Events

Hap­pi­ness The Delight-Tree, an Anthol­o­gy of Con­tem­po­rary Inter­na­tion­al Poet­ry was launched at the new­ly ren­o­vat­ed UN Book­shop on 19 March 2015. The anthol­o­gy, com­piled in hon­or of the Inter­na­tion­al Day of Hap­pi­ness, 20 March, includes poet­ry of 55 coun­tries in 33 lan­guages on the sub­ject of hap­pi­ness. The launch was announced at the ear­li­er DPI/NGO event, “The Para­dox of Income and Hap­pi­ness”. Jef­frey Brez, Chief, NGO Rela­tions, Advo­ca­cy and Spe­cial Events, intro­duced Pul­tiz­er Prize win­ning poet Yusef Komun­yakaa, who closed the pro­gram with his poem from the anthol­o­gy, “With My Fish-Skin Drum.” 

On behalf of the UN Book­shop, Maher Nas­sar, Direc­tor, Out­reach Divi­sion, DPI, wel­comed  a stand­ing room only crowd to hear the poet­ry of Dara Bar­nat, Rose­bud Ben-Oni, Sharon Dolin, Yusef Komun­yakaa, Laren McClung, Yevge­ny Yev­tushenko (read by Dhi­ro­da­ta Moskalev), Javier Zamo­ra and UNSRC Soci­ety of Writ­ers mem­bers Nil­push­pi White and Di Zou. The emi­nent lit­er­ary and cul­tur­al Homme de Let­tres, H.E. Mohamed Mijarul Quayes, Ambas­sador of Bangladesh to Brazil, began the read­ing with an elo­quent ren­di­tion of the title poem: “Hap­pi­ness, the Delight-Tree”, by Sri Chin­moy. Co-edi­tors Dar­rel Ale­jan­dro Holnes, Eliz­a­beth Lara and Bhik­shu­ni Weis­brot host­ed the event.