Bhubaneswar: From Pavan Verma to Nirupama Rao, from Vinod Dua to Amish Tripathy, from Rahat Indori to Nilamadhav Panda and from Sobha De to Vijaylakshmi Chhabra et al will be here in the Smart City of Bhubaneswar during 8-10 June 2018. The Kalinga Literary Festival is back with its 5th edition to invigorate, educate, provoke and entertain as well.
KLF is well known for its socially relevant themes and in a way compels all ‘creative’ people to think and articulate ‘the contemporary’. Like its past editions the KLF this year also has a hard-hitting theme for writers, poets and artists to ponder on. The central theme focuses on how to build a Just Society and in doing this the festival will explore how equality, equity and humanity have been presented, portrayed and picturised in our contemporary forms of literature and art. Several sessions on different themes will connect to the central theme on Building a Just Society.
There will be more than 250 writers, poets, artists and performers dwelling over several issues ranging from youth to inclusion, transgender to equality, women to equity, and governance to justice. A dedicated poetry festival, Mystic Kalinga, is an integral part of the event which provides a platform for emerging talents and youth icons in poetry to meet the established ones and the legends. Another dedicated platform, Kalinga Art Festival provides a unique platform for artists to showcase their talent and connect their art to the central theme of the festival.
Writers, poets, speakers and performers including Adyasha Das, Alka Saraogi, Ajay Sharma, Amaresh Patnaik, Amish Tripathy, Amrita Tripathi, Anwesa Brahma, Apsara Reddy, Ashok Maheshwari, Arun Kumar Rath, Bharat Tiwari, Debashish Samantaray, Deepa Agarwal, Chandrahas Chaudhury, Dikshya Tiwari, Gaurav Solanki, Geetanjali Shree, Harish Bhimani, Jaishree Misra Tripathy, Kamalakanta Dash, Kalki Subramaniam, Kedar Mishra, KC Shankar, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi , Leela Samson, Mridula Garg, Mrinal Chatterjee, Nadira Naik, Nilamadhav Panda, Nirupama Rao, Nirupama Subramanian, Nitu D. Bhattacharya, Panchami Ukil, Paramita Satapathy, Pavan Verma, Pratibha Ray, Pranesh Prasad, Pratibha Satapathy, Ranjan Mallik, Rahat Indori, Rajdeep Sardesai, Rajendra Kishore Panda, Ramendra Kumar, RJ Komal , Ratnamala Swain, Ravi Singh, Richard Mohapatra, Ruchita Kazaria, Rudrani Chetrri, Sachidananda Mohanty, Saira Shah Halim, Sanjeeb Sanyal, Sobha De, Soubhagya Kumar Mishra, Satyanand Nirupam, Sathya Saran, Sitakanta Mohapatra, Shinie Antony, Shiraz Husain , Shashwita Sharma, Sudipti, Sujit Mohapatra, Sudarshan Pattnaik, Yunus Khan, Vikram Nayak, Vijaylakshmi Chhabra, Vinod Dua, Vineet Kumar, Vivek Agrawal et all will tell the story(ies) of life, society and the world and will also provide a future perspective on the topics of discussion. This largest ‘summer past-monsoon start’ literary festival of the world is going to direct the discussions on justice in order to uphold the Ds in democracy; debate, diversity, dissent, deliberation, and decision making.
Four prestigious awards in literature will be conferred in the following categories
Kalinga Sahitya Sanman (for a distinguished writer in Odia),
Kalinga International Literary Award (for a writer in any global language),
iii. Kalinga Karubaki Literary Award (for Odia women writers) and
Kalinga Literary Youth Award (30 Districts of Odisha).
There will be dedicated sessions on the youth, indigenous communities, mythology, history, governance, foreign relations, women, transgender, climate change, cinema, media and the radio. There will be several One to One sessions with leading experts on the subjects. There will be a Story telling sessions promise to add new flavor to the literary spirit of the festival.
Mr. Rashmi Ranjan Parida, the founder director of KLF believes that literary festivals need to have a contemporary focus which would expand and strengthen the democratic space for dialogue and dissent to help facilitate inclusive policy-making. Mr. Kamala Kanta Dash, co-director of the festival argues in favor of expanding the definition of literature by freeing it from the narrow scope and that includes lived and shared experiences. Mr. Debashish Samantaray, one of the festival director is happy that KLF has created a historic platform to recognize 30 writers and poets from 30 districts.
For the first time, there will be a dedicated session on the transgender community. This session will discuss the recent socio-economic and policy developments regarding the transgender community and how to weigh the utility of the government initiatives on the basis of their lived experience of exclusion, discrimination, community, trans-community engagement.
Artists, performers and writers from The Philippines will join to add the Southeast Asian colour to the function. A Filipino troupe of performers had joined in last year’s Mystic Kalinga as well. Hon’ble Ambassador of the Philippines to India is likely to join. Kalinga Art Festival, an exclusive art segment has been designed to showcase best of the creations of contemporary artists. In its second year the Art Festival attracts young male and female artists from Bhubaneswar, Odisha and from the national capital.
There will be cultural program to showcase Odisha’s art, culture and literature on each day of the three-day program. Among others Mushaira by Mr. Rahat Indori and team will be a star attraction. Delegates and speakers will join the famous Ekamra Walk and the Khandahiri Walk. In order to expand the opportunity for the delegates KLF team has partnered with local cycle clubs to provide cycles for speakers to roam around the smart city and experience the blend of ancient heritage and modern urban planning.
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