What is Boi-Lit Festival
Boi-Lit (Boishakhi Literature) Festival is Bishwo Shahitto Kendro’s annual event in London held in May every year with the Boishakhi Mela.
The focus of this festival is to celebrate the Bengali and world literature through a book fair and cultural shows. This also encourages people to take joy from different literary activities.
We promote up-coming poets, writers and artists at our festival every year.
We also organise art competition, story telling, face painting and cultural show for young people.
What are the main attractions of the Festival
Book fair is our main attraction of the day. This year we invited publishers and booksellers from both countries, Bangladesh and UK.
Amongst our special guests we have Prof. Abdullah Abu Sayeed, the founder of Bishwo Shahitto Kendro in Bangladesh who will take a lead role in a discussion with famous writer William Radiche. Poet, Translator, Senior Lecturer in Bengali, SOAS, University of London.
The attraction of the evening is our cultural show with two famous Bangladeshi guest singers, Kaderi Kibria (USA) and Rizwana Chowdhury Bonna (Bangladesh).
Who are our target audience
This year we are expecting a turn out of 800-900 visitors out of 80,000 or more visitors who are likely to be in East London on those days enjoying the Bengali New Year Celebrations to engage themselves in our activities and have an insight of our literary and cultural heritage.
Our audience not only come form different regions of the UK, we also have visitors from Europe, South Asia and America at our festival each year.
We encourage our local young people to take part in our discussions and debates and express their views and opinion on current issues and affairs.
What is the Aim of the Festival
The aim of the celebration is to show case and promote the breath and depth of Bengali literature and culture.
We also bridge the gaps between different cultures representing cosmopolitan London. They have the opportunity to explore and share their own heritage, diverse traditions and culture while celebrating Bengali culture and New Year