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In Which Rhythm Divine Poets Gives It Those Ones…
In the realm of “thought experiments” The Ship of Theseus occupies a prestigious place. Rhythm Divine Poets, born out of the conflation of three creative minds from two creative writing workshops in 2011 and 2013 respectively, has become the literal Ship of Theseus. The minds of the three co-founders, Amit Shankar Saha, Sufia Khatoon and Anindita Bose, have undergone development in the five years of existence of Rhythm Divine Poets, and with the minds of the two coordinators, Jagari Mukherjee and Nikita Parik, joining have formed the alter-ego EKL Review. But the old thoughts have not been discarded. They still remain active with the identity of Rhythm Divine Poets. It refuses to supersede itself; there is something here in the nature of the paradox attributed to Zeno. This “Stock” is the record of that Shandean chronicle that continues without end.
Christened in the month of March 2015, Rhythm Divine Poets started with poetry readings in gatherings in Calcutta, conducting poetry workshops and organizing poetry slams. The group’s first major event was hosting the global chain event 100 Thousand Poets for Change, initiated by Michael Rothenberg from USA, in Calcutta in September 2015, which the group has continued to organize every year since then. Another international poetry chain event that Rhythm Divine Poets started organizing in Calcutta, albeit every alternate year, is the Woman Scream International Poetry and Art Festival initiated by Jael Uribe from the Dominican Republic. The group has collaborated with organizations like American Center, Alliance Francaise du Bengale, Rotaract Club of Central Calcutta, Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library, Oxford Bookstore, Radio One, NewsBeatTV Bangla, Virasat Art Publication, and so on. Rhythm Divine Poets helped to create the so-called “poetry scene” in Calcutta by hosting poets not only from all over India but also abroad like Neal Hall and Duane Vorhees. In 2016 the Rhythm Divine Poets Anthology was published which featured poets like Kushal Poddar and Sana Mohammed.
The flagship event of Rhythm Divine Poets is the Poetry Chapbook Contest which has seen participation by upcoming poets from all over the world. In 2017 the winners were Huzaifa Pandit for his book Green is the Colour of Memory and Kripi Malviya for her book Ale(theia) and in 2018 the winner was Sneha Subaramanian Kanta for her book Landscapes::Bodies. All the books were published by Hawakal Publishers on behalf of Rhythm Divine Poets. In due course of time the co-founders and coordinators of Rhythm Divine Poets have themselves become well-known names in the poetry circle by publishing their own books, getting critical acclaim, being invited for literary festivals including those by Sahitya Akademi, the Indian Academy of Letters, winning prizes like Reuel International Prize for Poetry, Nissim International Prize for Poetry, Poesis Award, Wordweavers Prize, Kavi Salam, and getting nominated for awards like Griffin Poetry Prize, Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net Prize, Wingword Poetry Prize, etc. But Rhythm Divine Poets as an organization continues to run like an automaton through its avatars in WhatsApp, Facebook (http://facebook.com/rhythmdivinepoets/) and Blog (http://rhythmdivinepoets.blogspot.com/). From this stock of Rhythm Divine Poets is produced the avant-garde delicacy EKL Review.
