32nd Medellín International Poetry Festival
World peace, pact with nature
Our International Poetry Festival of Medellin -FIPMed- has reached its 32nd version with a broad and diverse celebration that brought together 130 poets from 85 countries, in more than 100 activities, including reading tables, virtual and face-to-face meetings, conferences, lectures, musical events, and the opening of the 26th International Poetry School of Medellin.
In the midst of a context that we could call "post-pandemic", the Festival offered Medellin and other municipalities in the region, more than 50 face-to-face activities, to which we added 10 activities that we extended to the city of Santa Marta in partnership with the government of Magdalena. We also offered a rich virtual program with 50 activities in which we reached the world through the screen and social networks.
The dialogue with guests was mediated by the words of our readers and interpreters. Everyone interacted with the world poetry with epicenter in Medellin, through live and delayed transmissions that are found in: Facebook: festivalpoesiamed, and on YouTube: Revista Prometeo.
As in other years, our poetic celebration was a space to gather and share an event of great magnitude that is tradition in Medellin and in the international poetic field, united to the spirit of "World Peace, Peace with Nature", which we proposed as a motto and center of our reflections, today that humanity lives a shock sponsored by the configuration of a new world order product of conflicts, the ravages of the pandemic, and the cultural overlapping of the powers of neoliberalism.
Now more than ever, it is time to unite all life to the origin that is nature, without it, without a sensitivity that safeguards it, we will not find the way to preservation, to great and lasting peace.
It was a Festival for the new generations to connect with the roots from an ancestral vision that flows from the mother tongue, that flows through stories, diversity and poetry. Our contribution to this great purpose is our commitment to sharing from fraternity, uniting people around culture, thought, and the beauty of poetry. We believe that only in this way, invoking the spiritual force that unites us, will we be able to face with universal love and wise decisions that protect us, the environmental collapse and the great challenges that await us during the current change of light.
Poets and invited
We will count on the participation of fundamental guests to engage in the dialogue that brings us together in this version, such as: the Indian physicist, philosopher and writer and Right Livelihood Awardee Vandana Shiva; the Brazilian theologian, philosopher, writer, professor and ecologist Leonardo Boff; the Argentine biologist Raúl Montenegro, also awarded with this distinction; Afua Cooper, Jamaican-Canadian poet and also Dr. Burnley Allan Jones Awardee of the Novia Scotia Human Rights Commission; Afua Cooper, Jamaican-Canadian poet laureate and also Dr. Burnley Allan Jones Award from the Novia Scotia Human Rights Commission; the poet laureate of the Pacific New Zealand Foundation for the Arts Tusiata Avia; Nimrod, Edouard Glissant Award and Apollinaire Award, poet representing North African literature. We will have the poet, philosopher, essayist, historian and storyteller, president of the Kati Fund and director of the Kati Fund Library in Timbuktu Ismael Diadié; Vera Duarte, human rights activist, former Minister of Education and Advisor to the President of the Republic of Cape Verde; Carmen Berenguer, Chilean poet, essayist, visual artist, cultural activist and winner of the 2008 Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Poetry Prize; one of the most outstanding Danish poets of recent generations Morten Søndergaard; Puerto Rican poet, editor, essayist, translator and activist Martín Espada; Mongolian poet Mend-Ooyo Gomonjav, who received in 2015 Mongolia's highest honor: the Order of Chinggis Khaan; and the Spanish poet and winner of the 2006 Cervantes Prize Antonio Gamoneda; among other poets of important poetic and intellectual journey, namely, 24 from Europe, 14 from Africa, 26 from America, 25 from Asia, and 7 from the extensive Oceania, including 6 other poets of various nationalities chosen by open call to participate in this new version. We will also count with the poetry and musical intervention of the poet and actress from Zimbabwe-Mosoto, Siphiwe Nzima; the poet, musician and social activist from the Kingdom of Swaziland; Qibho Intalektual; the musical artist from the Kichwa nation of Ecuador Tamya Sisa Morán (Flor de la Lluvia); the Bulgarian poet, writer, musician, translator and librarian Petar Tchouhov; and the musical participation of the Colombian poet, writer, musician, translator and librarian Petar Tchouhov; and the musical participation of the Colombians: Íkaro Valderrama virtuoso of throat singing, and Carlos Palacio (Pala).
