MATWAALA
SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA POETS' COLLECTIVE
My Literary House by Indran Amirthanayagam |
Matwaala is thrilled to honor Indran Amirthanayagam as the 2025 Matwaala poet-of-honor for good reason. Indran has been described first by the poet Anne Casey as “the poet of the people”. He is indeed a poet who incorporates the languages of the world into his verses, who believes that poetry makes something happen, that it can heal and refresh and renew our purpose as we seek to overcome the terrible challenges facing us and the Earth we share with all other life.
Soon after arrival in Maryland, he established a series of poetry readings called Poetry At The Port. Held at the Haitian restaurant Port Au Prince, the series quickly became the center of spoken word, and poetry on the page, in Silver Spring during the 2017 to 2022 period. Indran now organizes readings at Beltway Editions, the poetry press he founded with Sara Cahill Marron. By doing so he satisfied another long-held dream, that the house of poetry is both literally a house and a metaphor. So, at Beltway Editions, visitors know a poet lives there. He drives around the state to promote poetry, to Frostburg, to Annapolis to the Eastern Shore, spreading the word. He does it as well virtually. Indran started a you tube channel in 2020 which he calls The Poetry Channel. There are more than 720 videos on the channel now, featuring poetry in multiple languages and from all over the world. The channel has 619 subscribers at last count, but the videos are seen and heard by many more through publishing in various other social media, including Facebook, Linked In, Instagram and Twitter. Indran will not stop until the word spreads to every corner of the visible and the invisible world. His need to connect with the world–spurred ironically by the early loss of his beloved Tamil language and culture– has brought him to write and publish poetry in five languages and introduce poets to Maryland from as far away as India, Israel and Australia. |
January & February |
UNVEILING OF MATWAALA MEHFIL 2025 POSTER & WEBSITE. |
March 27th |
AWP MATWAALA VIRTUAL PANEL – Multiple Registers: Matwaala Poets Assert Democracy in Difference. Mar 27th-30th. Moderated by Pramila Venkateswaran. |
April |
IWWG MATWAALA PANEL. From other to center. Moderated by Usha Akella. Panelists: Kirun Kapur, Meher Manda, Anita Nahal & Sara Garg. |
May |
POEM-A-DAY WITH ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS. Facilitated by Usha Akella. |
June / July |
June 4: Matwaala Poets. Facilitated by Indran Amirthanayagam-Beltway Cafe, MLK Library, Wash D.C. Supported by Beltway Editions. TBA: Poetry Reading – Sophia Naz & Shikha Malaviya. Date TBD: NEW BOOKS SHOWCASE – Moderated by Megha Sood. |
August 31st |
AFGHAN/PAKISTANI/BANGLADESH POETS. COLLABORATIVE READING WITH MATWAALA, SAPAN and BAITHAK – Anita Nahal and Fauzia Deeba |
September |
WALT WHITMAN BIRTHPLACE POETRY- Panel led by Pramila Venkateswaran. Sep 21st: SWWIM - MATWAALA RESIDENCY AND PROGRAM. Facilitated by Kashiana Singh. |
October 4th |
SOUTH ASIA INSTITUTE MATWAALA’S MEHEFILM: POETRY FILM EXHIBIT AND POETRY RDG. Facilitated by Kashiana Singh and Usha Akella |
November |
Value |
December 13 / 14 |
MATWAALA’S MEHFIL – Big Community Read. Organized by Matwaala Leadership. |
Value |
10 READINGS CELEBRATING THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY + 2 POETS-OF-COLOR READINGS |
TBA |
PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN POETS. SATELLITE READING WITH USHA AKELLA |
TBA |
JEWISH-AMERICANPOETS: SATELLITE READING WITH PRAMILA VENKATESWARAN |