São Paulo – The São Paulo Cultural Centre will host an evening of Arab poetry, dancing and music next Thursday (7th). The diwan, Arabic for poetry recital, will kick off a program named "Poesia dos quatro cantos" (Poetry from the four corners), promoted by the Cultural Centre to spread international poetry. The diwan will be promoted by the Institute of Arab Culture (Icarabe) and the event will take place at Praça das Bibliotecas in the Cultural Centre, in the Paraíso neighbourhood, in the south side of São Paulo.
At the meeting, poems from Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and Brazil will be recited. The poems selected are by the Tunisians Amina Said and Youssef Rzouga, the Egyptian Amal Dunqul, the Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish, the Iraqi Nazik al Malaika, the Lebanese Joumana Haddad, one traditional Bedouin poem by Rebej ben Sahli and another by the Brazilian Michel Sleiman, who is also the event’s curator.
According to the diwan’s artistic director, Leandra Yunis, the authors from countries that have undergone or are undergoing political and social change, such as Tunisia and Egypt, have been selected to pay tribute to the struggle. She underscores, however, that the event is not solely geared towards this tribute. "But we did select poets from those countries to take some advantage from the events, to converse with them,’ he says.
Besides the poetry, t here will be music and dancing performances, such as baladi, an Egyptian dance, and saaidi, known as the baton dance. There will be an eastern percussion a solo with dabke, a traditional Arab circle dance. Musicians such as Jihad Smaili, Maurício Mouzayek, Ely Mouzayek, William Bordokan and Bruno Mansini will participate in the diwan, alongside the dancers.
The Icarabe was invited by the literature curator at the São Paulo Cultural Centre, Claudio Daniel, to promote the diwan. The institute has promoted this type of event ever since its inception, in 2003, and according to Leandra, the audience usually consists of Arab culture and poetry lovers. ‘The people who attend are not only admirers of Arab culture or descendents, many are poetry, dancing and music lovers," he says.
Service
Diwan
April 7th, 2011, Thursday
From 08:30 pm to 10:00 pm
Praça das Bibliotecas –São Paulo Cultural Centre
Vergueiro street, 1000, Paraíso – São Paulo
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
