poetry | Agustinus Wibowo

poetry

Tempo (2013): Speaking about Poetry and Photography (Makassar International Writers Festival 2013)

http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2013/06/26/114491501/Speaking-about-Poetry-and-Photography Speaking about Poetry and Photography Wednesday, 26 June, 2013 | 22:13 WIB TEMPO.CO, Makassar – Agustinus Wibowo, the writer of three travel books, said, “As promoted by an airline ad, everyone can fly now. Yet not everyone can understand the meaning of a journey.” Agus put forth his statement during a discussion at the Makassar International Writers Festival on June 25, 2013. He was the speaker for the first session on the first day of the festival. He spoke about the relationship between poetry and photography. “Many things can be poetic and touching from a journey, just as long as we can find the meaning,” said the author of the books Titik Nol, Selimut Debu, and Garis Batas. Agus, who has traveled to numerous countries in Central Asia, exhibited some pictures as an example. He said trips that are rushed and target-oriented would not have any meaning. Only journeys that are deeply observed and understood can create poetic portrayals in the mind. One of the photos Agus displayed was a picture of a muscle man, a participant of the Master of Afghanistan. “When a person first arrives in Afghanistan, they will take pictures of the war, opium fields, and others. However, if they [...]

June 26, 2013 // 0 Comments

Islamabad – Mahfil-e-Naat

June 3, 2006 Hysteric sea of audience in the party of Naat Syed Abid Gilani and Syed Rashid Kazmi, both I knew from the NGO working in Kashmir earthquake, were two among the people who organized a Naat concert, or Mahfil-e-Naat in Rawal Town, an area between Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Naat is an Islamic tradition here, to chant teachings about the religion in melidious way. It’s comparable to Nashid music in Malay tradition, minus the musical instruments. So a Naat singer (actually the people dont like to say Naat as song/gana, as Naat is from Quran and even it’s melodious we should avoid calling Naat as song) will chant the religious melody, and someone might accompany him with beating background vocal and it somehow turned to be like Acapella music. The background vocal sounds like Kalimah (the holy sentence) to be pronounced over and over with a certain beat. Today, the Naat star tonight is Syed Awais Qadri. My friend said that he was the Michael Jackson of Naat. No wonder that the audience were overwhelming. The concert started at midnight, and ended at 3 am. I also like Awais Qadri’s Naat and have saved some MP3 files in my [...]

June 3, 2006 // 1 Comment