Unlike music youngsters choose to stay away from such events mainly due to lack of interest in poetry
LAHORE: The fourth International Faiz Festival began in Lahore past weekend with poetry enthusiasts and renowned poets making it to the event. It is fortunate that in times when almost nothing is being done to revive poetry as an important genre of communication that has a deeply enriched cultural history, festivals like Faiz Festival are still graced by the presence of veterans like Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar from across the border.
Although, unlike music and other festivals, youngsters choose to stay away from such events mainly due to lack of interest in poetry and its revolutionary impact in the bygone eras. Festivals like these should be held all across the country with the younger generation encouraged and motivated to take part in them. Sadly, where many choose professions based on the monetary gains that a work field offers, literature and poetry have been left neglected by both the public and the government.
Culture ministries must allocate funds to such events in a way that it incentivises the audience and makes them aware of how important poetry and literature is in writing the history of a nation.
Maleeha Uzair
Published in The Express Tribune, November 19th, 2018.
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