International Poetry Day
The Urdu Academy of North America held its 2nd International Poetry Day on May 21, 2017. The event, sponsored by Mr. Sayd Sarwat and Mrs. Muzna Sarwat, was held at the Chandni Restaurant, Newark CA.
Mahnaz Fashandi, the spirit behind the International Poetry Day, gathered enthusiasts from other languages to present more than two hours program.
The languages in which poetry was presented included:
Amharic (Ethiopian), Assamese, Bengali, Chinese, Czeck, English, French, German, Hindi, Hindko, Portugese, Sindhi, Spanish, Tagalag (Filipino) and Turkish.
Mehrzad amused the audience with his skilled rendition of Iranian music on Santoor. At the end Dr. Anshuman Chandra thrilled the audience with singing a ghazal of Tashie Zaheer, president of the Urdu Academy.
Mr. Tashie Zaheer could not attend the event because of sudden death of his brother in law, Naseer Humanyun in Multan, Pakistan. Naseer Humanyun was a well recognized poet in his own right.
Pranab presented his own poetry in the Assamese language of India.
Fatema presented Bengali poetry of India's Nobel laureate in Literature in 1913, Rabindranath Tagore.
Diniz from Brazil presented a poem in Portuguese language.
Salma Arastu amused the audience with singing a Sindhi mystic song.
Sousan, Rakia and Ramazan presented poetry in Turkish language.
Gisele recited French poetry.
Marcel presented poetry in Czeck.
Minoo, the sister of MC Mehnaz Fashandi, recited poetry in Spanish. Since Minoo was in Ohio, she sent a video of her presentation.
Maestro Mehrad perhaps stole the show with his captivating rendition on traditional Iranian musical instrument Santoor.
Manij, Raza Sadiq and Dr. Rabia Mohammad Ali recited Persian poetry.
Jessica entertained the audience with her melodious Chinese song.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali recited two ghazals in Hindko language of Northern Pakistan.
Stephan Bohne presented Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poem about the Persian poet Hafiz.
Kausar Sayed presented Hindi poem of Gopaldas Neeraj.
Bill chanted Shlokas from Bagvat Geeta.
Hana Suleman presented poetry in Amharic language of Ethiopia.
Pierre Belanger very patiently read English translations of all the poetries.