Int'l writers meet RI counterparts

Veeramalla Anjaiah ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 10/13/2008 11:37 AM  |  World

Is Indonesia becoming an international cultural hub? Yes, that would seem the case, as manifested by two literary events on Saturday in Jakarta.

The first event was "Narrating the Body", a cultural evening organized by the Jawaharlal Nehru Indian Cultural Center with the cooperation of the Jakarta Arts Council and Gandhi Seva Loka, at Goethe Haus, featuring acclaimed Indian poet-cum-dancer Tishani Doshi and renowned Indonesian poet Joko Pinurbo.

Doshi and Joko read some of their best poems at the event, inaugurated by Indian Ambassador to Indonesia Biren Nanda and moderated by writer and poet Debra H. Yatim.

Though Doshi and Joko are vastly different, the one thing uniting them is the human body, a main theme in their respective poems.

Doshi is in Indonesia to attend the 2008 Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, which runs from Oct. 14-19 in Ubud, Bali.

In a defiant tone, both poets condemned the efforts by certain groups to restrict the artistic expression of the human body in their respective countries.

"If the anti-pornography bill is passed in Indonesia, it will make us poorer culturally. But I continue to use the human body as a subject in my poems because the people who make laws don't understand my poems," Joko said.

Doshi's first anthology of poems, Countries of the Body, won the Forward Prize for the best first collection in 2006, and she also won the All-India Poetry Competition in 2006.

Saturday's second cultural event was a meeting between award-winning Egyptian novelist Bahaa Taher and Indonesian writers, publishers and intellectuals at the Egyptian Embassy in Jakarta.

Taher said both Egypt and Indonesia faced similar challenges in solving the problems of religion, culture and poverty.

"We are in the same boat," he said.

Unlike in Indonesia, where reading is not very popular, Egyptians currently read more books than before, in spite of the popularity of TV and the Internet, Taher said.

"At present, more and more bookshops are opening up in many Egyptian cities. This was not the case few years back. People are coming back to books," he said.

During the meeting, Indonesian writers and publishers asked the Egyptian Embassy for help in translating Egyptian books into Indonesian.

Taher, who won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2008, as well as numerous other awards, is also in Indonesia for the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.

The festival is rapidly gaining international renown by featuring eminent international literary figures, including Vikram Seth and Taher, as well as critics.

Indonesia will also host the Indonesian Dance Festival 2008 in several cities from Oct. 14-31.

Top dancers and choreographers from Indonesia, Singapore, the United States, Taiwan, Italy, Japan, France and Thailand will take part in the event.

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