Under the patronage of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah Region, will launch the third annual Souq Okaz on Tuesday. The event will be held at the Sakhrat Al-Saraya Theater in Souq Okaz where Prince Khaled will award prizes to the winners of the Souq Okaz contests and where a historical play written by Muhammad Al-Othaim and directed by Dr. Husein Al-Musallam will be presented. The play will be staged everyday at 9.30 P.M. This year the Souq's cultural program will include an intellectual seminar presented by the Makkah Literary Club. Seminar participants will include Dr. Saleh Mu'eedh Al-Ghamdi, Dr. Ali Al-Qurashi and Dr. Marzouq Bin Tunbak. In addition, there will be a poetry evening in which poets Shawqi Bazee' from Lebanon, Ali Abdullah Khalifa from Bahrain, Hasan Al-Sabe' from the Kingdom and the poetess Amina Al-Mareeni from Morocco will participate. The following day, the Jeddah Literary Club will present an intellectual seminar titled “Culture – a renewing structure” in which Dr. Muhammad Saleh Al-Dehaim, Dr. Zeid Al-Fudhail and Dr. Abdul Mohsin Al-Qahtani will take part. There will also be a poetry evening in which the poets Buzeid Hirzallah from Algeria, Muhammad Abu Sinnah from Egypt, Abdul Wadood Saif from Yemen and the poetess Thurayya Al-'Areedh from the Kingdom will participate. The Souq Okaz cultural program will conclude with activities organized by the Taif Literary Club on the third day. They will include a critical seminar entitled “The poetry of Amr Al-Qays and the critical lesson”. Participants in the seminar will include Yaqoub Al-Bitar (Syria), Dr. Abdullah ‘Usaylan (the Kingdom), Dr. Salama Al-Suwaidi (Qatar) and Dr. Amal Abdullah Al-Tu'aimi (the Kingdom). An evening of poetry will be held with the participation of the poetess Manat Izzeddin Al-Khair (Syria) and the poets Muhammad Ismail Jawharji (the Kingdom) and Ibrahim Nasrallah (Jordan). Among other activities that will be held at Souq Okaz and that will continue for two weeks are exhibitions of the traditional arts and handicrafts of the governorates of the Makkah Region and horsemanship shows presented by the Taif Equestrian School.
