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A Feast for the Mind

by Newsweek Pakistan
Images from the Lahore Literary Festival.

Photographs by Tapu Javeri

The fourth edition of the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) was originally a three-day event, opening on Feb. 19 at the Alhamra Art Center. On the directions of the provincial government, the festival was reduced to two days and relocated across the road from the Alhamra to the Avari Hotel. These unexpected constraints led organizers to scrap 42 sessions. Still, the strong, revised two-day program featured 123 speakers (including Ahdaf Soueif, Anissa Helou, B. N. Goswamy, C. M. Naim, Emma Woolf, Haji Noor Deen, Jacqueline Novogratz, Madhur Jaffrey, Mary Shemza, Mohammed Hanif, Mona Eltahawy, Nancy Dupree, Pasha Haroon, Rasheed Araeen, Reza Deghati, Richard Blair, Roza Otunbayeva, Steve Coll, Zehra Nigah, Zukiswa Wanner) from home and abroad in 50 mostly-parallel sessions. According to unofficial government estimates, the free festival drew an audience of an estimated 100,000. LLF presented lifetime achievement awards to Sindh-based painter Mussarat Mirza (in collaboration with the EU), conservationist Nancy Dupree, and poet Kishwar Naheed. LLF 2016 also featured performances of A. R. Gurney’s Love Letters, Zia Mohyeddin reciting Ghalib, qawwali by Fariduddin Ayaz and Abu Muhammad and company, and a musical performance in collaboration with Scotland-based Highlight Arts. Enjoy our gallery of images from the latest edition of Lahore’s most anticipated annual event.

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