Manama: Bahrain and international poetry will come under the spotlight this week when the Second Circle poetry group hosts an evening of local and international presentations.
The event, part of the Manama Arab Capital of Culture 2012 celebrations, will be under the direction of Bahrain’s western poet, David Hollywood, organisers said.
The 45-member Second Circle is the largest poetry grouping in Bahrain, with Bahrainis making up one quarter.
The group is part of the wider Bahrain Writers Circle that comprises a further 126 members and forms the largest writing gathering in the country.
According to organisers, the evening on June 21 will be a reflection of Bahrain’s international status and experience as a traditional and shared community of peoples who live and come together from all over the world. They said that 15 poets from 10 countries would read out 60 poems across all spectrums of mood and perception under the theme, “The Colours of Life”.
Manama has selected June as the month of poetry as it celebrates various forms of cultural events throughout the year.
For organisers, this week’s bilingual evening is the most important poetry event to be held this year throughout the Arab world.
“There will be lots of contrasts between style, method and emphasis by each member, and this by extension provides a diversion. However, the most significant fact is that every poem that will be presented has been written by the person who will be saying it,” the organisers said.
Around one third of the poems will be in Arabic and the rest will be in English, they said.
Manama has been selected as the 2012 Arab Culture Capital and the culture ministry has selected a series of theme-based cultural activities for each month.
For the month of June, the ministry put forward a three-day Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) poetry forum, a collage of Bahraini poetry for young Bahraini poets Ranwa Al Omsi and Jaafar Al Alawi to showcase their work and the poetry festival for traditional Arabic poetry forms.
