Performance poetry The oral tradition is timeless; it is simply the tradition of passing on information orally. Much of this information is handed down in the form of poems, songs and stories. People in the Western world tend to look at the oral tradition as something belonging to the past, something that has lost its relevance in the age of the Internet. Yet, elsewhere, the tradition carries on regardless, thriving particularly where there are restrictions on people’s abilities to speak or where there is little access to the media. Back in Calcutta after six years, British poet Benjamin Zephaniah, popularly known as the ‘oral poet’ or ‘performance poet’, presents a performance of his poetry, whose sound he says he can hear while writing his poems. The poet will also participate in a talk/discussion on performance and poetry at K.P. Basu Memorial Hall, Jadavpur University; tomorrow at 3 pm. Event: Poetry performance by British poet Benjamin Zephaniah When: Today at 6.30 pm Where: G.D. Birla Sabhagar

art

March 19 - 24 at Chemould Art Gallery, 12F Park Street; 2 pm - 7 pm: Disha - Annual Art Exhibition 2007. Participants: Subrata Bhowmick, Kavita Jhunjhunwala, Sangita Chirimar, Seema Chaturvedi, Anju Chirimar, Dolly Dabriwal, Jyoti Tibrewal and Vrinda Dugar. Till March 20 at Academy of Fine Arts (all galleries); 12 noon - 8 pm: Anant Art Gallery presents Found Objects, an exhibition of paintings, installations and mixed media works by Probir Gupta. Till March 23 at Artists Circle, 46 Circus Avenue: Shakti: Journey Beyond Platitude — an exhibition of works of eminent women artists. Participants include Anita Roy Choudhury, Shyamasree Basu, Dipali Bhattacharya, Bratati Mukherjee, Anjani Reddy, Bharati Chowdhury, Eleena Banik, Asma Menon, Uma Roy Chowdhury, Gita Maiti, Sohini Dhar, Tandra Chandra, Manju Shaw, Anjali Sengupta, Rekha Rao, Kabita Nayar, Seema Barua and Mini Radha Krishnan. Till March 24 at Genesis Art Gallery, 8B Middleton Street; 2 pm - 7 pm: Art Unlimited — an exhibition of art works by various artists and sculptors. Till March 24 at Gallery Exposure, 54B Mahanirban Road; 4 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings by the members of Bengal Artist Society. Participants include Kiran Kumar Sen, Manas Biswas, Mrinmoy Das, Pradip Maity, Ratan Acharya, Rekha Acharya, Somnath Roy, Sanchita Sengupta, Sukti Subhra Pradhan and Swati Roy. Till March 26 at Masters Collection Art Gallery, G7 Malayalay Apts, 3 Woodburn Park; 11 am - 7 pm (weekdays) & 3 pm - 7 pm (Sundays & holidays): Small is Beautiful, an exhibition of miniature works of Indian contemporary artists. Till March 28 at Mon Art Gallerie, 6 Hungerford Street, Regency, 3rd floor; 11 am - 7 pm (Sunday, 2 pm - 7 pm): Coloured Spaces, a solo show by Dhanneshwar Shah (New Delhi). Till April 1 at Gallery Rasa, 828/1 Block P, New Alipore; 4 pm - 8 pm: A solo exhibition of paintings by Debasish Manna.

