A Passion for Reading and Love of Culture - Asma Seddiq Al Mutawaa - Abu Dhabi Book Fair 2019

A Passion for Reading and Love of Culture - Asma Seddiq Al Mutawaa - ِAsmaa Abu Dhabi Book Fair 2019

 

If you “actually read” fourty real books in twenty years, you can face the world... “Amin Maalouf.

Eleven years ago, precisely in 2008, we took part in the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair for the

first time to experience new formats of reading as we had an accumulative cuitural literacy and a

notable taste for literature which we have fostered since the inception of Al Multaqa Literary Salon in

1998. This step offered us an open outreach to the Fair’s audience and organizers as it took us from an intimacy togetherness context to a cultural torrent that flows in the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. From the first few sessions, we were fascinated by the debates, and it was wonderful to open our thoughts to others, and share their thoughts. In either cases, we end up learning from them as it is believed that a good reader is scarcer than a good book.

We were pleased and honored that in 2006 UNESCO recognized Al Multaqa Literary Salon as one of its reading clubs in recognition of our perseverance and seriousness. Our biggest catalyst though remains the attention and encouragement of the State’s institutions, as well as Al Multaqa friends and followers.

Al Multaqa Literary Salon continued with the same spark and enthusiasm its participation in the Book Fair, marking today it’s eleventh. We have selected the “Third Culture” as our theme for this 29th Edition of the Fair as we live in a time where the use of symbols, expressions and methods of narration beyond languages and cultures became synonymous of language, and where cross-border networking comes as a substitute to friends’ gatherings and meetings cafes and discussions arenas. Many changes are evident and obvious. For example, those networks i n their diverse forms sweep away the differe n t levels of social interaction, new types of jobs are emerging while others disappear, and the challenges arising from the gap between generations becomes wider in terms of moods, tastes, ideas as well as in the ways to express all of that.

In fact, our choice of “Third Culture” is not to grieve a traditional culture that is disappearing with its characters, symbols and tools, but rather an exercise in tolerance and adaptation to the rhythms

of the future. Isn’t 2019 the “Year of Tolerance”?

Our sessions on “Third Culture” will also explore the reasons for restoring the role of the intellectual in

a new way to match and harmonize young spirits imposed by the revolution of smart phones and artificial intelligence. In commemoration of the Father Founder of the UAE, the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, may he rest in peace, 2018 was proclaimed the “Year of Zayed”. And in that respect, Al Multaqa Literary Salon has dedicated all its 2018 sessions to reading Emirati Literature to honor UAE Authors.

Our program this year encompasses sessions to review and discuss UAE literature. The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair announcement of selecting “Ousha Bint Khalifa Al Suwaidi” known as Fatat Al-Arab (Girl of the Arabs) as the Personality of the Year for this year’s edition of the Fair had a positive impact on us, for what Fatat Al-Arab symbolizes in terms of a great creative figure and the lead of this educated lady of the Nabataean Gulf poetry. We find the Fair an opportunity to pay her tribute and to shed light on her and her poetry through our sessions.

Asma Seddiq Al Mutawaa

Founder and Chairwoman

Al Multaqa Literary Salon