IRAQ: Syriac Writers Union organizes Sixth Bardaisan Syriac Poetry Festival in Baghdede, Nineveh Plain
BAGHDEDE, Iraq – This Friday, the Syriac Writers Union held the Sixth Bardaisan Syriac Poetry Festival at the Qaraqosh Theater in Baghdede, Nineveh Plain, amid strict preventive coronavirus measures. Festival supervisor poet Noel Boulos opened the festival by welcoming the participants accompanied by moment of silence in commemorating of the Syriac martyrs.
Head of Syriac Writers Union poet Rund Boulos gave a speech in which he emphasized the importance of going ahead with the festival in the towns of the Nineveh Plain despite the Coronavirus pandemic. It confirms the creativity and will of Syriac intellectuals and writers. He thanked everyone for their contribution in holding the event. A number of Syriac poets in the diaspora also participated online in the festival.
A collection of poems in Syriac and Arabic were recited by a number of poets. Member of the Central Committee of the Union of Writers in Iraq poet Zuhair Bahnam Barada read a poem in which he stressed the importance for Syriac writers in their poems to return to the glory and pride of their great ancestors. This was followed by the presentation on the establishment of the Baghdad Museum. Then the song of Ya Hawa Ya Tayyib composed by late writer Talal Wadih.
During the festival a seminar was held on the book The Anthology of Syriac Poetry written by Rund Boulos, Akkad Murad, and Nizar Hanna al-Dirani. The seminar was presided over by journalist Bahnam Shamni and included three critical interventions: “A Comprehensive Edition”, “The Anthology of Syriac Poetry since the 9th Century”, and “Poetry and Identity.”
Certificates of appreciation were distributed to all festival participants.