drama

March 19 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Blank Verse presents Furrut: A Theatre for Children, based on Upendra Kishore Roychowdhuri’s masterpiece. March 22 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Chokh presents its latest production, Atahkim Mahayuddha. Direction: Abhijit Kargupta. March 22 at Rabindra Sadan; 6.30 pm: Natadha presents three short plays, Karna Akhon, Lata and Echchhe Jadu. Direction: Shib Mukhopadhyay. March 24 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Howrah Dakshinayan presents Hawa Badal. Direction: Kunal Mukhopadhyay. March 24 & 25 at Max Mueller Bhavan auditorium; 6.30 pm: Agunmukho, the Bengali adaptation of Marius von Mayenburg’s contemporary German play Feuergesicht (Fireface) by Bratya Basu will be performed by Tritiyo Sutra and directed by Suman Mukhopadhyay. March 25 at Academy of Fine Arts; 10.15 am: Howrah Dakshinayan presents Hawa Badal. Direction: Kunal Mukhopadhyay. March 26 at Sisir Mancha; 6.30 pm: Nabamayukh Nattya Sangstha presents Bhadreswarir Galpo. Direction: Rishi Mukhopadhyay. March 26 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.45 pm: Howrah Dakshinayan presents Hawa Badal. Direction: Kunal Mukhopadhyay.

PERFORMING ARTS

March 19 at Sisir Mancha; 6 pm: Samakaal presents a solo recital of Tagore songs by Shinjini Acharya Majumdar, and recitation in solo and duet by Basudev Nandi and Reshmi Choudhury. March 19 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 6.30 pm: The Return of Benz, featuring leading performance poet Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah. March 21 at Gyan Manch; 6 pm: A solo performance by Dohar Bangla band. March 22 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Vivekananda Hall; 6 pm: A jugalbandi featuring Mor Mukut Kedia (sitar) and Manoj Kumar Kedia (sarod) with Subhankar Banerjee on the tabla. March 24 at Bhowanipur Sangit Sammilani, 4 Ramesh Mitra Road; 5.30 pm: A classical music soiree featuring Sudip Chattopadhyay (violin) and Kuber Sengupta (vocal).

talk

March 19 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 5.30 pm: Sitanath Goswami will speak in Bengali on Panchadashi. March 19 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Vivekananda Hall; 6.15 pm: Swami Ritananda will speak in Bengali on Swamijir Patravali. March 19 at Ramakrishna Math, Baranagar; 6.30 pm: Parimal Kanti Das will discourse on The Life of Surendra Nath Mitra, the apostle of Sri Sri Thakur. March 19 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Prof Dr Jagat Jiban Ghosh will speak in Bengali on Samaj O Vijnan.

DISCUSSION

March 19 at Bangla Akademi Sabhaghar; 6 pm: A discussion on Lokosangeet O Sachin Karta. Participants: Dr Sudhir Chakraborty, Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, Paritosh Dutta and Amar Paul. Moderator: Dr Tapan Roy. Also, Sachin Kartar Gaan by artistes of Ma-Dal.

film screening

March 20 at French Association Library; 6 pm: Ciné-rétrospective will screen Le Rayon Vert by Eric Rohmer. The screening will be followed by a discussion and interactive session on French cinema and the influence of the New Wave on it.

WORLD POETRY DAY

March 21 at Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad auditorium; 5.30 pm: Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad and Indian Writers Association host World Poetry Day. On this occasion veteran Hindi and Bengali poets Kedarnath Singh and Nirendranath Chakravarti will read their poems. Also, local poets in different languages will read their poems. Participants: Assamese: Gautam Prasad Barua. Bengali: Samarendra Sengupta, Ashis Sanyal, Mrinal Basu Chowdhury, Apurba Dutta, Jyotirmay Das, Manisankar Roy, Ishita Bhaduri and Rama Simlai. Hindi: Kusum Jain, Prafulla Kolakhyan, Neelkamal, and Priyankar Paliwal. Oriya: K.C. Bhunya. Urdu: Zarina Zarin.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till March 21 at Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, 36C S.P. Mukherjee Road; 2 pm - 8 pm: The Seagull Foundation for the Arts presents Mera Naam Joker — circus photographs by Saibal Das. It is the fourth exhibition of Tasveer - Opening Season.

EXHIBITION

March 16 onwards (except Thursdays) at 85B Sarat Bose Road; 11 am - 7 pm: Designers unveil their new Spring Summer Collection at 85 Lansdowne.All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to: Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001; Fax: 2234-8244

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All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to:

Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001;
Fax: 2234-8244