Event: June 2021

Fri 11/6/21
to
Thu 17/6/21

poesiefestival.org

22nd poesiefestival berlin: There lies Europe

Event-Picture: 22nd poesiefestival berlin: There lies Europe Gestaltung (c) studio stg
Design (c) studio stg

Festival

Under the heading There lies Europe, the 22nd poesiefestival berlin from 11 to 17 June 2021 is investigating the poetry of Europe in all its diversity of forms and languages, and in spite of the pandemic is building poetic bridges across the continent. Multilingualism, the ambivalence of language policymakers to the languages, migration and diaspora – these are the thematic lines along which the Festival will be putting Europe to the test and finding common denominators through poetry. The Festival will be taking place online at poesiefestival.org.

150 poets from around 40 countries will be coming together during the Festival in digital readings, talks, concerts and workshops. Some of the videos will be filmed in Berlin, with others cut together and elaborately post produced from digital discussions or submissions from around the world. In addition, 70 interviews, essays and anthology contributions will be posted as text content on the Festival website to provide a deeper experience. From 1 June to the end of the Festival, Festival visitors will have the opportunity to write together about the continent’s possible futures in a collective live poem. And this will be joined by other participative live formats during the Festival as well.

Complete programme and advance ticket sales at poesiefestival.org

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PROGRAMME

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FRI 11.6. | 8 pm

Reading & Performance

WELTKLANG – NIGHT OF POETRY   

The wealth of contemporary poetry in all its diversity of content and range of its styles is on display in the polyphonic opening of the Festival. Poets from all parts of the world read, sing and perform in their native languages. With Ichiko Aoba (JAP) | Ben Lerner (USA) | Hannah Lowe (GBR) | Valzhyna Mort (BLR/USA) | Chus Pato (Galicia/ESP) | Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (NLD) | Marko Tomaš (BIH) | Peter Waterhouse (AUT) | Judith Zander (DEU) | Hosted by: Christian Metz (DEU)

Poetry talks with the poets will be posted on poesiefestival.org as conversations in writing.

 

SAT 12.6. | 2 pm

FORUM: EUROPE‘S DIVERSITY HAS NO SKIN

2 pm

Lecture

MULTICULTURAL EUROPE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Can Dündar (DEU/TUR) casts an eye in his lecture on Europe’s (linguistic) diversity from its position as Turkey’s next-door neighbour and the internal view of an exile living in Europe.

4 pm

Panel discussion

ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE IN ALL KINDS OF LANGUAGES: DIAGNOSES OF EUROPE’S TONGUES

Where do the possibilities and difficulties in Europe’s plurality of languages lie? A discussion about ambivalences in the wealth of languages, its social and political dimensions as well as translation tasks for the EU. With Kristina Cunningham (SWE) | Levke King-Elsner (DEU) | Jürgen Trabant (DEU) | Zoltán Danyi (SRB) | Hosted by: Asmus Trautsch (DEU)

6 pm

Talk & Reading

DELICATE PATHS IN THE GARDEN OF LANGUAGES

Europe’s ‘small’ languages are in the spotlight here – Ladin, Occitanian, Macedonian, Southern Sámi and Welsh. With Roberta Dapunt (ITA) | Aurélia Lassaque (FRA) | Nikola Madzirov (MKD) | Johan Sandberg McGuinne (SWE) | Elan Grug Muse (GBR) | Hosted by: Asmus Trautsch (DEU)

 

SAT 12.6. | 8 pm

Electronic Music & Talk

MIRA MANN AND ROSACEAE

Both Mira Mann and the music project Rosaceae by Leyla Yenirce work both aesthetically and in their content with boundaries and borders, figurations of resistance and tonal aspects of the most various structures of domination. On this evening they will be presenting and discussing their audio-visual productions. With Rosaceae (DEU) | Mira Mann (DEU) | Hosted by: Kristoffer Cornils (DEU)

 

SUN 13.6. | 6 pm

Talk & Reading

LANGUAGE ARCHIPELAGO I: FORMER-YU – OUR LANGUAGE(S)

Are Bosnian, Montenegrin, Croatian and Serbian ultimately just variants of a ‘common’, pluricentric language, or are they languages in their own right after all? Does a language area end at national borders? What are the consequences when nationalism divides a language? Poets from three post-Yugoslav states discuss the role of language, especially as it affects poetry. With Senka Marić (BIH) | Ivana Bodrožić (HRV) | Kralj Čačka (SRB) | Dejan Ilić (SRB) | Hosted by: Mascha Dabić (AUT)

Essay and interviews with the poets will be posted on poesiefestival.org.

