Poetry Connections

POETRY CONNECTIONS - a translation workshop and multilingual multimedia performance in Pondicherry, Chennai and Pune. [dated December 2010]

As part of the Literature Across Frontier’s (LAF) international initiatives, a translation workshop POETRY CONNECTIONS will be held in India in Pondicherry. This will be followed by a multilingual and multimedia performance in Chennai and Pune.

Pondicherry
Workshop at Adishakti Date: 8th to 14th December 2010 (closed - for poets / oganisers only)

Chennai
Performances at Amethyst, Gopalapuram on 15 December at 7.00 pm ( open to public) Stella Maris College on 16 December at 9.00 am Womens Christian College o 16 December at 11.30 am British Council on 16 December at 6.00 pm ( open to public)

Pune
Performance at Kala Chaya Campus, Opp Vikhe Patil School, Patrakar Nagar Road, Chaturshrungi Date: 18 December, 2010 at 5.30 pm (open to public)

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The poetry translation workshop leading up to these events is scheduled to be held from 8th to 15th December, 2010 at Pondicherry. Eight national and international poets will be participating in the workshop. The six-day intensive workshop is envisaged to bring poets in contact with various contexts of their languages, regions, styles, formats etc. With musical, visual and performative aspects the poets will interact with each other in the beautiful environs of Adishakti.

The cross-translation and creative work achieved during this intensive workshop will be showcased as a performance at the inaugural of the Prakriti Poetry Festival on the 15th December in Chennai at 7pm.

POETRY CONNECTIONS at Pondicherry Workshop at Adishakti 8th to 15th December, 2010 This particular workshop to be held at Adishakti will bring together the following eight poets:
Arjun Bali – English, Hindi, Punjabi
Bill Herbert – English
Meena Kandasamy – English, Tamil
Raphael Bendicht Urweider – English, German
Robin Ngangom – English, Manipuri
Roselyne Sibille – French, English
Sampurna Chattarji – English, Bengali
Zoë Skoulding – English

The poets have been selected to bring together a range of languages as well as to look at different cultural contexts they work in. The workshop to be held at the beautiful environs in Pondicherry will be a blend of working on text as well as incorporating other elements like music, performance and visuals. Unlike other workshops where poets work in pairs with the assistance of interpreters, or where translations are produced collectively into one language, this workshop aims for cross-translation in different directions, providing an environment where participants are encouraged to translate work by everyone in the group and where they can learn about each other’s literary tradition and the contemporary context in which each of them writes. The week-long residential workshop will consist of group sessions and sessions dedicated to individual work. Daily discussions around the work in progress will allow the group to explore the microcosm of each text, as well as wider issues of translation practice. The workshop is expected to result in a multilingual multimedia performance to be staged at Chennai and Pune. 

POETRY CONNECTIONS at Chennai and Pune 
Performance at the Amethyst (Chennai) and Kala Chhaya (Pune) 
15 & 18 December, 2010 The same group of eight poets will put up a multilingual and multimedia performance at the Amethyst, Chennai on 15 December, 2010. The workshop will be held at the inauguration of ‘Poetry with Prakriti’, a two-week long poetry festival organized annually in Chennai by the Prakriti Foundation. The group of poets will showcase the same performance in Pune as part of the Open Space at Kala Chhaya on 18 December, 2010. 

CHENNAI 
Date: 15 December, 2010 Time: 7 pm Venue: Amethyst, Gopalapuram, Chennai 

PUNE 
Date: 18 December, 2010 Time: 6.30 pm Venue: Kala Chaya Campus, Opp Vikhe Patil School, Patrakar Nagar Road, Chaturshrungi, Pune 

Partners Literature Across Frontiers German Book Office Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council French Book Office British Council Sangam House Prakriti Foundation Open Space Siyahi 

Profile of Raphael Bendicht Urweider
Participating poet from Switzerland Raphael Bendicht Urweider was born in 1974 in Bern, Switzerland. He studied German literature and philosophy in Fribourg, and sees himself as a poet and a musician. He has performed with the Bernise Hip-Hop crew LDeeP and composed the music for a number of plays. In 1999, he received the Arbeitsstipendium des Deutschen Literaturfonds, as well as the Leonce-und-Lena-Preis. Other prizes include the Förderpreis des Bremer Literaturpreises (2001), the 3sat award at the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition (2002), and the Clemens-Brentano-Preis (2004). His first volume of poetry, Lichter in Menlo Park, was published in 2000. His latest collection is Das Gegenteil von Fleisch (2003). He also translates plays (Five Gold Rings, Poor Beck by Joanna Laurens) and poetry (Minsk by Lavinia Greenlaw). In March 2009, he was awarded the 'Schillerpreis' for his poems in 'Alle deine Namen'. He lives in Bern.