In honor of UNESCO’s World Poetry Day, Bilkent University is holding a two-day poetry festival featuring presentations by some of the university’s leading poets and scholars. The event began yesterday, March 21, and is continuing today, Tuesday, March 22.
During the festival, experts from various fields and departments are discussing how and why “poetry” can occur in places where we least expect it. These mini-talks are designed for all audiences and include time for discussion and active participation. Poetry from around the world, throughout history and across different styles, forms and contexts is being heard, seen, read and performed.
All are welcome to attend today’s festival session, which will take place from 3 to 5:30 p.m. in the Bilkent Library Art Gallery. Refreshments will be served.
Program:
MONDAY 21 March
15:00 Aslı Yerlikaya (EDEB) presents Nejâtî’s ‘Those Tulip-Cheeked Ones’
15:30 William Coker (CCI) presents Hölderlin’s ‘Hyperions Schicksalslied’ & ‘Lebenslauf’
16:00 Ahmet Simin Beyatlı (HIST) presents Badr Shakir al-Sayyab’s ‘Rain Song’
16:30 Heather H. Yeung (ELIT) presents Speaking Stones from Simonides to Ian Hamilton Finlay
17:00 Müesser Yeniay (EDEB) presents the Politics of Writing Poetry & the Birth of a Poem
TUESDAY 22 March
15:00 Sjoerd Levelt (CCI) presents Michael Drayton’s Poly-Olbion, or A Chorographical
Description of Tracts, Rivers, Mountaines, Forests, and other Parts of this renowned Isle of Great Britaine (1612/13)
15:30 Gheis Ebadi (HIST) presents Jamî, Haft Orang: Breaking Majnûn’s Bowl & Khayyam-e Neyshabûr’I: Ruba’is
16:00 Jennifer A. Reimer (AMER) presents This is For La Raza: Poetry as Performance (of Community & Identity) in Kid Frost’s Mexican American Hip-Hop Anthem
16:30 Rimliya T. Telkenaroğlu (HIST) presents Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal’s poetry
17:00 Zeynep Seviner (EDEB) presents Hasan Asaf’s ‘Burhan-ı Kudret’