Today (21st March) is World Poetry Day, so we are celebrating in style by sending our Young Poet Laureate to a huge event in our fellow City of Literature, Granada.
To mark this year’s World Poetry Day, Nottingham City of Literature and our colleagues across the globe are linking up to hold simultaneous literary events in 13 UNESCO Cities of Literature.
Nottingham will be marking the day with Nottingham’s Poet Laureate, Georgina Wilding, joining 60 other poets across Granada. A poet from Ljubljana City of Literature, Anja Golob, will also take part and the event will be attended by the Goodwill Ambassador for UNESCO Creative Cities, Italian poet Maria Francesca Merloni.
Celebrated yearly on March 21st, World Poetry Day is the occasion to honour poets and celebrate one of humanity’s most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic expression. Practiced throughout history – in every culture and on every continent – poetry speaks to our common humanity and our shared values, transforming the simplest of poems into a powerful catalyst for intercultural dialogue and peace. It is an art form that, more than any other, demonstrates the transformative power of words.
"By celebrating poetry today, we celebrate our ability to join together, in a spirit of solidarity and passion to ignite creativity and bring more poetry into the world" - Sandeep Mahal, Director, Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature
The following flagship events celebrating the breadth and diversity of the UNESCO Cities’ poets are taking place across the world on 21 March:
· A wealth of poetry activities will take place in Krakow including a walking Poetry Song Trail, a multi-poetry presentation of new poems projected on the façade of a building on Bracka St, and the programme announcement of this year’s Milosz Poetry Festival.
· Heidelberg House in Heidelberg´s French twin city Montpellier will present a poetic evening of German poetry and its impact on today’s French poetic artworks.
· Barcelona will host a visual poetry workshop and events with Maria Isern and Guillem Gavaldà, prize-winners of the Francesc Garriga Poetry Prize.
· Poetry events and artistic performances are taking place in Iowa City and Prague
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