 

SUN 13.6. | 8 pm

Lecture

BERLIN POETRY LECTURE 2021: JOHANNES JANSEN

Johannes Jansens (DEU) Poetry Lecture entitled ‘Ergebnis einer Isolation’ (‘Outcome of an Isolation’) is a text in 34 prose miniatures, in which a poetics of the state of emergency is sketched out. The Lecture will be published in German and English by Wallstein Verlag.

 

MON 14.6. | 6 pm

Talk & Reading

LANGUAGE ARCHIPELAGO II: LUST FOR LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE WAR IN SPAIN

Castilian Spanish, Catalan, Asturian, Basque, Galician: poets discuss Spain’s plurality of languages, a historical fact and today politically instrumentalised, in terms of its meaning for poetry and the mainstream Spanish literature industry. With María Callís Cabrera (Catalonia/ESP) | Sofía Castañón (Asturia/ESP) | Olvido García Valdés (Castile/ESP) | Teresa Irastortza (Basque Country/ESP) | Chus Pato (Galicia/ESP) | Hosted by: Dr. Cecilia Dreymüller (DEU)

Essay and interviews with the poets will be posted on poesiefestival.org.

 

MON 14.6. | 8 pm

Talk & Reading

UNHEARD POETRY – BLACK EUROPE

Initiated by the Haus für Poesie, an anthology is being published by Verlag Das Wunderhorn bringing together 32 Black European poets in German translation. Four of them come together in a discussion about poetry and the meaning of Blackness and read their poems. With Johannes Anyuru (SWE) | Radna Fabias (NLD) | Roger Robinson (GBR) | Victoria Adukwei Bulley (GBR) | Fiston Mwanza Mujila (AUT), Curator and Editor | Hosted by: Olumide Popoola (GBR)

 

TUE 15.6. | 6 pm

Talk & Reading

LANGUAGE ARCHIPELAGO III: MINORITIES, LANGUAGES AND REPRESENTATIONS IN ROMANIA

What is the situation of minority languages in Romania before and after 1990, in the tug-of-war between linguistic nationalism and the deconstruction of the national idea? Poets explore this question as far as it concerns Romanian poetry. With Radu Vancu (ROU) | Claudiu Komartin (ROU) | Teodora Coman (ROU) | Hosted by: Ernest Wichner (ROU/DEU)

Essay and interviews with the poets will be posted on poesiefestival.org.

 

TUE 15.6. | 8 pm

Talk & Reading

VERSSCHMUGGEL/ reVERSible BELARUS – GERMANY

This year’s VERSschmuggel/reVERSible translation workshop culminates in a reading in three languages (Belarusian, Russian and German). Six poets from Belarus work with six poets from the German-speaking countries. Here they will be presenting their poems and their translation processes. With Julia Cimafiejeva (BLR) | Özlem Özgül Dündar (DEU) | Jonis Hartmann (DEU) | Andrei Khadanovich (BLR) | Uladzimir Liankievič (BLR) | Maryja Martysievič (BLR) | Andre Rudolph (DEU) | Daniela Seel (DEU) | Tania Skarynkina (BLR) | Ulf Stolterfoht (DEU) | Dmitri Strotsev (BLR) | Uljana Wolf (DEU) | Hosted by: Karolina Golimowska (DEU)

 

MI 16.6. | 6 pm

Talk & Reading

LANGUAGE ARCHIPELAGO IV: CASPIAN SEA – IS THAT EVEN EUROPE STILL?

Europe thought of as a cultural space: the Caspian regions are also influenced by Islamic European poetic traditions. The poets who call them home hold a discussion about Neo-Orientalism, Self-Exoticisation, topographical cul de sacs and queer Islamic poetry. With Shamshad Abdullaev (UZB) | Egana Djabbarova (RUS/AZE) | Nicat Mammadov (AZE) | Kanat Omar (KAZ) | Hosted by: Hendrik Jackson (DEU)

Essay and interviews with the poets will be posted on poesiefestival.org. 

 

WED 16.6. | 8 pm

Reading

QUEER-BODIED VOICES

While acceptance of non-heteronormative sexualities and identities is growing in many countries in Europe, social and political discrimination is increasing in equal measure elsewhere. Queer poets discuss the role of poetry in the current situation and talk about bodies, poetry and identity. With Jay Bernard (GBR) | Eduard Escoffet (ESP) | Judith Kiros (SWE) | Jacek Dehnel (POL) | Anna Hetzer (DEU) | Hosted by: Ricardo Domeneck (BRA)

Essay and interviews with the poets will be posted on poesiefestival.org.

