Raleigh Literary Society, AMU

RALEIGH LITERARY SOCIETY

ALEIGH LITERARY SOCIETY

Raleigh Literary Society Cultural Events-19th International Symposium

The Raleigh Literary Society, on the 26th and 27th of November, 2022, organized three competitions — Spoken Word Poetry, Storytelling, and Poster Making Competition — as part of the International Symposium at the Department of English, as a creative addition to the academic conference. The preparations for the first day of the event began early in the morning, with the sun blessing the environment with bright rays in the chilly winter morning. As the level of excitement kept rising, the event kicked off at 2 PM at the Faculty of Arts lawn, with an introduction to the society and an address by the Chairman of the Department of English, Prof. Mohammad Asim Siddiqui, also the President of the Raleigh Literary Society. The programme on the first day was that of a Storytelling Competition, anchored by postgraduate students of the department, Alina Hadi and Nausheen Nizami. The huge participant turnout was a testament to the enormity of the event - there were more than 20 pre-registered entries present for the performance in addition to on-the-spot registrations. All the participants spoke with great inventiveness and passion, showcasing the beauty of literature, which was received with rounds of applause by the audience, echoing off the walls and trees. Abdul Muneem Khan bagged the first prize for the Best Story, while Affan Shikoh was deemed to be the Best Storyteller. The first day was an absolute success for the society. Riding the wave of excitement and vigour from the first day, the second day event also started off at 2 PM at the lawn of the Faculty of Arts with the Spoken Word Poetry Competition. Students of the department of English, Yasir Affan and Sahil Raza anchored the programme. The participant turnout exceeded even the first day's record with more than 30 entries in addition to on-the-spot registrations. The audience turned up in huge numbers too, with some unexpected, winged guests also registering their beautiful attendance with chirps, rattles, whistles, trills, and croaks. The time in between performances was kept lively and riveting with performances from the student body as well as alumni of the Department of English, with a diverse array of Urdu, Hindi, and English performance poetry that was carried by the winds to the far edges of the venue literally, and to the streets of London, the narrow alleys of Varanasi and Ghalib's very own lanes of Ballimaran figuratively. The event was concluded with a piece of heartfelt performance poetry and a note of encouragement by the Secretary of the RLS, Abdullah Parwaiz, followed by prize distribution by the Chairperson of the Department of English, Prof. Mohammad Asim Siddiqui. The first prize for Spoken Word Poetry was awarded to Waseem Akram; the second prize was bagged by Tanya Kainaat; and the third place went to Abdul Muneem Khan. This was followed by the prize distribution for the Poster Making competition, where the prize for the Best Handmade Poster was awarded to Abdullah Faizul Hasan and the prize for the Best Digital Poster was awarded to Bilal Haider. These two posters were selected from an array of posters submitted as entries, all of which displayed impressive artistic talent and were displayed in the lawn throughout the symposium. The organisation of the competitions on both days was overseen by the diligent executive body of the society, including Secretary Abdullah Parwaiz and Joint Secretary Utkarsh Saini, and executed by the tireless efforts of the PR committee of the RLS, headed by Tuhel Ahmed, Sharmien Ajmal, and Sidrah Noor, as well as the Event Management committee, headed by Mohammad Bilal and Aatika Hussain. This two-day event has been a reprise of the Raleigh Literary Society and the vibrancy of the Department of English, as well as a resonance of the history that it represents, with the excellent attendance on both days representing a spirit undaunted in the face of even the most arduous of adversities. As part of the RLS’s vision of expanding into interdisciplinary areas, all three of these competitions were open to people from all departments and all fields of study as well. With the success of this event, the Raleigh Literary Society hopes to have embarked on a brand new journey of continuing legacies and laying down new achievements for rejuvenating literature.

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