Sixth ZEE JLF at the British Library 2019: Jaipur's grand feast of ideas returns to London

The sixth edition of ZEE JLF will be hosted at the British Library, Friday 14 - Sunday 16 June, 2019. 
Jaipur Literature Festival
Jaipur Literature Festival
Published on
Updated on
10 min read
  • Jaipur's grand feast of ideas returns to London and then travels to Belfast for the first time.
  • Morning Music features acclaimed Tagore singer Reba Som and multi-faceted singer-songwriter Amrit Kaur Lohia.
  • Opportunity for bloggers to compete for a place as Official Festival Bloggers.
  • Listen in to exciting conversations from the festival at our podcast, Jaipur Bytes.

Teamwork Arts, the producer of the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival, presents the sixth edition of ZEE JLF at the British Library as it returns to the UK between Friday 14 and Sunday 16 June 2019.

This annual celebration of books, creativity, dialogue and diversity brings South Asia’s unique multilingual literary heritage to life in the heart of London.

This year’s festival features nearly 40 sessions with over 90 speakers from a range of disciplines, genres and cultures, including Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi, V&A Director and former Labour MP Tristram Hunt, Nobel Laureate Venki Ramakrishnan, travel writer Pico Iyer, award-winning author and journalist Christopher de Bellaigue and acclaimed Bollywood actor Manisha Koirala.

Apart from power-packed conversations spread over the weekend, the festival features soul-stirring ‘Morning Music’ on Saturday and Sunday ahead of the day’s sessions. 

On Saturday, Reba Som, a historian and a trained exponent of ‘Rabindra sangeet’ (songs penned and composed by Rabindranath Tagore), will present Anando Gaan or ‘Songs of Joy’ (including some from the poet’s Nobel-winning work Gitanjali) resonating with Tagore’s wonderment at the varying moods of nature, which for him, were expressions of divinity. 

On Sunday, audiences can look forward to musician and historian Amrit Kaur Lohia’s performance Anhad Nād - Sounds from the Sikhs and Sufis.

Literature enthusiasts and bloggers also have an opportunity to participate as Official Festival Bloggers through a Blogging Competition that runs till May 30th on the online writing community Wattpad. 

Sessions and conversations with festival speakers are also available on the Jaipur Bytes podcast, across leading platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, etc.

The programme promises an exciting array of conversations to look forward to, including discussions of key historical milestones. 

Exactly a century since the horrific Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Indian diplomat Navdeep Suri speaks about his new translation of his grandfather Nanak Singh’s Khooni Vaisakhi, an epic Punjabi poem with a scathing critique of the British Raj, which was banned soon after its publication. 

Kim A Wagner also marks the centenary with his new book, Jallianwala Bagh: An Empire of Fear and the Making of the Amritsar Massacre, a dramatic telling of the event and its aftermath.
 

<em><strong><a href=
<em><strong><a href=
<em><strong><a href=
<em><strong><a href=


Namita Gokhale, Festival Co-Director and author of the new book Finding Radha, said: “As ZEE JLF at the British Library returns to London for its sixth edition, we look forward to the creative learnings and sharing what we have encountered in our treasured collaboration with the British Library. We examine books and ideas and the crucial intersectionalities of our changing times, the politics of culture, the joys of music and the consolations of poetry and philosophy in a series of mind-stretching sessions, panels and re-imaginings.”

William Dalrymple, Festival Co-Director and author of the new book The Anarchy, said: “In just over a decade, the Jaipur Literature Festival has grown from 14 lost tourists to a third of a million people and it’s now the biggest festival of literature in the world. With our strongest London line-up yet, we can’t wait to bring its energy and colour to the British Library: our Jaipur-on-Thames.”

Sanjoy K Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts, Producer of the Festival, said: “We're back for our sixth edition in London with a colourful bandwagon of books, ideas and dialogue that capture our imaginations and explore the dynamic and challenging times we live in. ZEE JLF at the British Library will look at history as well as current affairs, explore scientific works and the creative worlds of cinema, literature and poetry. This year we've also partnered with the British Museum for an evening of conversations and are headed for the first time to Belfast for our second outing in the UK.”
 

<em><strong><a href=
<em><strong><a href=
<em><strong><a href=

Related Stories

No stories found.