The Interregional poetic festival «The voice of the heart. The devotion to Mikhail Sespel» took place at the high level on the 25-26th of April in Chuvashia. The festival has been organized by the National Library of the Chuvash Republic to the 125th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Chuvash poet.
At the first day of the festival countless participants – the culture and art workers, science and education workers, public figures, students and readers were greeted warmly by the National Library. The substantive prologue of the poetic festival was a report by Vera Nikiforova, Candidate of Philology, researcher at the Chuvash State Institute of Humanities, on the phenomenon of Mikhail Sespel, his life and work, and contribution to the development of Chuvash culture.
The festival was attended by honored guests from other regions – chairman of the Union of Writers of Mordovia, poet Tatyana Shvetsova (literary name Tatyana Mokshanova), poet, interpreter, literary critic, associate professor of the Department of Literary Excellence, head of the poetry seminar at the Gorky Literary Institute, Viktor Kulle (Moscow), Bashkir poet, honored worker of culture of the Republic of Bashkortostan, senior editor of the magazine “Watandash”, Zulfiya Hannanova, poet, novelist, editor of the magazine “Kazan utlary” from the Republic of Tatarstan, Alina Khabibullina. Talented pen masters delighted the audience with their poetic creativity, read poems by Mikhail Sespel in different languages. The Chuvash Republic was represented by the national poets of Chuvashia Yuri Semender, Raisa Sarbi, Svetlana Azamat, the national writer of Chuvashia Anatoly Kibech, writers Olga Kulikova (Ulkka Elmen), Marina Karyagina, Larisa Petrova.
The festival has received a logical continuation in the homeland of Mikhail Sespel – in the Kanash municipal district. On the second day, poetry readings were held in the central library in Shikhazany with the participation of guests from the regions, as well as Chuvash writers Olga Kulikova, Raisa Sarbi, Olga Turgai, Marina Karyagina, Dmitry Moiseev. The moderator was the national poet of Chuvashia, Svetlana Azamat.
Within the framework of the festival, the winners of the republican contest of readers for children and youth «Man Scheschpel = My Sespel» were awarded, which took place from April 4 to April 20 on the platform «contests.rf». According to the conditions, the participants had to learn a poem by Mikhail Sespel or a work dedicated to the poet by any other author and record a video. In total, more than 120 works were submitted to the contest, which were evaluated by a competent jury consisting of famous cultural figures.