Words of the world

Mike Sciacca

Poems in Russian, Spanish, Hebrew, Korean, Arabic, Farsi and Old

English, spoken with emotion and conviction, were delivered to an

enthusiastic crowd at Golden West College on Sunday.

The 2 1/2-hour event, “Bach to Our Poetic Roots: A Bilingual

Celebration,” kicked off the second year of the Orange County Poetry

Festival, presented by Tebot Bach, a Huntington Beach-based,

nonprofit group.

“This is the first year we have held an opening ceremony and,

basically, the idea behind this was to expose the audience to

languages rarely heard in Orange County,” said Huntington Beach

resident, Mifanwy Kaiser, founder and CEO of Tebot Bach. “The mission

of Tebot Bach is to strengthen, to promote literacy, and to broaden

the poetry community outreach programs and publishing, and to

demonstrate the power of poetry to transform one’s life experiences

through readings, workshops and publications.”

Kaiser assembled several outstanding featured poets for the 35-day

long festival. Golden West College was host to the opening ceremonies

on Sunday, but is just one of several sites throughout the county

that will host speakers, readings and workshops.

Huntington Beach Mayor Connie Boardman took part in the ceremony

and read one poem and part of an essay by environmental writer Terry

Tempest Williams from the book, “Celebrating the Bolsa Chica.”

The campus will hold three upcoming events. The first, on Monday,

April 14, will feature nationally renowned poet and fiction writer,

Stephen Dobyns. On Friday, April 25, poet, fiction writer and

journalist Patricia Smith will take center stage with an open

community poetry reading.

Smith also will be the feature guest at an April 26 writing

workshop.

“This festival is an amazing experience,” said scholar, poet and

writer, Chris Abani. “For something like this, where you get a

gathering of numerous poets offering readings in different languages,

it certainly is unique to Orange County. I know it’s never happened

in L.A.”

The Nigeria-born Abani, who has lived the past three years in Los

Angeles, was the first poet on stage during the opening ceremonies.

The 36-year-old, who has written three plays and has had two novels

published with a third expected to be released in January 2004,

addressed the question, “Why Poetry Matters.”

“Poetry is one art form that is not judgmental,” he said. “When it

is well-written, a poem allows the reader to step into moments of

infinity.”

Abani’s was held as a political prisoner in Nigeria, on each

occasion as a result of his work.

The last time, at age 24, he served 18 months for the play he had

written, “The Song of the Broken Flute,” which was staged at a

university theater. The play, he was told, “ridiculed the government

of Nigeria.”

“About 10 minutes into the play, I was arrested,” he said. “Not

only that, but so was the entire cast and crew and those in the

audience.

“The two books I have written are about being a political

prisoner, and the other is about my family’s experiences as refugees

during the Nigerian civil war. I love to share my works and this

poetry festival is the perfect way to reach so many people. The works

presented through various languages truly is beautiful.”

Katya Giritsky, a 54-year-old poet who resides in Orange County,

gave the English translation of several poems her 82-year-old mother,

Tatiana Giritsky, read in Russian.

“Even in troubled times like these, with war going on, poetry does

touch the soul,” she said. “Sunday’s opening ceremony, with all those

different languages heard and expressed through poetry, really showed

how much more alike we all are than different.”