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Shafiul Alam Raza captivated a jam-packed evening audience singing Bhawaiya, a genre of music popular in northern Bangladesh at a programme in Dhaka on Monday.
   The Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy organised the programme at its Dance and Music Auditorium.
   Theatre personality Nasiruddin Yousuff attended the programme as chief guest. Bhawaiya researcher and singer Nurul Islam Zahid was present as discussant with the academy’s director general Bhuiyan Shafiqul Islam in the chair.
   Raza performed 16 songs including Nariya ekbare jay belt ala diye, Eit bichhaya bandhechhe ghate and Oki garial bhai. The songs depict the will and woe of the common people.
   According to Banglapedia, Bhawaiya, a genre of north Bengal folk song, believed to have originated in Rangpur and Cooch Bihar, India.
   The name of this folk song, generally about love between man and woman, derives from bhava (emotion). Bhawaiya songs, however, may also be spiritual in theme as in ‘fande pariya baga kande re’ (The heron cries entrapped in a net), ‘chhar re man bhaver khela’ (O my mind, leave earthly games), etc.
   The singer was assisted by Mohammad Sadi on the tabla, Delwar Hossain Khan on dhol, Mohammad Solaiman on dotara, Mohammad Nuruzzaman and Rafiqul Islam on violin, Mohan Sinha on mandira and Mohammad Moniruzza-man on the flute.

A three-month exhibition of works by street children, aged between four and 14, is going on beginning in December at the Bay’s Galleria in Dhaka.
   The show titled ‘StreetWise Art Exhibition’ features a selection of works by children living on the streets, said a press release.
   The works which portray the emotions of the children are on sale. Some print reproductions of the works are also on sale in the form of greeting cards, bookmarks and notebooks.
   The StreetWise Education Foundation is an innovative education programme that helps children stay off the streets by providing its students and their guardians with effective supports to keep them in school.
   Fifty per cent of the profit from the sales of the works will be spent for the schooling of the street children and the rest will be distributed directly to the children and their guardians, said the release.
   The show is open to all from 11:00am to 6:00pm till February 28.