Budding poets and musicians of Kolkata from different colleges, schools as well as working professionals congregated today at Oxford Bookstore to welcome the New Year with a special contest themed – “Will there be singing in the dark times?”The contestant ranged from as young as school students from secondary school to office-goers who came to showcase their passion. The young talent of the city are set to walk away with exceptional prizes. The top 2 singers may bag a recording deal with a music label and the best poetry performers will AKLF 2018 alongside established poets. The compositions in English, Hindi and Bengali by performers were judged by the members of the iconic Bengali band Cactus who will be performing at Plug-In hosted at AKLF 2018. Oxford was abuzz as the impressed judges and the contestants sang popular numbers firing up the large assembly of city’s youth at bookstore. Plug-in, curated by Oxford Bookstore in 2017 brought together the two worlds of literature and music on one stage created for it at Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2017. Graced by Underground Authority, the Ritornellos, No Strings Attached and many more in its first year, its upcoming second year Plug-in will be held across 4 days with the hottest musical acts in the city which includes the likes of Kendraka, Cactus, Nikita Gandhi and Teri Miko. Poetry Café curated by Oxford Bookstore in 2016 promotes love and respect for poetry and provide a platform for aspiring writers with a Literary festival curated by Oxford Bookstores - the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival. A special space with informal ambience that encourages face to face interactions between established and aspiring poets has featured Ben Okri, Bashobi Fraser, Andy Corner, Neal Hall, Anjum Hasan, Anita Nair, Jerry Pinto, Sankho Ghosh, Bina Sarkar Elias, Kalyan Ray, Aparna Sen, Debasish Lahiri, Anjana Basu, AvikChanda, and many younger poets of the city writing in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and English in the last two editions in 2016, 2017. In 2018, Poetry Café will be held across 3 days at St. Paul’s Cathedral Lawns with Tishani Doshi, Sudeep Sen, Sampurna Chattarji, Jerry Pinto, C. P. Surendran, and international poets James Noel and Makenzy Orcel from Haiti and Nalini Paul from the UK. City poets will read works in several languages. About Oxford Bookstores: ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amb2IGHLtl4

in collaboration with Ullash Group ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5tjbzzWi_0