Ashok K. Bhargava, President
Writers International Network Canada
World Poetry Day is celebrated on 21 March, and it was declared by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999. Its purpose is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world and as the original UNESCO declaration says, to “give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements”.
MARCH 21 AS UNESCO’S WORLD POETRY DAY is proclaimed to:
- support linguistic diversity through poetic expression
- offer opportunity to the endangered languages to be heard within their communities
- to encourage a return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals
- to promote the teaching and promotion of poetry
- to restore a dialogue between poetry and the other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting
- to create an attractive image of poetry in the media, so that the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art but one which enables society as a whole to regain and assert its identity.
Ashok Bhargava President of Writers International Network of Canada brought the celebration of World Poetry Day to Moberly Arts & Cultural Centre in Vancouver by inspiring poets to come together by joining their heart, mind and voice for restoration of love, peace and harmony in our diverse and unique communities.
Global poets were invited to join in the celebrations by submitting poems to create a “Wall of Poetry” for people of Vancouver to read and to enjoy poems on peace. For without the poets’ voices, deep insights, sensitivity, conscience and humaneness; the world would have gone astray and violence, injustice and wars would have become the norms, no longer the exceptions.
WIN – Writers International Network strives to unite the hearts and souls of writers to bring creativity, knowledge and joy to them. WIN actively engages diverse communities through poetry, art, music and dance to celebrate our cultural differences in a multicultural and multilingual environment to make Canada a better place to live for all of us.
WIN recognizes that Writing is an art that is deeply rooted in self-reflection. Self-reflection is the human capacity to exercise introspection and the willingness to learn more about our fundamental nature, purpose and essence. In other words, self-reflection is who we see when we look in the mirror. Self-reflection is also about taking the time to figure out who we are, both as individuals and as leaders.
It is through the events like WIN UNESCO POETRY CELEBRATIONS, WALL OF POEMS and AWARDS GALA; as well as through reading, writing, and discussing poems that we learn about one another on our most human level, inspiring greater understanding.
