By Judith Fitzgerald
"Since the dawn of man," began Jamal Khalfan bin Huwaireb, head of the seven-day festival's organizing committee in a Keynote Address, "poetry has always been a mode of exchanging the highest ideals and building a common language between different cultures and people. In Arabic history, poetry has constantly provided the inspiration for making a unified stand."
The Dubai International Poetry Festival ceremonies then commenced with a short documentary on the historical origin and evolution of poetry and featured musical performances before South African poet, playwright and painter Breyten Breytenbach took to the stage and shared his sense that the highly regarded and widely worshipped artform was a "process of consciousness" that the festival would help foster in terms of "bringing cultures closer where people speak the same language of sincerity and truth, even if through different dialects." Then, the NYU Global Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing read a moving Mahmoud Darwish poem to the thunderous approval of the huge crowd.
An initiative of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, the festival debuted under the banner, "A Thousand Poets, One Language"; The National uploaded a brief video clip of events (in English) to underscore its multicultural all-inclusive nowness. (Instituted by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the event, when all was said and sung, featured 100-plus regional and international writers from 45 countries.)
To top it off, an editorial in a subsequent edition of The National, "The Rhyme and Reason Behind an Arab Tradition," curiously addressed the ever-accelerating marginalization of poetry in America while explaining and celebrating its enduring central role among other regions of the global village: "For many of us in the Arab world, this diminishing stature of poetry in American public life is hard to accept, because it undermines a central pillar of our cherished heritage that continues to shape our cultural identity."
For many of us in the West, this so-called "diminishing stature" doesn't exist, particularly since a couple or few of us believe -- perhaps foolishly -- the Internet has just begun to effect a full-blown efflorescence of the art (in which more than a handful of us are privileged to participate since poetry knows no borders nor nationalities, not anymore. Look no further than the fact of this report itself).
Updata: You'll discover another angle on the ground-breaking proceedings here.