The poets who will also participate in the presenciality will be: Hubert Antoine (Belgium), Amanda Durán, Eugenia Brito and Malú Urriola (Chile), Mei Er (People's Republic of China), Giselle Lucía Navarro (Cuba), Niels Hav (Denmark), Raúl Vallejo (Ecuador), Janette Ayachi (Scotland/Algeria), Jordi Virallonga (Spain), Olli Heikkonen (Finland), Ali Al Ameri (Jordan-Palestine), Esteban Ríos Cruz (Zapotec Nation, Mexico), Hilde Susan Jægtnes (Norway), Ester Naomi Perquin (Netherlands), Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn Dycki, Marta Eloy Cichocka (Poland), Regina Ramos (Uruguay), Eliane Vernay (Switzerland), Pelin Batu (Turkey), Vielsy Arias (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela), Kayo Chingonyi (Zambia). And the Colombian poets: Albeiro Montoya Guiral, Amalia Moreno, Ángela Briceño, Angélica Hoyos Guzmán, Arrinson Palacio, Daniel Montoya, Diana Carol Forero, Diana Carolina Gutiérrez, Edwin Rendón, Isabel Dunas, Jhonatan Macías, Jotamario Arbeláez, Laura Cadavid, Lucía Estrada, Luisa Villa Meriño, Sara Isabel Gallego, Tatiana Arango, Yadira Rosa Vidal Villadiego, Yenny León, Víctor Gaviria, Víctor Rivera.
En la virtualidad nos acompañarán: Daniel Freidemberg (Argentina), Anne Casey (Australia), Oscar ´Puky´ Gutiérrez (Bolivia), Thereza Christina Rocque da Motta (Brasil), Haji Mohd Ali y Sosonjan A. Khan (Brunei), Joyche Ashuntantang (Cameroon), Bronislava Volková (Chequia), Huang Yazhou, Sue Zhu, Zhen Xiaoqiong (República Popular China), Tania Ganitsky (Colombia), Osvaldo Sauma (Costa Rica), Ajmedov Mahomed Ajmedovich (Daguestán), Celia A. Sorhaindo (Dominica), Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (Egipto), Lourdes Ferrufino (El Salvador), Adel Kozham (Emiratos Árabes Unidos), Luis Luna (España), Joan Naviyuk Kane (Nación Inupiaq Eskimo, Estados Unidos), Aurelia Lassaque (France), Dimitris P. Kraniotis (Greece), Craig Santos Pérez (Guam), Carmen Tocay (Nación Kaqchikel, Guatemala), Melissa Merlo (Honduras), Biplab Majee y Taniya Chakraborty (India), Dunya Mikhail (Iraq), Maryam Ala Amjadi y Rosa Jamali (Iran), Sinéad Morrissey (Irlanda del Norte), Sara Florian (Italy/Singapore), Takako Arai (Japan), Kibelekenya Wuantai Frankline (Nación Masái, Kenya), Antoine Boulad (Líbano), Bernice Chauly (Malasia), Ibrahim Waheed "Ogaru" (Maldives), Mohammed Hajji Mohammed (Marruecos), Yusuf Kadel (Islas Mauricio), Ricardo Castillo (México), Amosse Mucavele (Mozambique), Santosh Kumar Pokharel (Nepal), Akeem Lasisi (Nigeria), Kiri Piahana-Wong (nación Maorí, Nueva Zelanda/China), Bessy Reyna (Panamá), Shirley Villalba (Paraguay), Mario Pera y Fiorella Terrazas (Perú), Ana Luísa Amaral (Portugal), André Robèr (Islas Reunión), Mere Taito (Rotuma), Ekaterina Volodina (Rusia), Ana Stjelja (Serbia), Shirani Rajapakse (Sri Lanka), Marie Lundquist (Suez), Gilberto Isella (Suiza), Lebogang Mashile (Suráfrica), Dadolin Murak (Timor Oriental), Patron Henekou (Togo), Simone Kaho (Tonga), Danielle Boodoo-Fortune (Trinidad y Tobago), Ridha Mami (Túnez), Martín Barea Mattos y Fernando Foglino (Uruguay), Khosiyat Rustam y Shokhida Yusupova (Uzbekistan), Rebecca Olul-Hossen (Vanuatu), Hani El-Selwy (Yemen), Poet Asa (Zimbabwe).
Writings and poems by some guests
Organizers and allies
Poetry is and will be the last bastion of dignity that will defend, above all, life, the miracle of human existence and the other forms that cohabit in that peace that we deserve, in union and collaboration with nature.
The 32nd International Poetry Festival of Medellin is convened and organized by the Prometeo Poetry Magazine and the World Poetry Movement. It is fundamentally sponsored by the Mayor's Office of Medellín and by the Ministry of Culture, through the National Cultural Cooperation Program, and the Caja de Compensación Familiar de Antioquia -COMFAMA- (Antioquia Family Compensation Fund). It is also supported by Confiar Cooperativa Financiera, the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), several international institutes for the dissemination of literature, such as: Norwegian Literature Abroad -NORLA-, the Dutch Foundation for Literature, the Alliance Française of Medellin and the French Institute. The embassies accredited in Colombia that have been linked are: Embassy of France, Embassy of Mexico, Embassy of Canada. In broadcasting, we have the support of: Telemedellin, Teleantioquia, UN Radio, Cámara FM, Radio Bolivariana, among other entities.
