Poets for poetry of anger to hold first conference Tuesday

The "Poets for Poetry of Anger" movement will hold its first conference with the support of the Committee of Culture in the Journalists' Syndicate Tuesday and Wednesday, 6-7 March. The conference will proceed under the title, inspired by the January 25 Revolution, "Egypt's Cultural Future after the Revolution." The conference will discuss four themes: the understanding of a civil state and the new constitution; the future of culture after the revolution; cultural policies and their questioning; and the future of freedom of expression amid the rise of Islamists in political life. Many intellectual, political and cultural pioneers will be participating. Amongst them Rabab El-Mahdy, political activist; writer Kamal Zakhar; political analyst and writer Mohamed Fadl; poet Mahmoud Karny; former Minister of Culture Emad Abu Ghazy; political thinker Nabil Abdel-Fattah; Ali Mabrouk; Hussein Keshk; researcher Basma Abdel-Aziz; artist Mohamed Abla; Heba Sherif; poet Ahmed Abdel-Gawad; poet Atef Abdel-Ezzy; Sayid El-Bahrawy, and poet Fares Khedr. The movement was established at the end of 2011 following a meeting of The Forum for Poetry that was established in 2008 by some participants in the 2011 revolution. The published Mokadema magazine for poetry amongst other important publications for poetry and prose. The founders of the movement say that given the political situation of the country at the moment their activities will not be limited to only poetry. They will try to be part of the political and social movement taking place, given that arts in general, and poetry in particular, should not be isolated or looking down upon their target audience. In fact, the arts should reach out to the people by participating in social discourse in a deep and meaningful way. The conference starts Tuesday at 5pm in the Journalists' Syndicate, downtown Cairo.