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Matwaala Poetry Festival to mark decade of elevating diaspora voices
Over 122 poets are expected to participate in Matwaala’s anniversary programs throughout 2025.
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Staff Reporter - Tue, 01, Jul 2025
- 16:08 EDT
- 21
Representative image / Matwaala
The Matwaala Poetry Festival, a significant platform for highlighting diasporic South Asian poets in the United States, will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2025 with an extensive calendar of events across the country.
Launched in 2015 by poets Usha Akella and Pramila Venkateswaran, the festival was founded to enhance the visibility of South Asian poets within the American literary landscape.
Also read: Diaspora groups to host musical gathering in California
Over the past decade, it has established itself as a space for poetic exchange, cultural engagement, and literary community-building.
This year, Matwaala will host 15 events at major cultural venues, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Library (Washington, D.C.), SWIMM (Florida), Book Woman (Austin), South Asia Institute (Chicago), and the Walt Whitman Birthplace (Long Island). Organizers aim to draw over 122 poets to its programs around the country.
A major highlight will be the inaugural Matwaala Poetry Film Festival—Mehfilm, scheduled to take place on October 4, in collaboration with the South Asia Institute, Chicago.
The initiative has received support from institutions such as Poets and Writers, NYU, Stony Brook University, Nassau Community College, and Hunter College. Further recognition is expected through an ongoing collaboration with the Academy of American Poets, which featured five South Asian women poets in its Poem-a-Day series in May 2025. Plans are in place for this to become an annual feature.
Additionally, Muse India and SETU, two South Asia-based literary journals, will publish special Matwaala sections during the year, a news release stated.
Looking ahead, the festival will continue to prioritize themes such as diasporic identity, cultural heritage, gender, social justice, and intercommunity solidarity, while promoting poets of color through focused readings and collaborative projects.
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