Odisha's Flowing Verse: Embracing Open Mics, Poetry and Beyond

Odisha's Flowing Verse: Embracing Open Mics, Poetry and Beyond

In the culturally vibrant state of Odisha, a poetic revolution is taking place. With its ancient temples and breathtaking coastline as a backdrop, a thriving community of wordsmiths has emerged, embracing the power of poetry and artistic expression. From traditional verses steeped in history to contemporary forms resonating with modernity, Odisha's poetry scene has evolved into a dynamic platform for creative souls to shine. Open mics, once niche gatherings, now draw diverse crowds eager to revel in the magic of spoken word. Beyond conventional literary circles, this surge of interest encompasses storytelling, haikus, and other forms of written and spoken art.
Odisha's introduction and progress in the realm of poetry and storytelling present an excellent opportunity for budding poets and storytellers to showcase their talents across various platforms. The state has witnessed the emergence of several active poetry communities, providing a nurturing environment for creative expression. Let's explore a few of these known communities in Odisha:

Bakul Foundation

Bakul was founded on 1st April, 2006. The founder, Sujit Mohapatra said to My City Links, “Bakul  has set up more than 25 libraries entirely with the small contributions and energies of volunteers. It has also started publishing children's picture books in Odia and has been organizing events to promote storytelling such as BhuFeSto, the Puri Reading Festival in 2019-20.”

BhuFeSto or the Bhubaneswar Festival of Storytelling is one of India's biggest storytelling festivals that celebrates the best of oral storytellers from around the world and folk performers from India. It is organized by Bakul Foundation in collaboration with the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). The first edition in 2018 was held over 5 days in different corners of Bhubaneswar and was attended by about 10,000 people, young and old and rich and poor. There were special sessions for children with hearing and visual disabilities as well. Bakul had curated and co-organized it with the BDA. 

Bakul Foundation has been trying to promote reading in Odisha through a volunteer movement. Adding more to this the founder of Bakul Foundation, Sujit Mohapatra said, During the pandemic in 2020-21, Bakul went digital and curated the highly popular and best resource of its kind, "Story Time @ 9" in which every Saturday at 9PM, children and adults could travel live virtually to more than 50 different countries with the best professional oral storyteller from that country, who not only told local tales but also talked about the culture of the country. Bakul ran another very popular web series, Rabibar Gapabar in which the best oral storytellers in Odia told stories and also talked about Odia culture every Sunday. Both the series can be found on their Official Youtube channel.

FunHub Odisha

According to the founder Farzaan Ali, Funhub Odisha was founded on 11th June 2021, with 2,000 members by an online platform launched in the Covid pandemic, called Clubhouse. It has successfully conducted more than 40+ events, which mostly includes offline open mics. Additionally, they have hosted online mental health sessions, artist meet-ups, anime events and are planning to do public welfare as well.

Farzaan found the app Clubhouse interesting because anyone can join a random room & talk to people. He said, “You can talk to anyone. It was an ocean of people, where I started looking for Odias on the app, and fortunately I found a lot of them and eventually decided to start a club on Clubhouse so people will come & have fun under the same roof. Everything was online & it was so easy to talk to like-minded people at the same time.”

“We are getting more support than we used to 3 or 4 years ago. It takes patience to hold on to something, to work on. The future of FunHub Odisha should look like a huge clan where people celebrate small victories. Appreciate ideas. Encourage each other to try out new things in life. It should never be something which stays only in the city. FunHub should be a community for everyone. This dream is something I wish to live for,” signed off Farzaan.

Awaken Words & Dialogue Creative Studios  

Awaken Words, a Mumbai based Storytelling community started its Odisha wing in 2019, where writer and novelist Abinash Mohanty plays the role of state representative. With 30 core members and more than 1000 artists performing this platform solemnly devoted to art and artists all over India. 

Adding more about Awaken Words, Abinash said, “We do corporate shows, college fests, lineup shows, curated shows and so on, with the genres of poetry, storytelling and shayaris across many cities including Mumbai, Pune, Nasik, Delhi Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Bangalore and Goa.”

“History stands testimony to the fact that it has always been the community of Poets and Storytellers which has held the baton and led all major revolutions and social ventures. Poetry and Storytelling, as a genre of Performing Arts, is indulged with much more relativity with human society than any other art form. But to keep in with the same, they have to be united and brought under one roof, along with simultaneous polishing of the art and exposure to the audience,’’ he said.

Dialogue Creative Studios was founded by Abhinash in 2023, with 25 budding core members and 100 plus performing artists. It hosted around 3 mixed open mics named ‘Test Out’ in Bhubaneswar and one poetry and comedy special titled ‘Ghar Ka Bada Beta’ by Akash Rout and Pomedians.

