♣ The Sixth HurghadaRussian Cultural Week closed at the Alf Leila Wa Leila (The Thousands and One Nights) Hotel. A mizmar and horses welcomed thw guests at the entrance of the hotel at the start of the celebration presented by actress Leqaa Swedan and media figure Ahmed Alaa in the presence of Red Sea Governor Ahmed Abdallah. The ceremony started with a speech by president of the festival Hossam Abdallah followed by performances by the Russian Orchestra, the Kazakhstan folk troupe, the violinist Mina, singers Amina and Essam Karika. The festival honoured the Egyptian delegation that visited Russia to reinforce ties between the two countries, including writer and former Muslim Brotherhood member Tharwat Al-Khirbawi, actress Hend Akef, Ambassador Raouf Saad. Other honourees included singers Amina and Karika, Jordanian actor Mondher Rihana, singer Riham Helmi, actor Amr Abdel-Aziz, actress Olfat Omar, actor Sherif Baher, actor Rami Wahid, media figure Ahmed Alaa, actress Leqaa Swedan and singer Laila Ghofran. ♥ The Head of the Supreme Press Council Galal Aref, together with Al-Ahram Chairman of the Board Ahmed Al-Sayed Al-Naggar and the Chief Editor Mohamed Abdel-Hadi attended a reception party organised on the fringe of the 45th Cairo International Book Fair in which the Al-Ahram Distribution Agency is participating. The reception took place at Al-Ahram Art Gallery in the presence of a number of foreign and Arab publishers, in addition to Chairman of the Board of Dar Al-Maaref Hassan Abu-Taleb. Ten writers whose books won the awards presented by the Al-Ahram Book Club were honoured, among them Ashraf Al-Said for his book The Electronic Crime, Samia Abul-Nasr for Egypt Between Two Revolutions and Sahar Fouad for God's Prophets. The ceremony was supervised by Yasser Ezzeddin Salem from the Al-Ahram Distribution Agency; a rare collection of paintings owned by Al-Ahram was also on show. The grand finale was a poetry recital by poet and media figure Gamal Al-Sha'er. ♠ The General Organisation of Culture Palaces (GOCP) headed by poet Saad Abdel-Rahman participated in the 45th Cairo International Book Fair, which has the slogan “Culture and Identity”. The programme offered two children's workshops: Cut and Paste, and a Pottery. It also offered a cultural contest. The Garden City Culture Palace children's troupe presented the play Orabi, and the Ismailia Folk troupe performed. Also at the book fair, a seminar on Azza Rashad's short story collection Banat Ahlami (Progeny of My Dreams), was conducted by Sherif Al-Gayar and Salah Al-Serwi. Another discussion was held on the poetry collection Marayel Al-Assafir (Birds Uniform) by poet Ibrahim Khattab, conducted by Mohamed Zeidan and Hani Kotb. Under the title “Egyptian Poetesses: Parallel Experiences”, a seminar conducted by Heba Essam with the participation of poetesses Hannan Shafei, Nahed Al-Sayed and Abeer Abdel-Aziz saw all three divulging their experiences in poetry. A poetic evening in memory of the late people's poet Ahmed Fouad Negm was also held, attended by the Head of the General Egyptian Book Organisation Ahmed Megahed. Actors Ahmed Abdel-Aziz, Fattouh Ahmed, Sherif Helmi recited some of Negm's poems while singer Azza Balbaa performed one of his songs. ♣ Screenwriter Medhat Al-Adl's new poetry collection Rasif Nemra Khamsa (Quay No.5) was launched at the Egyptian-Lebanese Publishing House pavilion at the 45th Cairo International Book Fair with the attendance of his family and friends including his brother the producer Mohamed Al-Adl as well as the versatile artist Samir Sabri. ¨ At Al-Masar Gallery's Art Lounge in Zamalek, the exhibition Vitality by Essam Darwich opened, showing his most recent sculptures. Next door, Al Masar Gallery for Contemporary Art also held a “Meet the Artist” event with the renowned artist Georges Bahgory on the occasion of his current exhibition Nostalgic Dreams (see Culture p.20). Both events were attended by Italian Ambassador Maurizio Massari, his wife Mary and artist Mohamed Omar Khalil. All were warmly received the gallery manager Walid Abdel-Khalek. ♥ The Indian Ambassador to Egypt Navdeep Suri and his wife Mani celebrated the 65th Republic Day of India in a lavish reception party crowned by the attendance of, among others, Minister of Civil Aviation Abdel-Aziz Fadel, Minister of Commerce and Industry Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, actor Hassan Al-Raddad, artist Farid Fadel, public relations expert Mona Zaki, Al-Ahram Weekly's People page editor Reham El-Adawi, former Minister of Administrative Development Ahmed Darwish as well as a number of foreign and Arab ambassadors to Egypt. ♠ The Saad Zaghloul Cultural Centre at the Beit Al-Aouma Museum will launch a new programme of lectures entitled “The Revolution Salon” to be moderated by Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper journalist Sherif Aref starting at the beginning of February.
