WHCacademia Debating Chamber

WHCacademia: Debating Chamber

Mark II - WHF, New Series of Debating:

Challenges for World Haiku in the 21st Century -
The World Haiku and the Haiku World

Challenge One: Back to Basics -
Old Argument and A New Frontier of Haiku: "Is Haiku Poetry?"

Susumu Takiguchi

We started this year with many new projects, one which concerns the members the WHCacademia mailing list. Most follows up an important and new way of debating issues of contemporary haiku, which was triggered off at the World Haiku Festival 2000 London-Oxford Conference last August, nearly a year ago. This follow up has been undertaken under the title (nickname) of the "Mark II - WHF". WHF2000 was officially completed in this last May with WHC's three-day London Conference and was superseded by a permanent fixture, carrying the same name but normally without a year's name, "World Haiku Festival".

In WHCacademia's "Debating Chamber", we wish to conduct a new series of debate, taking ourselves to the exciting frontier of our thoughts as world poets (having a world-wide outlook) and debating the topics covered during the WHF2000 Conference but taking them still further afield, in fact, as far as our breath can take us. At the Conference, conventional views and thoughts were all challenged and the long process of debate on them was given an important start, from both "pros and cons" points of view, of which perhaps our response to the famous essay and book of Professor Haruo Shirane (one of our advisors) was the most significant. All this was done under WHC's two main initiatives, "Challenging Conventions" and "Charting Our Future". Now, these challenges were numerous. Depending on how one categorise them, they numbered anything from 15 to over 20. Here, we wish to do the "Mark II" follow up, befitting WHCacademia, and debate on all, or as many as possible, these challenges.

See the Challenge for Debate in Essays: Kara-Kuchi Ronso

Next: WHCacademia Kansho (Appreciation) Column

WHCacademia provides members with facilities for serious study and debating of haiku literature, such as "World Haiku Debating chamber", "World Haiku Kansho Column" (haiku appreciation). New, critical and original views are particularly welcome.

If you would like to subscribe to WHCacademia, you can find instructions at the World Haiku Club web site:

http://www.worldhaikuclub.org

or you may join directly at our YahooGroups WHCacademia homepage:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WHCacademia

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