On asking about Abhinash's opinion on whether societies are gaining enough support, he replied, “They are yet to gain enough support and the prime reason is that the denizens are yet to know the existence and activities of the same. Lots of members of the artistry itself are yet to inculcate the urge to improvise the art. Apart from the locals, the major support that's needed is that of the venue partners and to reaching out to more audiences through releasing of the performance videos in the form of IG/FB reels or YouTube shorts/video, digital promotion of events on social media both before and after the event, promotion of events on newspapers, collaboration with popular artists/influencers and many more.”

Kommune Odisha

The founder of Kommune, Roshan Abbas quotes,‘'Kommune was born out of the realisation that performing artists are largely loners.”

Kommune operates in more than 20+ states with more than 700 open mics hosted so far, and many more upcoming. Odisha in particular has hosted 7 open mics and many more upcoming events in this year.

Asking the state representative of Kommune about their opinion on the increase in the trend of poetry clubs in Odisha, Chanchal Verma replied, “Indeed there's an increase in the trend of poetry clubs in Odisha, and it's a good thing, isn't it? In the era of rapid digitalization, there are many young people who are not just blindly following trends, but are keen to become artists who are capable of bringing about a change. They are embracing literature. In my opinion open mic events are a 'khatti' of poems and storytellers weaving magic through their words, exchange of diversified thoughts that relieves them from this hedge maze life.’’

“We wish to open up city chapter communities of artists across all major cities in Odisha. Right now it’s in Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and Sambalpur. We are soon starting one in Cuttack and then will continue it across all major Odia cities. We aim to provide a stage to all the creators who are working towards the betterment of Art, Poetry, Storytelling.’’ added Shibangi Das, another representative of Kommune from Bhubaneswar.

Cuttack Poetry Society (CPS)

Cuttack Poetry Society was started as a passion project by the friends Annwesha Das and Arya. It was first based on their love for art and literature. They started at a small, quaint library at Cuttack almost 6 years ago. Poetry, they believed, was a reflection of their own sense and sensibilities. 

They wanted to create a safe space and a platform for artists to grow and discover themselves. On their first session, about 15 people turned up and as they sat there, sharing our stories and poems, they knew that this was going to be bigger than what they had imagined. Leaving the place with a sense of solidarity, and knowing that they always have this space to fall back on.

Adding more insights Annwesha said, “We discussed poets and writers and held screenings of literature based films and spoken-word poetry. Some weeks, they’d work on a particular theme or styles of writing. CPS has also collaborated with other literary events like Wordlust, SSU Orion Fest and other college level events to disseminate the idea of poetry through collective effort.”

In an attempt to inculcate the art of storytelling in young kids, CPS has also organised storytelling and reading sessions for underprivileged kids around its vicinity. Taking inspiration from the Bangalore Busking community, they also managed to hold a busking session at a cafe, where they wrote poems for strangers, taking prompts from them, and giving away some of their hand-written poems to the visitors. 

“CPS has earned its credibility due to the safe space that it attempted to create for artists to undergo catharsis without any judgement. The sense of community and belonging transformed the sessions into almost therapeutic practices. From Secret Santa, poetry letters to potluck poetry luncheons, CPS has attempted every sort of fun activity surrounding poetry, literature and art. CPS has been their ode to artists and a celebration of art and literature.” Annwesha signed off .

Bhubaneswar Poetry Club (BPC)

In July 2016, a group of kindred souls and poetry enthusiasts congregated in a Poetry Slam event, which was the first of its kind in Odisha. This led to forming of a new paradigm among the young , non mainstream poetry aficionados and enthusiasts called the Bhubaneswar Poetry Slam. It was later named as Bhubaneswar Poetry Club. The club was initiated in 2016 and over the next 6 and half years it brought many experimental aspects and unique events into the performance poetry scene. BPC has a widespread reach into the community of Poetry enthusiasts in major cities of Odisha with more than 300 active members from the poetry community. 

Executive Core and Mentor Dr Pratyush Mishra said to My City Links, “The hallmark of BPC has always been the effusive warmth contiguous with people, poetry and performances. BPC has hosted more than 80 odd events both offline and online since 2016. The flagship events include; Ars Poetica ,  Poets On Air – podcast, Canopy, Interactive events like Poetry and Baatcheet, Poetic Santa, Canopy, Unmute, PRIDE poetry events like Querrencia, Workshops like Writing Gone South, Voicing the Musing.”

“BPC has always emphasised on how poetry helps people connect. The intent was to keep a dialogue between poetry and society at large, ongoing. Their vision and foresight brought together many individuals from various institutions, professions and walks of life generating a meaningful dialogue between community and the arts, with the hope for a better connectivity of hearts and minds. On a personal note, I would say that it is not necessary, rather imperative that we have communities for poets and storytellers, for a chance at real-time, all-inclusive structures, which explore the myriad narratives of humanity as a whole, and work towards harmony, mutual respect and co-existing creativity,” signed off Pratyush.