The Lahore Arts Council (LAC) has set up a literary corner near its café and named it ‘Gosha-i-Gayan’ for writers, intellectuals, art lovers, singers and artists to gather every Thursday and have discussions on the prevalent times through their works or art.

The Gosha was inaugurated by former Governor Punjab Khalid Maqbool some days back.

LAC Executive Director retired Captain Atta Muhammad Khan whose brainchild is Gosha-i-Gayan told this reporter that through such literary and social sittings love, peace and tolerance could be spread in the society and it was the real objective of the corner. Gosha-i-Gayan has been given a traditional look through pitchers, big charpoys and traditional straw stools (moorahs).

A three-day Mela Chiraghan will be organised at the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture (Pilac) from March 28 to 30. The opening ceremony will be held on March 28 in which Shah Hussain’s poetry will be sung by Riaz Qadir, Muhammad Jawad and Sajjad Bela. On March 29, there will be a Shah Hussain conference which will focus on two major topics, Shah Hussain and Today’s Society and Message of Shah Hussain’s Poetic Philosophy. There will be other topics of discussion too. A Sufi music event will also be held on the same night, featuring Hina Nasrullah.

On March 30, a seminar on ‘Role of Punjabi Literary & Cultural Organisations for Promotion of Mother Language’ would be arranged and the Pilac Cultural Award Show would be held the same evening. The event will conclude with Mehfil-i-Sama.

The English Literary Society and Progressive Writers’ Association marked the World Poetry Day at the Pak Tea House. The event was presided over by Dr Kanwal Feroze while the chief guests were Ghulam Hussain Sajid, Prof Anwarul Haq and Comrade Tanveer.

The poets said the earliest noted poetry began with Iliad and Odyssey by Greek poet Homer. The earliest English poetry was Anglo Saxon. They discussed different aspects of poetry at length.

Those who expressed their views were Dr Jawaz Jafri, Asnath Kanwal, Rubia Jilani, Comrade Shahfique, Javaid Aftab, Zahid Hassan, Zahid Nabi, Aqeel Akhtar, Raza Naeem, Mian Salahuddin, Munawar Sultana, Parveen Sijal, Anjum Qureshi and others. The writers were given awards.

A contemporary dance performance by German choreographer Anna Konjetzky was held at the Rafi Peer Cultural Complex, Raiwind Road, on Thursday night.

The unique dance performance, titled’ Lighting, inspired by the numerous pictures of protest movements around the globe was organised by the Annemarie-Schimmel–Haus (The German Cultural Center) in collaboration with Goethe Institute, Karachi, and Rafi Peer Cultural Complex. It was a German-Pakistani collaborative dance piece which has earlier been performed in Karachi and Islamabad.

In the dance performance, Anna Konjetzky’s fixated the audience’s gaze on the bodies of the nine dancers on a bare stage. The nine dancers formed a flurrying, pulsating mass in which the pressure seemed to increase constantly.

The dance was choreographed by Anna Konjetzky and music was composed by Sergej Maingardt. The dancers were Viviana Defazio, Sahra Huby, Michele Meloni, Quindell Orton, Taha Khan, Erum Bashir, Shabana Hassan, Abdul Haris Khan, Aqeel Ahmed and Sabiha Zia.

Since 2005, Anna Konjetzky has been creating dance-pieces and dance-installations where the questioning and organisation of the space is always central. Her work has been shown at Spielart, Dance, Tanzwerkstatt Munich, Unidram Potsdam, Tanztage Regensburg, Festival Danse Balsa Marni Bruxelles, in Ramallah, Kampala, Nairobi, Hanoi, Istanbul, Gent, Salzburg and other places.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2018