34th International Poetry Festival of Medellín
Poetic Action, Celebration And Contemplation
The International Poetry Festival of Medellin has crossed intact a third of a century of changing history of the city and the country. With the theme Canto de Amor del Planeta (Love Song of the Planet), it will hold its next edition, with 75 activities between July 13 and 20, with the participation of 80 poets and 5 musicians from forty nations.
The international meeting will be inaugurated on Saturday July 13th, 4:30 p.m., at Teatro Carlod Vieco, Cerro Nutibara with the presence of the Ministers of Culture of Colombia and Honduras, Juan David Correa and Anarella Vélez Osejo, and with poetry readings by poets Carlos Vásquez (Colombia), MoAfrika wa Mokgathi (South Africa), Alexander Selimov (Russia), María Ángeles Pérez López (Spain), George Wallace (United States), Murad Sudani (Palestine) and Su Yang (People's Republic of China).
Fourteen Colombian poets were selected by call to take part in the Festival and will join the nearly fifty poets of the new generation who will read their poems and take part in the International Meeting of Young Poets convened by the World Poetry Movement, which will meet to consider the themes Globalization of Poetry through New Technologies and Poetry as an Expression of Human Solidarity.
The event, which is free of charge, will take place in open spaces such as the mythical Cerro Nutibara, parks and small squares, and in closed spaces including auditoriums, theaters and movie theaters, libraries, universities and schools, museums, cultural centers, cultural development centers and cooperatives in Medellín, Bello, Envigado, Itagüí, Sabaneta, Caldas, Girardota, Rionegro, La Ceja, Jericó, Cisneros, San Roque and in the villages of Santa Elena, Palmitas and Altavista.
HISTORY
The Festival exalts the dialogue between the cultures of the earth and the unity of the peoples of the world, being linked from its origins to the destiny of the Colombian society shaken by the extreme violence during the last decade of the twentieth century and more than two decades of the present century. In 2006 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award or Alternative Nobel Prize "for affirming and expressing the human values of beauty, creativity, freedom of expression and for his work with the community, in opposition to the fear and violence that prevail in Colombia and in the world even today".
The prestige of this international meeting, apologized in hundreds of publications around the world and considered since its beginnings as one of the greatest of its kind in the world, is based on the passionate affluence of its public that fills open and closed spaces day after day and that is nourished by the voices and spirit of great contemporary poets such as Soyinka, Enzensberger, Adonis, Gelman, Ko Un, Sorescu, Laabi, Simic, Satchidanandan, Gamoneda, Baraka, among eighteen hundred poets from one hundred and ninety-four countries who have taken part in the festival to celebrate life and contradict death. The beatnik poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti considered the Medellin International Poetry Festival to be the most important in the world in the last two decades. For his part, Nobel Literature Laureate Wole Soyinka said: "What we see in Medellin is the international expression of the solidarity of the followers of poetry, which is a way of manifesting this rapture of the audience. I can see that they also write poems and consider poets as a form of community, of their own community".
The great Chilean bard Gonzalo Rojas spoke of Medellin as a capital of poetry, epicenter of poetic thought, imagination, love and freedom. The Romanian Marin Sorescu said: "I believe that what happens with poetry in Medellin is linked to fantasy, it surpasses reality, that strengthens the confidence of poets in poetry. There are people who feel the need to breathe poetry. This fact means that our world has not lost its innocence. The Festival is very democratic, very friendly and keeps true inspiration alert. There is a very important filter for poetry here: the public. It is a very generous public, very competent, that sees in poetry a possibility to save itself, a public that gives courage to inspiration".
In the line of thought of the academic Enrique Yepes, in the era of profane consumption, the Festival recovers the sacred ritual and magic through the resource of the rhythmic word of the poem. The lost and rediscovered is this occasion to merge the intimate and the public through the silence and the intimacy of thousands who experience the double condition of the encounter as feast and contemplation. Celebration as participation and communion. Contemplation as silent dialogue with the spirit of the universe and with ourselves.
GUESTS
At the moment, the poets who have confirmed their participation in the event are: Abdulwahab Saleh Aloraid (Saudi Arabia), Djamel Belarbi, Fouzia Laradi (Algeria), Valeria Mussio (Argentina), Arturo Desimone (Aruba), Cyndi Celeste (Barbados), Maud Joiret (Belgium), Paura Rodriguez (Bolivia), Marcelo Reis (Brazil), Natasha Kanapé Fontaine (Innu Nation, Canada), Roberto Aedo (Chile), María Compás (Chile), Su Yang, Cao Shui, Cao Bo (People's Republic of China), Christine Peiying Chen (China/New Zealand), the Colombians: Alejandro Sanchez, Camilo Garzon, Camilo Gutierrez, Carlos Vasquez, Daniela Perez, Eliana Jaramillo, Elvira Alejandra Quintero, Geraldine Arroyave, Guillermo Torres (Julian Conrado), Javier Jayali, Jazmin Arroyave, Jens Gartner Gutiérrez, Juan Carlos Acevedo, Libardo Valdés, María Patricia Vengoechea, Mateo Vásquez, Simón André Chvatal Rendón, Sucy Valencia, Valeria Echavarría, Vanessa Torres (Colombia-United States), Nelson Simón (Cuba). Gaceta and Prometeo 2024 Magazine Award), Gladys Potosí Chuquín (Kichwa Nation, Ecuador), Ahmad Mohsen (Egypt), María Ángeles Pérez López (Spain), George Wallace, Matt Sedillo (United States), Sara Bourre (France), Danae Sioziou (Greece), Anarella Vélez Osejo (Honduras), Sonnet Mondal (India), Amien Kamil (Indonesia), Alireza Ghazveh (Iran), Mizuki Misumi (Japan), Mohamad Migdady (Jordan), Mona Kareem (Kuwait), Arvis Viguls (Latvia), Touria Majdouline (Morocco), Guadalupe Pastrana (Nàhuatl Nation, Mexico), Mónica Zepeda, Yasmin Alfaro (Mexico), Tolu Agbelusi (Nigeria), Gunel Movlud (Azerbaijan/Norway), Babs Gons (Netherlands), Murad Sudani (Palestine), Karuraqmi Puririnay (Peru), Isilda Nunes (Portugal), Alexander Selimov (Russia), Ladan Osman (Somalia-United States), Marko Miladinovic (Switzerland), MoAfrika wa Mokgathi (South Africa), Yuri Patiño (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela).
ALLIES
The event is convened and organized by Corporación de Arte y Poesía Prometeo and World Poetry Movement, with the support of the Special District of Science, Technology and Innovation of Medellin, the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Knowledge of Colombia, and the sponsorship of Caja de Compensación Familiar de Antioquia Comfama and Confiar Cooperativa Financiera, among others.
This is our invitation to follow in our networks the sequence of news about the Festival and programming that can be seen here only in Spanish
