I’ve written about Matwaala earlier than—you bear in mind, it’s a phrase within the language of Hindi meaning somebody who’s drunk. It additionally refers to somebody carefree. In a literary world, Matwaala can also be that South Asian Disaspora Poets’ Collective. This group of various poets has an thrilling competition yearly.
This yr, in collaboration with ThinkIndia Basis for Smithsonian’s Past Bollywood Mission, the collective has created a poetry wall. This wall is an element of a bigger two-month program India A La Artwork—A Cultural Collective.
Positioned on the newly opened Irving Museum and Archives in Irving, Texas, the wall options 24 voices from the Matwaala collective. Matwaala founder Usha Akella is an Austin-based poet whose work is included on this exhibit alongside the poem of Sara Garg, one in every of her highschool college students. The co-director of the annual competition, Pramila Venkateswaran, additionally has her work included on this exhibit.
And now let’s get to know extra of those intriguing poets:
Zilka Joseph teaches artistic writing in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sharp Blue Search of Flame is her newest poetry assortment that dives into the duality of residing in each Japanese and Western cultures.
Rohan Chhetri‘s poetry collections have gained a number of awards. His forthcoming work from Tupelo Press in 2021, Misplaced Harm Or in Transit Lovely, is the winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize.
Ralph Nazareth serves as managing editor at Yuganta Press and runs a poetry group in Connecticut at Curley’s Diner. Alongside together with his personal poetry collections and his collaborative work with poet Duane Esposito, he has additionally revealed a Curley’s Poetry Anthology.
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Sasha Parmasad‘s poetry gained first place within the annual Poetry Worldwide competitors, and her most up-to-date full assortment is entitled No Poem.
Amit Majmudar was the primary poet laureate of Ohio in 2015. Dothead, his most up-to-date poetry assortment, explores the adolescent lifetime of an Indian American teenager.
Kirun Kapur is the poetry editor for The Drum: A Literary Journal for Your Ears. Ladies In The Ready Room is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press.
Prageeta Sharma is the creator of Grief Sequence and the Fence Trendy Poets Prize winner Notorious Landscapes.
Monica Ferrell’s debut assortment Beasts for the Chase was chosen by Jane Hirshfield for the Kathryn A. Morton Poetry Prize. Ferrell can also be the recipient of the Discovery/Nation Prize.
Kalpna Singh-Chitnis is Editor-in-Chief of Life and Legends together with being a poet and filmmaker. Her assortment Naked Soul by Kalpna Singh-Chitnis has been in comparison with the works of Whitman.
Different poets embrace Sophia Pandeya, Varsha Shah, Ravi Shankar (the poet!), Indran Amirthanayagam, Phinder Dulai, Saleem Peeradina, Vivek Sharma, Kazim Ali, Subhash Kak, Dilruba Ahmed, Sweta Vikram, and Subhashini Kaligotla.
To have a good time the opening of this poetry exhibit, co-directors Pramila Venkateswaran and Usha Akella featured at a poetry studying on February 29, 2020, at four:00 PM. Following the studying was a dialog with ThinkIndia’s Ravi Srinivasan. They mentioned the significance of poetry within the trendy world, their very own poetry, and the Matwaala Competition’s significance for the South Asian Diaspora and for the literary world. (Matwaala occasions had been postponed this yr as a result of well being emergency, however the competition is scheduled to land in Stonybrook, New York, in 2021).
Poems shall be on show from February 29 via April 12, 2020, which implies you possibly can examine them out throughout Nationwide Poetry Month. In case you’re excited by being intoxicated by poetry, this exhibit and these poets will do the trick.
The Irving Archives and Museum is situated at 801 W Irving Blvd, Irving, TX 75061.
For extra on poetry usually, take a look at our archives.
