The festivities at KLF 2019

Amongst the many festivities that hit up the city this season, Karachi Literature Festival tends to be the one that stands out the most amongst the rest of the important events that occur in the city. The educational event that highlights the prominent literature occurring in the city of lights will strike Karachi on 1st, 2nd and 3rd March with a blast. The 3 day event to hit Karachi invites the visitors to attend the festivities of Karachi Literature Festival at the Beach Luxury Hotel, where book launches, mushairas, and plenty of seminars relating to literature and education take place. Not only does the KLF invites the literati of Karachi to experience a whole new environment of literature enthusiasts but also helps them to learn the different ideologies within their city.

The 10th Karachi Literature Festival had a lineup of events that were immensely appreciated by the Karachiites that visited the most awaited event. The event started off with the inauguration speech by Imran Ismail, the Chief Justice Governor of Sindh who appreciated the efforts by the Oxford University Press (OUP) put in to revive the literature festivities in Karachi. The first day’s program were then started off with a documentary on KLF recollection documentary and key note speeches by Deborah Baker and I.A Rahman. The evening was then enhanced by an enthusiastic performance by the powerful Sheema Kirmani which left the audience star struck.

There were many celebrities that attended the first day of Karachi Literature Festival as there was a prominent event that talked about the evolution of Pakistani cinema throughout the years. This event had a lineup of artist that are currently working in the cinemas and are affiliated with the Pakistani film industry. The rest of the evening was completed by ‘Ahmad Faraz: Muhabbat Aur Inqalab’ which included prominent guest speakers like Kishwar Naheed and others. For the enthusiasts of English Poetry, the event Voices From Far and Near brought you the best English poetry you wanted to hear. The night was ended by a book discussion a puppet show.

The second day was followed by events like ‘Filmy Ganay Aur Urdu Shairi’ and ‘Urdu Theatre: Kal Aaj Aur Kal’ that highlighted the importance of Urdu literature. Then there were events like ‘Kashmir’ that shed light on the socio and political importance of Pakistan over other states. Moreover, there were events related to feminist ideologies that covered the issues related to women empowerment very well. Events like ‘Taneesiat’ hosted by Kishwar Naheed as the only major speaker, ‘Shaping Her World’ that led onto highlight the issues that a woman goes through and ‘Dangerous Women in Dangerous Times’. There were events like ‘Nayee Nasl ki Awaaz’ and ‘The Karachi Dilemma’ that helped in shaping the youth of the town in phenomenal ways.

Apart from the continuous events and seminars there were plenty of book launches that happened throughout the Karachi Literature Festival which enlightened the users immensely.

The third day was followed by similar events like ‘Pakistan English Poetry’, ‘Adab Aur Mazahmat’ and couple of other book launches that inspired the visitors.