Anglo/Bangla Canadian Canticles poetry and song event a milestone for Toronto’s Bengali community
By SREYOSHI BOSE DATTA
The audience at the Canadian Music Centre, Toronto, attending the 5 Poets Breaking into Song event on April 25 was in for a treat as they witnessed the magical transformation of poems into songs, and not just that!
The cherry on top was the added pleasure of listening to translated renditions.
George Elliott Clarke, the originator, presented the 22nd edition with translations into Bengali, in which Subrata Kumar Das, an accomplished Bengali author, was a perfect match with his warmth and wit. Both Clarke and Das are East Toronto residents and have dedicated much time to the Bengali writing community in East York and Scarborough.
The poets chosen for the April 25 session were Clarke and Das, themselves, Ayesha Chatterjee, past president of the League of Canadian Poets; Louise Bernice Halfe, the Ninth Parliamentary Poet Laureate and a knowledge keeper; and Giovanna Riccio, acclaimed poet.
Each poet had at least three of their works read out – one of their own choice, one in the original, followed by a musical transformation, and the last in the original, in Bangla translation and finally in music.
Translations were done by Das himself, Tasmina Khan and Farzana Naz Shampa.
The show stoppers of the evening were the father-daughter duo Shamit Barua and Shreya Barua, who lent their voice to the music composed by Saskatoon-based award-winning composer Pallavi Mazumder, and accompanied on piano by the highly knowledgeable and versatile musician Tomson Hon.
There was also a composition by James Rolfe, celebrated musician with award winning contributions, and a long-time collaborator for Clarke.
Shamit, a versatile vocalist who performs across continents in modern and heritage music, kept the audience rapt with his soulful rendition of the Bengali pieces and literally got them to sway to his tune with Clarke’s poem Everything is Free.
Young Shreya, quite a vocal prodigy, gladdened the audience with her resonant voice and masterful pitch. Overall, it was an evening with cups spilling over for the audience and the poets alike – with abundant joy of having words, meanings and music blending into new pieces of listening experience.
The program was a milestone for the Bengali community in Toronto because of the inclusion of the Bengali language in a mainstream event.
