Poetry comes to town

Poetry Week returns once again to fill the streets of Barcelona with verse. The festival begins on the 14th of May with the presentation of the Barcelona Jocs Florals Poetry Prize and the Memorial 1714 Extraordinary Award, and ends on the 20th with the Barcelona International Poetry Festival, in which six national and international poets with extensive careers will take to the stage of the Palau de la Música.

This programme for this edition boasts a number of special celebrations. One of these is the centenary of the birth of poet the Joan Vinyoli, which will take the form of an event entitled Vinyoli per Vinyoli, in which actor Lluís Soler will stage a representation of a retrospective of the Barcelona-born poet’s work. This year also marks the centenary of the publication of D’auques i ventalls and La paraula en el vent, by Josep Carner as well as Catalonia’s tercentenary celebrations, which will include special events such as a recital-performance based on the book Suite Barcelona (1710-1715), by Jordi Carrió. Other famous personalities such as Martín de Riquer and Joan Miró will also be paid tribute to in commemorative events.

Attention to dialectic variety will manifest itself in a recital entitled La somio completa, in which the voices of seven poets (Gabriel Sampol, Joan-Lluís Lluís, Hèctor Moret, Teresa Colom, Àlex Susanna, Antoni Coronzu and Teresa Pascual) from different regions will allow listeners to differentiate the accents of Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Rossellón, Andorra, La Franja de Aragón, Alghero and the Balearic Islands.

On an international note, Josep Maria Pou will recite poems of Edgar Allen Poe, various Catalan poets will pay tribute to Lou Reed and Shakespearean sonnets will be recited in the Teatre Akadèmia. The digital debate will be discussed in Poetry and technology, a series of conferences relating to the horizons which the new technologies have opened for the world of poetry. In addition, a number of civic centres, arts associations and libraries have programmed events designed to fill the city’s streets with verse.

The complete programme of events for the 14th to 20th of May can be found in the Setmana de la Poesia de Barcelona website.