Nottingham Poetry Festival 2018
The Kavya Rang poetry event was held at New Art Exchange on Saturday 28th April. The event was a wonderful afternoon, and was very well-attended by over 70 people. Henry Normal and Tommy Farmyard, who are the organisers of the Nottingham Poetry Festival were both there. The chairperson of City of Literature, famous writer David Belbin also attended.
The Chief guest was Mr. S. M. Chakarborti, and the featured poet was Dr Padmesh Gupta. The poetry programme was presented by Harminder Nagi. The guests were welcomed and the programme was anchored by Jai Verma. Pushpa Rao read poetry and thanked everyone. Dr Gurdev Bhatia chaired the programme. Keshav Nigam did Sarswati Vandna.
Poetry readings were given by: Geeta Lakshmi, Jade Moore, Matt Turpin, Henry Normal, Masud Ahmed, Akshay, Sudha Vashisht, Rekha Vashisht, Pushpa Rao, Harminder Nagi, Dr Gurdev Bhatia, Mohan Chander Khera, Prabha Chander Bedi, Raj Chand, and others.
New Art Exchange and Skinder Hundal hosted the programme. Indian tea was provided by Mohan Chander Khera, sweets from Tripta Chandra, Rita Dua and other volunteers.
Shakti Sarin and Raj Kumar Sarin, Roopam Carroll, Anthony F Carroll, Sneh Bhatia, Vipin, Bríd Ahlawat, Ellie, Niamh,Tara and Kusum Tandon were also there.
The poetry afternoon was enjoyed by everyone. There were lots of compliments.
Comments from guests: Bhavesh Jani “Also can I take the opportunity to thank you and congratulate you on a very well attended poetry event last Saturday and the quality and diversity of poets was excellent. Please thank the team on our behalf.”
Dr Gurdev Bhatia: “Hi Jai ji, Thank you for your kind words. The pleasure and honour is always mine, I am always keen to be part of Kavya rang and would love to do so in future. Our support is always there.Myself and Sneh were pleasantly surprised the way you conducted the whole afternoon so wonderfully. Your short and pleasant comments for every dignitary were so appropriate and introduced them all so nicely. The afternoon went so well, every body enjoyed it and took part willingly credit of course goes to you. Thank you very much for kept introducing me the way you did it made me proud. Overall it was a most enjoyable afternoon.”
David Belbin: “May you go from strength to strength!”
Henry Normal: “I was struck by the calm and patient way the event was held that allowed the poetry to be appreciated. It was a refreshing change from the mad rush and confusion of some other events. It was certainly an honour for me to not only attend but be invited to read. Please pass on my thanks and good wishes to all involved.”
Tommy Farmyard: “Well, wasn’t that great! Ten days doesn’t feel long enough, can we do it again now please? Thank you so much for being involved in this years Nottingham Poetry Festival, a huge thank you from us all. It wouldn’t have been possible without your fantastic events, performances and talents and the support of Barbara Matthews, Nottingham Trent University, Craig Chettle, Confetti, Castle Rock Brewery and Notts TV. It was a huge team effort and to everyone involved in any way shape or form, thank you. The diversity and spread of events was just fantastic, it’s a shame we couldn’t get to all of the events, sadly Physics is often prohibitive in nature. We loved what we saw.”
