Damascus-(ST)- The Arab Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) has chosen the Syrian poet Saqr Alishi and the late Libyan poet Sheikh Al-Mujahid Salman Al-Barouni as poets of the 10th Arab Poetry Day.
The organization called on Arab countries to celebrate Arab Poetry Day and the two honored poets throughout 2024.
Mohamed Al-Mukhtar from Mauritania and Dr. Abdel-Ilah from Morocco were also chosen as symbols of Arab culture for the year 2024.
The Syrian Ministry of Culture nominated the poet Alishi, considering that honoring him means honoring all the Syrian poets.
The celebration of Arab Poetry Day, which was launched on the twenty-first of March 2015, is an occasion to establish a tradition that restores poetry’s status among the public, and to emphasize its role in society, to strengthen the bond that brings together the poets of the Arab world and their counterparts in the world, to remind of the human values that unite them, and to encourage the spirit of adventure of creativity for poets, especially young people, and to raise the voice of beauty, love and positive values in the face of the culture of exclusion and violence.
It is noteworthy that Saqr Alishi is a Syrian poet and publisher, born in 1957 in Ain al-Krum in Hama countryside. He is one of the most prominent poets of the generation of the 1980s. He is also a member of the Arab Writers Union, a founder of Al-Yanabi’ House for Printing, Publishing and Distribution. His poetic experience included studies, research, and academic theses, and most of his output were collected in the 2008 publication of Poetic Works.
He has several poetry collections published by the Syrian General Book Authority and he was honored by the Syrian Ministry of Culture, in addition to local and Arab bodies.
Hanan Shamout