Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will kick off the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh-2025 with ‘Kavi Kumbh’. The three-day poetry festival, commencing on Teacher’s Day, will see participation from around 340 leading poets and poetesses from within the state and across the country.
Touted as the largest poetry festival in the country, the event will feature poets and poetesses reciting verses that celebrate the glory of the Mahakumbh. The event will also serve as a bridge between the established and the budding poets by providing a platform for dialogue between them.
During this three-day ‘Kavi Kumbh’, an All India Kavi Sammelan will be held on September 5th and 6th, 2024, starting at 9:30 pm, where renowned poets from across the country will recite their works. The primary goal of this event is to inspire poets to create and present poetry that fosters a sense of patriotism, nationalism, religious devotion, and respect for women, to spread these values throughout society.
The Kavi Kumbh, jointly organized by the Department of Culture, Hindi Sahitya Academy, and Sanskar Bharati, will be held in the Mercury Hall of Indira Gandhi Pratishthan. Throughout this three-day event, distinguished poets will engage in ‘Kavi Manthan’ (poetic discourse), aiming to make various ideological compositions in poetry more appealing to today’s youth. The event will also feature literary seminars conducted by esteemed poets, along with lectures designed to inspire and mentor emerging poets.
The prominent poets and poetesses that will take part in the Kavi Kumbh from 50 platforms include Dr. Anamika Jain Amber, Dr. Hariom Pawar, Kavita Tiwari, Santosh Anand, Dr. Praveen Shukla, Shashikant Yadav and Ashish Anal among others.
Prominent figures, including motivational speaker Avadh Ojha, Acharya Pramod Krishnam, Pujya Bapu Chinmayanand, and renowned film lyricist A.M. Turaz, have been invited to the event. Additionally, the actors who portrayed Yudhisthir and Dronacharya in the popular Mahabharat TV series will also be in attendance.
Program coordinator, Poet Saurabh Jain Suman, stated that this grand poetry festival, the largest in the country, is being organized under the directives of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. It is the first event of its kind in the country, featuring around 340 poets from across India. This marks the third Kavi Kumbh organized by the Hindi Sahitya Academy, with the first two events having been held in Hastinapur.
It is worth mentioning here that though there are training centers for every form of art in the country, none exist for poetry, which is one of the oldest oral traditions. Kavi Kumbh addresses this gap by providing a platform where seasoned poets mentor emerging talents, sharing the nuances of stage performance. In turn, budding poets get the opportunity to present their work before these established figures.
Furthermore, district dignitaries and art enthusiasts from the literary community will be invited to this event. The entire ceremony will be broadcast live on the department’s YouTube channel and social media platforms, ensuring that the general public can also engage and participate.