On April 20-21, 2024, the VII International music and poetry festival “Handshake of the Republics” started
By Alexander Voronin, Russia
Photo by Sergei Zabiyakin
On April 20-21, 2024, the VII International music and poetry festival “Handshake of the Republics” started. Let us remind you that the first five festivals were held in Kazan, last year the “Handshake of the Republics” took place in Cheboksary, where it was decided to hold the next meeting of poets in Mari El.
In Yoshkar-Ola, the RR-fest broke two records at once: never before has our festival been held on such a large stage – the Palace of Culture named after the 30th anniversary of the Victory. And for the first time, poets not only from other countries, but also from different continents participated in it (in online format)! Ashraf Aboul–Yazid (Arab Republic of Egypt), Nelly Kozyreva (Republic of Belarus), Bagavutdin Samadov (Republic of Dagestan), Irina Babich (Donetsk People’s Republic) read their poems on the big screen.
Guests and participants of the festival were greeted by Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Sergei Kazanskov, Deputy Chairman of the State Assembly of the Republic of Mari El Natalya Kozlova and Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Russian National-Cultural Association of the Republic of Tatarstan Vyacheslav Nikiforov.
Musical and poetic program of the festival “Handshake of the Republics”, dedicated to the 225th anniversary of A.S. Pushkin was opened by the Kazan Poetry Theater “Dialogue”, which performed Pushkin’s poem “The Fountain of Bakhchisarai”. The founder and organizer of the festival, Derzhavin Prize laureate, Honored Worker of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan Olga Levadnaya officially stated that the “Handshake of the Republics”, which began as an interregional forum, which over the years expanded its scope to an all-Russian forum, can rightfully become international from this year – on the eve of the BRICS summit, which will be held in Kazan in the fall.
By tradition, our republic was represented by poets who had not previously performed at the festival – this is the young poetess Daria Galvas, as well as poet and translator, polyglot, Doctor of Philology Ayrat Galimzyanov. As expected, the Mari poetry team became the most representative. Particularly memorable were the performances of Alexey Veselov, who in his poem “Yoshkin the Cat” poetically brought together the symbol of the capital Mari El with its literary counterparts – the Cheshire cat from Wonderland and Pushkin’s cat scientist from Lukomorye, as well as Konstantin Shemyakin, who set it to music and performed it for the first time with a guitar romance “Prayer” based on one of the late poems by A.S. Pushkin “Desert Fathers and Immaculate Wives.”
This time the poetic landing from the Chuvash Republic pleased with the poems of Alexander Spannagel and the songs of Alexander Nikolaev. Ufa poetess Svetlana Gafurova invited “Handshake of the Republics” to Bashkortostan.
At the round table, a traditional book donation ceremony took place – festival participants donated their poetry collections and almanacs to the collections of the National Library of the Republic of Mari El named after S.G. Chavaina. The most significant donations were books and magazines published on the initiative of the Russian National Cultural Association of the Republic of Tatarstan, such as the two-volume catalog album “Russian Collections of Museums of Tatarstan”, the first volume of the biographical collection “Kazan Region – the Soul of Poets”, and the magazines “Russian Culture in Tatarstan: preservation, study, development” and “Argamak. Tatarstan”.
Read: VII Interregional Music and Poetry Festival ‘Handshake of the Republics’ will be held on April 20
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