Saturday 24 December 2022 – 1.27pm
Carthage – Tunisia, December 24, WAM / Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, the Tunisian city of Carthage witnessed the launch of the seventh session of the Kairouan Festival yesterday of Arab Poetry, organized by the Department of Culture of Sharjah, with the participation of Tunisian poets, intellectuals and critics.
The opening ceremony was held at the House of Wisdom in Carthage in the presence of His Excellency Abdullah bin Muhammad Al Owais, Head of the Department of Culture in Sharjah, His Excellency Rashid Muhammad Al Mansouri, UAE Ambassador to the Republic of Tunisia, and Muhammad Ibrahim Al Qaseer, Director of the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Department and representative of the Governor of Tunis, First Delegate in Carthage, Ezzedine Al Chebbi and Hala Al Wartani, Head of the House of Wisdom and a group of writers, academics and interested to poetry.
Poet Jamila Al-Majri, director of the Kairouan House of Poetry, confirmed that the Houses of Poetry initiative and many other Arab and international cultural events express His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah’s relentless care for intellectuals, noting that it is the question that makes the House of Poetry eager to be at the level of honesty and enthusiasm to obtain a wider irradiation at the service of the cultural movement in Tunisia.
He explained that the Kairouan House of Poetry has become a destination for poets from Tunisia and neighboring countries and Arab intellectuals who visit it whenever they visit Tunisia on cultural occasions, underlining that the Sharjah Department of Culture plays a leading role in the to encourage the work of the house through publishing and book printing in various literary fields.
Al-Majri reviewed the activities of the House of Poetry during the current year, which amounted to 45 activities and received more than 140 participants, explaining that the festival is the fruit of the house’s work in opening up to various experiences and to the participation of poets from the extreme north of Morocco to its south and represents most of the states of the country.
He said: “Seven years have passed since the founding of the House in 2015, since the launch of seven lighthouses, whose light continues to shine ever brighter to illuminate the sky of the Arab world from its Gulf to its surroundings, and this is the dream of Arab poets, an unprecedented historical conquest that made the equation between power and culture come true when the sovereign is enlightened.
For his part, Abdullah Al Owais stressed in his speech the importance of strengthening the ties of the Arab brotherhood through cultural events. He said: “The meeting is renewed in green Tunisia and the ties of the Arab brotherhood are strengthened through a series of various forums and festivals, the regular participation of which expresses the depth of brotherly relations between the UAE and the Republic of Tunisia under wise leadership in both countries.
He added, “It is a matter of pleasure and pride to witness the opening of the seventh session of the Kairouan Arab Poetry Festival, as it is the festival that started from his home in Kairouan. The fragrance of poetry is fragrant with its original meanings, and the poets gather in the House of Wisdom and in the City Hall of Carthage to sing their poems and enjoy the lovers of the letter, the word and the noble meaning.
Attendees of the opening ceremony followed a videotape documenting the most important stations of the House of Poetry in Kairouan during the current year, showing the annual harvest for the year 2022 for the house through the movement of activities between evenings, seminars, dialogue sessions and artistic paragraphs so that the public can explore the daily work that does not stop for months inside and outside the home.
The festival’s activities included holding poetry sessions and evenings and a critical symposium entitled “Transformations of Modern Tunisian Poetry”.
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Ahmed Al-Boutli / Batoul Kashwani
