A DIFFERENT KIND OF POETRY

In 2007 Prakriti Foundation crafted a fresh new festival for the city of Chennai, around powerful and contemporary poetry. Poetry is a form of expression that nearly everyone attempts at some time in his or her life. While poetry can take forms as diverse as classical devotional verses or lyrics of popular cinema, it is often the first brush that people have with ‘literature’.

Poems are best received when they are heard being spoken aloud, when their emotional content is being expressed by the human voice, and not just printed ink and paper. The intimate act of listening to poetry can be enjoyed in many ways. ‘Poetry with Prakriti’ was a new festival presented in Chennai by Prakriti Foundation in December ’07, where poets from varied backgrounds in multiple languages read and shared their poetry at many different locations across the city. This allowed multiple groups of people to enjoy creative expression rendered through poetry. The 25 poets were drawn from Tamil English, Kannada and other regional languages. The poets used different methods of expression in their work - from regular poetry to haiku, from deeply personal work to a comment on our times.

‘Poetry with Prakriti’ allowed poets from the city and different parts of India to meet different kinds of audiences, and also allowed them to meet each other and savour the famed Chennai cultural season which is full of music and dance after mid December. It allowed multiple groups of people to enjoy creative expression rendered through poetry. The Festival had an approximate audience of about 25 people per secession, plus another 1500 audience through outreach programmes to schools and colleges; a total of 4000 people in two weeks, over a 100 sessions. The festival was extensively promoted through appropriate media attention and other vehicles for publicity, and resulted in reaching a much larger group than the immediate audience.

Schedule : During the ‘Poetry with Prakriti’ festival spread over two weeks, each poet did four sessions of reading on two days in different places. A typical session would consist of half an hour (30 minutes), with 20 minutes of reading poetry and ten minutes for discussion with the audience. Amateur poets also showed their work to the poets and discussed it with them. Morning sessions were between 11 a.m. to 12 noon, and evening sessions between 4.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.

What made the festival unique was that the sessions were held in places as diverse as parks, schools, cafeterias, malls, large office complexes and bookshops, bringing poetry closer to people in a very special way.

You can contact Prakriti Foundation at :

Block C 9th Floor Gemini Parsn Apt
599 Anna Salai Cathedral Garden Rd Chennai 600 006 Phone # 9840098495, 9940623628

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