Renowned Yemeni poet commemorated [Archives:2007/1026/Culture]

Saeed Al-Batati
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The Hadramout Governorate witnessed an extraordinary flurry of cultural activity last week as a result of the 7th anniversary of the death of the great Yemeni poet Hussein Abu Baker Al-Mehdar.

Many intellectuals, poets, friends and admirers of the deceased gathered in his house in Sheher (15 kms north east of Mukalla). The mass put some of his poems under the microscope for discussion and a wide variety of papers were presented. Mr.Saeed Farhan presented a paper on “Place in Al-Mehdar's poetry”. Al-Mehdar was, and still is, unquestionably one of the great poets of this era. “His poems fuse together word and melody” he said, adding also that his poems equally contained wisdom, proverbs and jokes.

The second part in the programme of cultural activities was a night-time musical concert. The musicians sang some of the songs written by Al-Mehdar. At the end of the concert, the only son of Al-Mehdar honored the old friends of his father.

As part of the program, the intellectuals visited Al-Mehdar Museum.

Giving some information regarding the museum, Mehdar Hussein Al-Mehdar said that his father's museum is currently under the sponsorship of the late's family, and that they refused to hand over the museum to the ministry of Culture. “If they were given the museum, they wouldn't do anything. There are many clear examples of such ministry-run museums”.

Mr. Hussein said that when the president inaugurated the museum officially