"Poetry nights" Al Dhafra Book Festival enriches the cultural and artistic movement
Al Dhafra, 21 January / WAM / The “Poetry Nights: Voices That People Loved” program, one of the most important events of the Al Dhafra Book Festival, organized by the Abu Dhabi Center for the Arabic Language, hosts an elite group of poets and artists from the Arab region who contributed to enriching the cultural and artistic movement, and preserved the popular heritage of the Emirates, to celebrate and honor them through evenings immortalized in the memory of the place.
The main stage of Madinat Zayed Public Park, as part of the sixth session of the festival, which takes place from January 19 to 25, witnessed a heritage evening that presented the most famous local poems to the melodies of the rababa and oud instruments. It was initiated by the rababa player, the artist Sultan Rashid Al-Manai, with a dazzling performance of a number of the most beautiful poems of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, “may God rest his soul,” and the poem “When Shado Bedu Al-Khuwairah” by the poet Ahmed bin Ali Al-Kindi Al-Marar, may God have mercy on him, to the tunes of the Rabab instrument.
Sultan Al-Mani showed his love for the Rabab instrument, which he had been passionate about since childhood, through his sincere and masterful performance, pointing out that it is one of the oldest stringed instruments, and the one most closely linked to Arab heritage, poetry, folk stories, and Bedouin life, which prompted him to adhere to playing it and participate in various festivals and poetry evenings to preserve its rich legacy, especially since the number of people who are good at playing it is very small in the world, and he fears it will disappear.
The evening concluded with a singing performance to the tunes of the oud instrument, presented by Emirati artist Khaled Mohammed, in the presence of a large number of people from the Al Dhafra region.
The Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center is keen to organize the “Poetry Nights: Voices That People Loved” program as an important platform through which it brings together the most important folk poetry poets in the country, whether those who have passed away and left immortal imprints in the memory of folk poetry or those who still present their creativity in various forums, as folk poetry in the Emirates is a way of life, a custom and a tradition upon which the lives of ancient ancestors were based. It is also a rich heritage and a rich record that has documented the history of the life of the Emirati over an era of time.
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