Poets from Israel, China, France, Jordan, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia and Turkey will meet on the occassion of the International Poetry Festival „Nissan", taking place April 3-6 in Kfar Maghar, Galilee.
The official opening of the Festival is due to happen on Saturday, April 3 at 7 pm, at the festivity hall of Eshkol Pais Cultural Centre in Maghar.
The main objective of the Nissan festival is to further mutual understanding and dialogue by way of culture and poetry. The festival thus creates a cultural platform whose intent is to mediate friendships and connections among foreign and Israeli poets (Muslims, Druze, Jews, Christians), between the local public and contemporary international poetry. During the festival, public readings of poetry are scheduled to take place, and the guests will be able to attend symposia on themes such as The Role of Poetry in Multi-cultural Encounters or The Role of Women in Arab Cultures.
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv, in collaboration with the Writers' Union in Romania, supports and promotes the participation of Romanian poets Denisa Comănescu and Flavia Teoc in the Festival. The poems of the invited authors are, as usual, to appear in a bilingual brochure edited by the Festival organizers.
With the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv, the poems of Denisa Comănescu and Flavia Teoc have also been translated into Hebrew. The Hebrew translation was made by the Romanian-born Israeli poet Marlene Braeşter.
The festival was set in motion in 1999, and thought of, by its initiator - professor Naim Araidi, as a necessary and essential get-together to avoid the severance of connections between Arabs and Jews, especially among poets and other intellectuals. The first meeting, when the elite of Israeli Arab and Jewish poets were invited to Naim Araidi's home in Maghar, has become a tradition – a poetry festival unique in its way, an international literary cellebration, where to poets from all over the world are invited each year.
The festival is organised by the "Nissan" Non-profit Organisation for Culture and Art Development in Maghar. Other partners include: the General Union of Israeli Writers, the Israeli Ministry of Culture, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Miphal HaPais, and the Writers' Union in Romania, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv for the Romanian participation.
Festival Program:
Saturday, 3.04.2010
19.00 – 20.30 Oficial opening. Public Readings
Sunday, 4.04.2010
18.00 – 20.00 Public Readings
Monday, 5.04.2010
09.00 – 12.30 Symposium: "The Role of Poetry in Multi-cultural Encounters"
16.00 – 17.30 Public Readings
18.00 – 19.30 Public Readings
Tuesday, 6.04.2010
11.00 – 12.30 Symposium: "The Role of Women in Arab Cultures"
16.00 – 18.00 Public Readings. Closing ceremony
19.00 Popular Poetry
Professor Naim Araidi, initiator of the festival: "We invite the general public to an encounter with a multi-layered culture, proof to the fact that poetry is the common language of peace among individuals and peoples."
