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Koshala Literature Festival to return with cultural extravaganza
“We have invited litterateurs, artists, politicians and journalists to share their views, perspectives and knowledge on the history, architecture and literature of Awadh.”
The second edition of the Koshala Literature Festival (KLF) this year, to be held at the La Martiniere grounds, promises a long line of historical and literary discussions along with three stellar cultural performances at the end of each day’s proceedings, over the three days of the festival, starting from February 9 to 11.
Festival founder Prashant Kumar Singh, and festival director Amitabh Singh Baghel, held a press conference ahead of the festival on Tuesday, to inform about the details of the festival and what visitors can expect from the lineup of guests and events this year. “Since the first edition of the festival held last year had such an overwhelmingly positive response, we had to bring it back this year as well,” said Baghel.
“We have invited litterateurs, artists, politicians and journalists to share their views, perspectives and knowledge on the history, architecture and literature of Awadh,” he said. The director went on to provide details of the speakers, which include Carlyle Mcfarland, former principal of La Martiniere, who will speak about the legacy of the institution. The first day will also see a talk between writer Gurcharan Das, Australian historian John Zubrycki, and historian and political scientist Ali Mahmudabad on ‘Relics and Reminiscence of Princely India’.
The second day is dominated by book launches, with an address by Saurabh Dwivedi of Lallantop, who will deliver a talk on ‘Reading in the Age of Reels’, speaking on how the younger generations prefer to consume traditional literature and mediums they use for the same. And finally, the third and final day of the second edition of KLF will feature several guest speakers, who will speak on various aspects of Lucknow culture, be it architecture, food, film and more.
The final session on each day of the festival will be dedicated to musical performances including one by Hindustani classical singer of the Rampur Sahaswan gharana Ustad Ghulam Siraj Niazi, a fusion performance of old classics with modern remixes by Chandra Shekhar Varma and Prabha Srivastava and a poetry symposium on the final day along with 6 renowned Hindi and Urdu poets. “Moreover, there will be food stalls from all the popular Lucknow shops, as well as crafts displays for the visitors,” he further said.
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Take the Stage
The Talent Hunt feature of the Koshala Literature Festival this time has received ten times the entries as the previous year, claimed the organizers. “We received almost 300 entries, of which the filtering process is going on. More than 100 performances from youth artists of Lucknow, be it poetry, music, stand-up comedy or storytelling, will be taking the stage this year,” said founder Prashant Kumar Singh.
“Contrary to expectation, we received 75-80 entries from young writers in Hindi and Urdu,” he added. This is an open mic stage that is run by KLF during the festival, where young performers and writers get a stage to showcase their talent.
