LAHORE:The Lahore Literary Festival (LLF), the biggest event of the city’s literary calendar, and the eighth edition of this most awaited annual event on the literary horizon of the country, kicked off at Alhamra Arts Council, The Mall on Friday. Continuing its well-known tradition of hosting eminent writers, historians, artists and opinion makers from Pakistan and abroad, the LLF has brought many internationally acclaimed and renowned personalities from foreign countries and Pakistan into the halls of the Alhamra, The Mall.
The grand opening ceremony was started with the welcome address to the distinguished guests by Razi Ahmed, Founder and CEO LLF, while the EU Ambassador to Pakistan Androulla Kaminara, Chairperson of the Lahore Arts Council Moneeza Hashmi, and Aziz Boolani were present on this prestigious occasion.
The proceeding of this mega literary happening, after the inaugural ceremony, was followed by “My Name is Red”, Ahmed Rashid in conversation with the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature Orhan Pamuk.“Global Retreat”, Vali Nasr, Kaya Genc, and Maleeha Lodhi spoke about the world order in peril in the session ‘Global Retreat from Multiculturalism’, moderated by journalist Zahid Hussain. There was a session of Pashto poetry where the legacy of Rehman Baba, a discussion by panelists, namely Abasin Yousufzai, Shahida Shah, Akbar Hoti, and Rubab Azmat. The session was moderated by Samra Fakhir.
An Urdu translation of Salima Hashmi’s “The Eye Still Seeks” (Contemporary Art from Pakistan) was launched. The book discussed by Nasir Abbas Nayyar, Arfa Sayeda Zehra and Salima Hashmi, moderated by Khaled Ahmed.A session was dedicated to Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s The Merman and the Book of Power: A Qissa, tracing the history of the Abbasids from the time a caliph come upon a talismanic book that binds the fate of two star-crossed lovers. Usman Tanveer Malik moderated this session.
The Lahore Literary Festival 2020 is a free and open to the general public event. The first edition of LLF was held in 2013, and since then it’s annually at the Alhamra Arts Center.The event will culminate on Sunday (tomorrow).
