The historic Al Jahili Fort is hosting 74 poets and scholars for the third annual “Poetry Nights: The Sung Poetry” series, part of the Al Ain Book Festival.
From the 17th to the 23rd of November, the week-long event, organized by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), will celebrate the enduring cultural heritage of folk poetry.
This year’s programme is anchored in two themes: honouring the lives and legacies of influential poets who passed away in 2024, and charting the evolving role of poetry in the UAE. Through 21 sessions, participants will explore folk poetry’s historical trajectory from oral storytelling to digital platforms, offering insights into how each stage reflects the people’s identity and social evolution.
H.E. Saeed Hamdan Al Tunaiji, Executive Director of the ALC, emphasized that this initiative is not merely a celebration but a step toward safeguarding folk poetry as a living testament of Emirati heritage. “The ‘Poetry Nights: The Sung Poetry’ programme transforms heritage preservation into an annual, organised act that recognises folk poetry as a historical, geographical, and demographic record,” he remarked.
The programme highlights folk poetry’s progression across four eras. Beginning with the pre-union oral “poetry majlis” tradition, the journey includes the mid-20th-century paper documentation era, the audiovisual phase in the 1980s, and the current digital era, where a new generation of poets engages audiences online. The sessions also simulate the feel of traditional poetry majlis settings, with poets from different UAE regions sharing their verses within the 130-year-old fort walls—a testament to the resilience of Emirati heritage and linguistic identity.
Already established as a cornerstone of the Al Ain Book Festival, “Poetry Nights” reflects the ALC’s broader mission to protect and modernize Arabic language and culture. In the words of H.E. Al Tunaiji, “It is a step forward in raising historical awareness and preserving our cultural values for future generations.”
