The Bilim Aitysh program to promote the creativity of akyn improvisers in Kyrgyzstan keeps going along. The new season has started with a gender-sensitive workshop for 23 participants.
By the end of the qualifying round of the Akyns’ competition the committee had selected 17 improvisers for the scholarship support.
Thus, the training program of the project will be available to all Akyns.
On-topic:
Internews has launched freshened up training program for akyns-improvisers
The 17 scholarship recipients will participate in creative laboratories where they will work with experts to discuss current issues, national development trends and social, economic and environmental problems affecting the society.
At the end of the training, the akyns will present their social media audience with hortative songs (terme) on current topics.
The final aitysh will be held in fall of 2023 in the skill of improvisation and ability to get the message across the people on the important issues.
Video of the qualifying aitysh.
Terme is a unique genre of Kyrgyz folklore. The performer-improviser (toеkmoe akyn) should have not only a gift for poetry, music, colorful voice but also be able to play the komuz.
Terme is the improvement of Akyn improvisers in a musical and poetic form.
These are preachy songs, warnings and denunciations, etc. There are also surviving philosophical Terme songs, about the specific time (zaman yry). The Terme states eternal issues such as life and death, youth and old age, good and evil. The Terme is interesting because it has always touched upon fundamental issues.
The brightest representative of this genre is akyn-improviser Zhenizhok, a thinker and humanist who has embraced and developed the democratic traditions of oral folk art and has left a noticeable mark in the spiritual life of the Kyrgyz. Toktogul, Korgool, Eshmambet, Kalyk and other great Kyrgyz akyns were his disciples.
