One hundred and twenty enthusiastic high school students were recently lucky to virtually engage with US poet laureates Meera Dasgupta and Kashvi Ramani virtually at the inaugural event of the US-India Poem Project.
The fusion of culture and creativity was organised as the US Consulate Kolkata.
“Today, on World Poetry Day, we are thrilled that you have decided to participate in the launch of the US-India Poem Project: Kolkata Youth Poet Laureate Program. We need more young, fearless poets like you, to pick up the pen and motivate a thousand others, like our young friends here today, to do the same. The world needs you to write powerfully about yesterday, today, and tomorrow, because poetry is a language that serves both the educated elite and the common person,” said American Center director Elizabeth Lee.
BDM International School students Ritabrata Mandal and Oindriya Banerjee. Nancy Jaiswal
Sharing her instincts with My Kolkata, Oindriya Banerjee, a Class X student from BDM International School, said: “When they started reciting the poems, I felt an instant connection with them. Especially Kashvi as her poetry relates a lot to the type of poems I like to write. I felt that they are more older and mature versions of myself once I heard them. I think I will always remember this session in my writing career in the near future.”
The essence of the US-India Poem Project lies in its mission to harvest the poetic talents of Indian students. Teaming up with Urban Word, the project aims to ignite a nationwide movement, rallying organisations, arts councils, colleges, universities and poets to highlight young voices aged between 16 and 25.
“It was a very good initiative by the American Center, which definitely gave more exposure to the outer world to showcase our talent and skills. The thing I loved most about this conference was that they talked about freedom. Just like as a poet we have our own freedom to design our poetry which is equivalent to the freedom we have in our lives to follow our choices,” said Ritabrata Mandal, a Class XII student from BDM International School.
Over a course of 18 months, Urban Word would remain committed to nurturing poets. Through a meticulous blend of training, support, and mentorship, the project seeks to cultivate lasting change, measured not only by social media metrics but by the profound shift in mindset rippling through college campuses.
A student interacts with Kashvi Ramani during a question-and-answer session at the US-India Poem Project programme. Photograph courtesy: US Consulate Kolkata
“I am a poetry enthusiast myself. I along with my students had come here with a lot of expectations and now we are looking forward to the training sessions as well where they can get a platform to hone their skills besides developing a better perspective towards life and society which they can pen down,” said Anupama Bhattacharya, a library resource and middle school English teacher at the Heritage School, Kolkata.
