President of the World Organization of Writers presented the idea of uniting ‘under one cover’ the regions of Russia and neighboring countries
By Ashraf Aboul- Yazid
This week, Kazan hosted the VII Open Literary Festival of Festivals. Last year, this festival named “LIFFT” was held in Ufa, since the fifth gold laureate of the festival was the famous Bashkir satirist, people’s poet of the Republic of Belarus Marcel Salimov. Last Monday, on the big stage of the A.S. Pushkin Cultural Center, he solemnly handed over the LIFFT’s flag to the sixth gold medal winner – the famous literary critic, professor at Kazan University Alfiya Galimullina. Kazan magazine’s reporter Alexander Veronin wrote the following:
“Looking ahead, let’s say that at the closing of the festival, Alfiya, in turn, handed over the festival flag to the next, seventh gold laureate, Marina Karyagina, a famous Chuvash poetess. So next year the festival should be held in Cheboksary. Let us add that silver medals were awarded to the Derzhavin Prize laureate, artistic director of the Kazan poetry theater “Dialogue” Olga Levadnaya and the Adyghe poet Inver Sheudzhen (Krasnodar), however, this is the official part.
Rituals and Festivals
Artists of “the Dialogue Theater”, and students of the theater school and conservatory also performed at the opening and closing ceremonies. The main events of “LIFFT” took place in parallel in the conference hall and youth studio.
First of all, the guests were presented with literary festivals of our republic: “Gorky Festival” and “Pushkin Festival”, the interregional music and poetry festival “Handshake of the Republics”, the open poetry festival “Galaxy of Love” named after Veronika Tushnova, the Derzhavin poetry festival, as well as the first literary festival “An Apple in Half”, dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the classic of Tatar literature Adel Kutuy and the 85th anniversary of the playwright Dias Valeev.
Presentations of the magazines “Kazan”, “Argamak”, “Tatarstan”, and “Parovoz” (Moscow) and “Murr” (Kaliningrad), as well as the first issue of the regional magazine “LIFFT Tatarstan” (Editor Vera Khamidullina).
The editor-in-chief of the all-Russian literary magazine “LIFFT”, director of the festival of festivals and president of the World Organization of Writers (WOW), Moscow poet Margarita Al (M.V. Almukhametova) presented other regional issues to the participants: in Tyumen (editor Ekaterina Volodina), Yekaterinburg (Liana Romanova), Elista (Elena Olzeeva), and also shared the idea of uniting “under one cover” the regions of not only Russia, but also neighboring countries, primarily Belarus and Kazakhstan.
No for “Cancel Culture”
Margarita Al also spoke about holding the WOW Eurasian Forum in Egypt in the spring of this year, noting that many writers around the world love Russian literature and, unlike Western politicians, do not want to join the “cancel culture.” They really want to know what is happening in Russia now. They are ready to establish living cultural ties. And assistance in this could be provided by Russian houses, which are actively working in many countries of Eurasia, Africa, and Latin America.
Editor-in-Chief of Kazanskie Vedomosti, President of the Association of Publishers and Distributors of Printed Materials of the Republic of Tatarstan Venera Yakupova spoke about the newspaper’s campaign “Give a union of paper and numbers!”
Margarita also thanked the iconic poetess Alexandra Ochirova, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for her greetings. She also appreciated the support of ANE and the greeting of Svetlana Konstantinovna Smirnova, Head of the General Secretariat of the International Union of Non-Governmental Organizations of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly.
In particular, Venera shared the results of scientific research on the impact of reading books on the spiritual development of children, about the dependence of teenagers on gadgets and the consequences of total digitalization. Poets and writers, editors of literary magazines who participated in the round table, reacted especially seriously to this speech – after all, everyone has children and grandchildren, after all, this is not just about reading books and improving culture, but about the survival of the nation!
Poetry of Crossing Out
At this time, master classes were held in the youth studio, which to some extent confirmed that not all was lost – young people not only read books, but also tried their hand, for example, in poetry. The head of the Kazan literary cafe “KaLitKa” at the Central Library of Kazan, poet Eduard Ucharov proposed for the audience the topic “Poetry of Crossing Out”: editing and changing the text in the game format of the poetry laboratory “LabUch”. New formats in working with young poets are already bearing their first fruits in the form of the collection of poems “LabUch”.
Monday, as we know, is a hard day, but for poets it ended with the main treat, which is called “Free Microphone”. In the large hall, everyone could sign up and perform their poems. Actually, the most important thing happened there, for which all literary festivals are held. Poets and writers from different cities and regions were in a hurry to get to know each other, exchange addresses and telephone numbers. More informal communication continued at the gala dinner.
A Titmouse that Flew to Pushkin’s Verses
The report of Kazan Newspaper has also mentioned that there was also an unusual participant at the festival of festivals. In the large hall of the A.S. Pushkin Cultural Center during the closing ceremony, when the director of the LIFFT project Margarita Al was reading Pushkin’s famous lines “My friends, our union is wonderful!” a small bird flew onto the stage out of nowhere. Then it flew into the hall, sat down on the easel, walked along the railing, in short, warmed up and got comfortable. She did not interfere with performances and awards, but still attracted attention. It seemed to us that the titmouse did not appear by chance. The saying about “pie in the sky” came to someone’s mind, but it reminded us of a popular belief when a bird or butterfly that flew in was perceived as the soul of someone who had gone to a better world…”
For some reason, Alexander Veronin immediately remembered the people’s poet of Tatarstan, Razil Valeev, who was seen off on his last journey last Saturday. At the round table, of course, they remembered him, especially since his poems open a new issue of the literary magazine “LIFFT. Tatarstan”. Yesterday, guests of the festival of festivals performed poems at the Kazan Theater School, and in return listened to their poems performed by future artists. And the cultural program “LIFFTA-2023” ended with the laying of flowers at the monument to G.R. Derzhavin and a visit to the E.A. Boratynsky Museum.
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Ashraf Aboul-Yazid is an eminent poet, novelist, travelogue writer of Egypt who has authored over three dozen books. His poetry has been translated into over a dozen languages. He is Editor-in-Chief of Silk Road Literature Series.
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