Adab Festival to begin at Karachi Arts Council on January 31

The second Adab Festival will start from January 31, 2020 at Pakistan Arts Council Karachi.

This three-day Adab Festival is a new Silk Route through which traditions, ideas, literature and the arts and their luscious fruit can travel and enter the hearts of people in every part of Pakistan and the world, Ameen Saiyid, founder and director Adab Festival Pakistan said this while speaking at a press conference at the Arts Council here on Wednesday.

"Asif Frukkhi and I are delighted that the seed of the movement of literature festivals that we planted over a decade ago has taken root and is now blooming and flowering across Pakistan," he said.

In his comments, Adab Festival founder and author, Asif Farrukhi, highlighted the role literary festivals play, as they provide a much-needed boost to the habit of reading, and through these recognition is given to books and writers in the society which is rapidly moving away in other directions which can be destructive. He said that relevant social issues are being emphasised in this upcoming Adab Festival and some ground-breaking books are being launched.

In the second Adab Festival a creative writing course is being held for aspiring writers conducted by Aamer Hussein and Sheheryar Shaikh. Several participatory, interactive sessions on women's empowerment, the youth, support for emotional health issues (Ask Me Anything by Dr Ayesha Mian), life coaching by Sayeda Habib and Naeem Zamindar would be held during this festival. The audience will be able to join the debate and dialogue of Adab Festival.

There will be sessions on the issues faced by Karachi, book launches, comedy, satire, a video message recorded specially for Adab Festival by Prince El Hasan Bin Talal of Jordan.

There will be over 150 speakers and almost 60 sessions. Writers will be here from Palestine, Germany, Hong Kong, China, the UK and US and all over Pakistan. The keynote speakers at the opening and closing will be former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Asif Saeed Khosa, Dr Maleeha Lodhi, Professor Francis Robinson, Amar Jalil, Adania Shibli and Noorul Huda Shah.

There will be Qawwali on the opening night by Farid Ayaz and Abu Mohammad and stand up comedy on the closing.

Sessions will include one on Women Parliamentarians, education, urban planning and garbage management in Karachi, peasants in literature, how women are portrayed in TV dramas, how the electronic media supports adab, the challenges faced by the media in Pakistan, start-ups the launch of Uzma Aslam Khan's new book The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali, Fida Hussain Malik's Urdu translation of Governing the ungovernable, a session on the Muslim Social Cinema, an interview of Sherry Rehman, and a riveting session on Urdu poetry with Zehra Nigar and Arfa Syeda Zehra.

Ameen Saiyid thanked sponsors and supporters without whom this event would not have happened. "It is because of their generosity and vision that enabled us to not only hold this festival but also make it free so that we could make it inclusive and accessible," she said.

The sponsors and supporters include the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi, Getz Pharma, Goethe Institute, Transsion Techno, Dr Essa Laboratories, Hubco, Dalda, Lincoln Corners, the US Mission Pakistan, Pioneer Book House, Shama's Bakery, Flash, Phenomena, Habib University, Thespianz Puppet Theatre. Adab Festival is free and open to all.