagar, Birbhum). Discussants: Dheeman Bhattacharya

1.00 Lunch

2.00 Poetry Reading
by Goutam Ghosal
Chair: Lionel Fogarty

2.30 Presentation
by Sharmila Roy Pommot
Chair: Ali Cobby Eckermann

3.15 Interaction
moderated by Dr. Mridula Nath Chakraborty

3.30 Baul music
by Sanghamitra Das

4.00 Valedictory Remarks

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