The ACC organized an “Evening of Poetry” in collaboration with Poetry Society of Shillong

SHILLONG, April 3: The Asian Confluence Centre organized an “Evening of Poetry” in collaboration with Poetry Society of Shillong on Wednesday. Dr Diti Ronen, famed poet from Israel, enthralled the audience with a reading of her poems. The program also featured a large number of local poets who read out their poetry. The director of Asian Confluence, Sabyasachi Dutta hopes that this will be the start of a new beginning for poets of Shillong, which was a common sentiment expressed.

Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Diti is also a theatre researcher besides being a poet. She teaches cultural policy and arts management in The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and advises on these subjects to Governmental offices, municipalities, arts funding organizations and to cultural and artistic institutions. Ronen studied theatre in Tel Aviv University and received her PhD degree on her theory of the acting selves. She is deeply involved in the Israeli cultural scene.

Diti published three volumes of poetry to date: With the Slip Showing, Inner Moon, Notebook and littlebird and she is about to publish her next volume in 2014. She is the editor of the poetry events at Beit Ariella, the Tel Aviv central library. Ronen was awarded four prizes and awards for her literary work, two from international poetry organizations and two were given to her by Israeli organizations. She was chosen to attend a prestigious one year master class for outstanding poets in Mishkenot Sha’ananim (1997). Ronen was invited twice to hold “poet in Residency” positions, once in Mysore University (2010-2011, Karnataka, India) and once in Kuvempu University (2012-2013, Shimoga District, India). Her poetry is published in more than 10 languages and she performs it internationally. She is scheduled to attend the Granada Poetry Festival (Nicaragua, Feb.2014), the Lodeve Poetry Festival (France, Jul.2014), and the Södermalms Poesifestival (Stockholm, Sweden, Sep.2014), and she will perform readings of her poetry in New York (Feb.2014), London (Mar.2014), and India (Mar.-Apr.2014). Diti is a mother of two daughters and three sons, and she lives in Neve Monosson, in the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

A second-generation Holocaust survivor poet, who is named after her grandmother, Judith, who was exterminated in Auschwitz, in her poems, Ronen deals with the heritage of women in her family, women who are brimming with power and a vitality that is never stopped, even during their deportation to the camps. “littlebird” is a dramatic poem that sheds light on a pivotal event during life in the concentration and death camps. The poet chooses a single and exceptional incident, which characterizes the atmosphere at the concentration camps in its abnormality, especially the courageous bond between the poet’s mother and her friends, a bond that helped them survive the horrors of the camps. The story of the little bird, told by the holocaust survivor, the last figure still alive among those “five Jewish princesses” who experienced the horror of the camps together.”

In an interview with Prof. Hanna Yaoz, the editor of the book based on the poem, Ronen said “The narrative layer comprises a story my mother shared with me in my early childhood. It is a story about a little bird that she and her friends ate in the camps, when they were famished. The description of this extreme hunger – that made them come up with the idea of cooking and eating a little bird – has been engraved in my memory. I recall the description of the cooperation between my mother and her friends and the description of the fine taste of the bird. This taste reminded them of the chicken stew they would have before being sent away, so different from the taste of murky water that they received as food in those days. I remember my mother talking about the taste of that bird lasting forever, although they each only got one little bite. On a more complex level, the poem asks questions about the whereabouts of God in all of this mayhem, as He appears in the image of the bird and in relation to the state and fate of the other figures described in the poem.” (SP News)