Harris Khalique at UC Berkeley

 Fourteen years ago when Harris Khalique visited the Bay Area he was already a well-known poet in Pakistan.  His debut collection of poems was published when he was still a student at an engineering university.  Khalique’s first book made strong waves in the literary circles as it was the most powerful and sane voice from the young generation of writers and poets, in the hateful and bigoted Pakistani 80s. Fast forward to today, Harris Khalique still carries the tone of a fervent poet, but seems to have negotiated with the realities of his times.
On Thursday, October 8, Harris Khalique spoke on ‘Political Poetry in Contemporary Pakistan,’ at UC Berkeley.  At Berkeley Khalique was hosted by the Institute for South Asia Studies, the Berkeley Pakistan Initiative, and the Townsend Center for the Humanities, with the familiar team of Munis Faruqui, Puneeta Kala, and Saba Mahmood working in the background.