jordan pulse -

The audience of the Jerash Festival for Culture and Arts, which begins tomorrow, Wednesday, and lasts for 11 days, eagerly awaits the distinctive cultural activities and programs of its 38th edition. This year, the festival features two parallel themes: celebrating the silver jubilee of King Abdullah II's ascension to the throne and showing solidarity with the people of Gaza, who are facing genocide at the hands of Israeli occupation forces.

The festival will open its cultural program with a symposium commemorating the legacy of the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. This event will be held at 12 PM next Thursday in the conference hall of the Royal Cultural Center in Amman. The symposium will be chaired by the festival's supreme committee head, Minister of Culture Haifa Najjar, and will feature contributions from Lebanese artist Marcel Khalife, Palestinian composer Wissam Joubran, Palestinian researcher Jawad Boulos, and Jordanian critic Fakhri Saleh.

At 6 PM in the same venue, the cultural evenings will commence, featuring former Minister of Culture and Jordanian poet Haider Mahmoud, moderated by former president of the Jordanian Writers Association, poet Akram Al-Zoubi.

This year's cultural program stands out for its diverse activities. According to Dr. Riyad Yaseen, Vice President of the Jordanian Writers Association, the program's richness is due to the careful selection of its components and themes, a collaboration between the Writers Association and the festival's cultural committee. He told the Jordan News Agency (Petra), "We believe we have chosen a range of activities that cater to various cultural interests, from poetry and storytelling to the renewal of intellectual renaissance. The overall cultural program is particularly engaging for university students through seminars that discuss achievements during King Abdullah II's reign, as well as Jordan's role in supporting Gaza."

Additionally, the "Short Story Transformations Forum," organized by the festival in collaboration with the Jordanian Writers Association, will take place on Sunday, July 28, at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Jordan. This forum highlights the significance of the short story as an art form. Jordanian and Arab writers will discuss the state and transformations of Arabic storytelling in recent years, featuring Kuwaiti writer Taleb Al-Rifai, Egyptian writer Samir El-Fil, Saudi writer Khaled Al-Youssef, and Jordanians Dr. Hind Abu Al-Shaar, Dr. Mohammad Abidallah, Dr. Iman Al-Samadi, Dr. Sami Ababneh, Dr. Lydia Abu Mariam, Dr. Lara Shafavoj, Dr. Hassan Al-Majali, Dr. Linda Abid, Saud Qabilat, and Ammar Al-Junaidi, with Dr. Attallah Al-Hijaya supervising the forum.

Al-Hijaya emphasized to Petra the importance of Jerash Festival’s focus on short stories as a form that meets contemporary cultural shifts and aligns with modern communication trends favoring brevity and conciseness, such as short messages and posts.

The forum will also celebrate the very short story genre in Jordan and Palestine and announce the winner of the "Khalil Qandil Short Story Award," valued at 2000 dinars. The festival honors the late writer Khalil Qandil, who passed away in 2017, leaving behind a significant literary legacy.