The 2nd virtual outing of the Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) has been live from 28 January 2022. This is the second consecutive year that the much-loved literary event is being held online due to the widespread disruption to the cultural scene caused by the Coronavirus crisis.
The 12th edition of the literary event, which goes on till the 30th of January, consists of book discussions, panel sessions, and other literary events streamed live through its Youtube channel (youtube.com/c/hlf-india).
Although the organizers and participants were hoping and looking forward to an on-ground festival their plans were again disrupted by the relentless pandemic. The HLF organizing committee was reluctant to try out the hybrid model and decided to stick to the digital version for the second year in a row. The festival directors are aware of the widespread digital fatigue but last year’s virtual edition was actually a big success with greater national and international participation than the previous on-ground versions.
The United Kingdom is the guest nation for this year’s HLF. The audience can look forward to the contribution by the British Council; the National Centre for Writing, Norwich; and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. The focus Indian language for 2022 is Punjabi. A few panel of the discussions will focus on the North Indian state including, ‘Lest we forget 1984’ on the Sikh riots, and ‘Amritsar – A City in Remembrance’ in which photographer Raghu Rai will share his insights and talk about his recent book by that name.
HLF 2022 is dedicated to the late Ajay Gandhi, founder of Manthan, a thought-provoking discussion platform and a close supporter of the festival since 2013. The opening on the evening of 28 January included a tribute by outspoken classical musician and writer TM Krishna, followed by a talk on ‘The Artistic Universe: Creative Spaces Within and Without.’
The Red Curtain International theater group, in association with the Brazilian Os Satyros group, will present an hour-long interactive play, ‘The Art of Facing Fear: World United,’ with global participation and performances by 20 actors from 5 continents. It is set in a future after the Coronavirus pandemic and will encourage viewers to share tributes to their loved ones, and also provide them with an opportunity to share and voice their deepest fears regarding the pandemic crisis.
Economics Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, artist Cheyenne Oliver, author Balaji Vittal, journalist Kaveri Bamzai, actor Divya Dutta, author Kavitha Rao, musician Remo Fernandes, Siddharth Mallaya, and Nandana Dev Sen are some of the other interesting speakers and participants in this year’s Hyderabad Litfest. The HLF 2022 will also contain storytelling and interactive workshops for teenagers and children along with an art exhibition and several movie screenings.
For online registration and detailed schedule, visit www.hydlitfest.org
