Mar
8
Poetry contests in Iraq
Filed Under Poegles | Leave a Comment
A nice story.
Poetry is in the lifeblood of this proudly literate country, and so it was that Dunlop and an Iraqi arts professor convened a poetry competition in war-ravaged Rashid. It was one more way to revive a sense of possibility.
“When you’ve got local poets who are identified with the community coming forward, it pulls the community around a common identity. It’s like everyone’s pulling for the same football team,” Dunlop said by telephone from Iraq on the eve of the final round of the competition. “It’s a sense of normalcy, not war and instability – of cul ture, of things happening, the kinds of spices that make communities worth defending.”