 

THU 17.6. | 6 pm

Talk & Reading

LANGUAGE ARCHIPELAGO V: POETRY AND SELF-PERCEPTION IN THE BALTIC

Is there such a thing as a specifically “Baltic” identity? What are the influences that mark poetry and cultural self-perception in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Russia? Poets from various countries in the region take a look at the literatures and their languages. With Vaiva Grainyté (LTU) | Maarja Kangro (EST) | Aleksandr Skidan (RUS) | Sergey Timofejev (LVA) | Hosted by: Marie Luise Knott (DEU)

Essay and interviews with the poets will be posted on poesiefestival.org.

 

THU 17.6. | 8 pm

Performance

POETS‘ EVENING #8: COMMUNION OF THE ABSENT

The pandemic has brought communal poetic discourse, like so many other things, to a standstill. Poets read their texts in an installation by Chiharu Shiota; pianist Aki Takase and dancer Yui Kawaguchi react. Together they make what is absent present again. With Yoko Tawada (JAP/DEU) | Marion Poschmann (DEU) | Ursula Krechel (DEU) | Ulf Stolterfoht (DEU) | Jan Wagner (DEU)

 

PROGRAMME OF POETIC EDUCATION

THU 11.6. | 10 am–4 pm

Reading and workshop for poetry dissemination

EXCHANGE TRADE – FREIGHTED THROUGH LIGHT with Claudia Maaß | Karin Fellner | Dorothée Billard

Participants in this seminar for poetry disseminators can learn via ZOOM current procedures for analysing and disseminating contemporary poetry, taking as an example Karin Fellner’s work ‘Tauschhandel –Durchlichtert’.

 

TUE 9.6.– FRI 12.6.

Exhibition & events

FROM MARRAKESH TO BAGHDAD – ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE ARABIC WORLD

This travelling exhibition shows works by artists from the Arabic-speaking countries. They can be admired in the gallery spaces of LesArt and experienced online in events.

 

SAT 12.6+SUN 13.6. | both days 3 pm

Readings & discussion

BULLSEYES: OPEN POEMS AND YOUNG POEMS

Each month in the young poems and open poems poetry workshops, the next generation of poets work together on their own poems, try out text production manoeuvres and put contemporary poetics under the microscope. They round off their apprenticeship year with a reading on Zoom. Led by: Birgit Kreipe (DEU) | Uljana Wolf (DEU)

The anthology from the young poems and open poems workshops is posted on poesiefestival.org.

 

MON 14.6. | 10 am–12 pm

Workshop Classes 8–10

HOW COME BORDERS THAT DIVIDE US UNITE US? with Bas Böttcher

What is the meaning of Europe and how can it evolve? Under the guidance of the poet and Spoken Word Artist these questions are explored with a whole lot of rhythm and wordplay.

 

TUE 15.6. | 9–10.30 am

Workshop Classes 5–6

MY THOUGHTGIFT – EUROPE 2031 with Eva Stollreiter

Time for philosophy! Here the big ideas Future and Europe are trimmed to thinking and writing size.

 

TUE 15.6. | 10 am–12 pm

Workshop Classes 1–3

COLOURS IN THE POEM with Tanja Dückers

The writer and educator tells stories from her book ‘Katzenaugen-grüne-Trauben-Blitzer-Glitzer-Geistergrün’ and leads into participants’ own colour and poetry games.

 

TUE 1.6.–THU 17.6.

Collective online document

COLLECTIVE CHAIN POEM ON THE CONTINENT’S FUTURES

There lies Europe (2031 edition): write with us right through the Festival on a collective chain poem on Europe in 2031. Any kind of poetry, in any language. Our poeticising colleagues in the Haus für Poesie will be looking after the document round the clock and creating community between text and text.

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Every summer, Berlin is transformed for ten days into a stronghold of poetry. 150 poets from around the world come to the poesiefestival berlin and present current trends in contemporary poetic art. The Festival enables poetry to be experienced in all its diversity of forms and welcomes up to 13,000 visitors each year. As in 2020 already, the Festival will be taking place online this year.

The 22nd poesiefestival berlin is a project by the Haus für Poesie in cooperation with the Academy of Arts. Funded by the Capital Cultural Fund and the Federal Foreign Office. It gratefully acknowledges the kind support of the Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG and the Goethe-Institut. Presented by Der Freitag, taz, BÜCHERmagazin, tip Berlin/ EXBERLINER, rbbKultur, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, ASK HELMUT and SINN UND FORM.

 

Entrance fee:
3€ oder 19€ Festivalpass