Haus für Poesie

Hendrick Jackson

Sat. 2 June from 1 pm
In the City Districts, admission free
Berlin's poets take over the city. Summer readings in the city districts.

1 pm to 3 pm
Neukölln: open air. Outside the creative room at the 
Galerie im Körnerpark. With Norbert Lange, Jinn Pogy, Jan Skudlarek, Jan Wagner, Fiona Wright 

3 pm to 5 pm
Treptow-Köpenick: Wagendorf Lohmühle, Lohmühlenstraße, corner of Kiefholzstraße. If it rains, same place.
With Shane Anderson, Nora Bossong, Tom Bresemann, Catherine Hales, Björn Kuhligk, Ron Winkler, Mathias Traxler Jazz: Christopher Dell (vibraphone) / Christian Lillinger (drums)

3 pm to 4.30 pm
Tempelhof-Schöneberg: HAUS am KLEISTPARK,
Grunewaldstraße 6–7. If it rains, same place
With Norbert Hummelt, Hendrik Jackson, Nadja Küchenmeister, Dana Ranga, Tom Schulz, Asmus Trautsch

3 pm to 4 pm
Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf: Kurfürstendamm / corner of Uhlandstraße
With Simone Kornappel, Birgit Kreipe, Stephan Reich, Johann Reißer, Lutz Steinbrück

5 pm to 6.30 pm
Lichtenberg: Studio im Hochhaus, Zingster Straße 25. If it rains, same place.
With Rebecca Ciesielski, Max Czollek, Maria Natt, Friederike Scheffler, Ilja Winther

With the kind support of: Bereich Kultur Neukölln, Fachbereich Kunst, Kultur und Museen Tempelhof-Schöneberg, Kommunale Galerien, Fachbereich Kunst und Kultur Lichtenberg, Fachbereich Kultur Treptow-Köpenick, Kulturamt Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
Project leaders: Patrick Hutsch, Matthias Kniep

Michael Palmer

Sat. 2 June 5 pm 
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg, Clubraum, Admission € 5 / 3 
Event suitable for English Speakers

Michael Palmer poet and translator, USA, in conversation with Daniela Seel poet and publisher, Berlin

Michael Palmer is one of the best-known contemporary poets in the USA. He has published more than twenty books, which have been translated into many languages and garnered many awards, He is a multi-faceted writer and translator who has made a name for himself outside poetry as well, in music and dance theatre. This year a cross-section of his complete oeuvre has finally been published in German, translated by Rainer G. Schmidt, by KOOKbooks, Berlin. Michael Palmer's publisher, Daniela Seel, is herself a poet, and will be talking to him about his work and his poetics, his roots in L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry, his translations and his projects.

With the kind support of: the Embassy of the United States of America, The Mandala Hotel Project leader: Alexander Gumz

Yan Jun

Sat. 2 June 6.30 pm 
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg, Clubraum, Admission € 5/ 3
Event suitable for English speakers

Yan Jun poet, musician, China, in conversation with Lea Schneider poet and translator, Berlin

'For those who do headstands' is the title of one of Yan Jun's poems, and that sums up what this young poet, sound artist and musician is about. He combines poetry with electronic sounds, language experiment with social criticism. For him, not only are his poems political, but the very act of writing poems itself is a political act. Since 2001, Yan Jun has been the co-editor of the unofficial literary magazine Shu (Writing). He has published two books of verse, Cisheng Bo (Infrasound) in 2001 and Bu Keneng (Impossible) in 2006. In conversation with his German translator, Lea Schneider, he will be talking about the power of his three-dimensional words: energetic and full of self-irony, anger and courage.

Project leader: Isabel Ferrin-Aguirre

Jen Hadfield

Young poets on the crisis in Europe, on poetry and politics

What is left of the idea of Europe - apart from political symbolism and the mighty laws of the market? Is there still such a thing as a European attitude to life, a cultural dialogue, or is all that overshadowed by the current crisis? 
28 young poets from all EU countries (incl. Croatia) are writing a renshi, a chain poem, exclusively for the poesiefestival berlin, in which they deal in literary terms with questions concerning Europe's present and future.
Before they present the world première of their renshi in the evening, the poets will be taking part in five discussion groups to talk about writing it and its social, political and literary background.
Each of the five renshi groups will be in a Berlin embassy or cultural institute to talk about the realities of the countries in question, the relationship between poetry and politics in general and their experience of writing a collective socially critical poem.

Sat. 2 June 4 pm 
Instituto Cervantes Berlin – Rosenstr. 18-19, 10178 Berlin; Admission free* 
With Edward O’Dwyer Ireland Josep Pedrals Spain / Catalonia Sotos Stavrakis Cyprus and Christoph Szalay Austria

Sat. 2 June 4 pm 
Nordic Embassies – Rauchstr. 1, 10787 Berlin; Admission free* 
With Georgi Gospodinov Bulgaria Gregor Podlogar Slovenia Olga Ravn Denmark Katharina Schultens Germany and Gwenaëlle Stubbe Belgium
• Please register by 31 May at kultur@daenemark.org / Tel. 030. 50 50 22 01.

Sat. 2 June 4 pm 
Embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in Germany – 
Klingelhöferstr. 7, 10785 Berlin; Admission free*
With Filipa Leal Portugal Luigi Nacci Italy Maarja Kangro Estonia Tom Reisen Luxembourg Jenny Tunedal Sweden and  Zoltán Tolvaj Hungary
• Please register by 31 May at ann.muller@mae.etat.lu

Sat. 2 June 4 pm 
Institut français – Kurfürstendamm 211, 10719 Berlin, 
Salle Boris Vian, 4th floor; Admission free*
With Jean-Baptiste Cabaud France Svetlana Carstean Romania Gabrielė Labanauskaitė Lithuania Ester Naomi Perquin Netherlands Harry Salmenniemi Finland and Martin Solotruk Slovakia 
• Please register by 31 May at info@institutfrancais.de

Sat. 2 June 4 pm 
Greek Cultural Foundation, Berlin Branch
Wittenbergplatz 3 A, 10789 Berlin; Admission free 
With Claudia Gauci Malta Jen Hadfield Great Britain Jonáš Hájek Czech Republic Marko Pogačar Croatia Yannis Stiggas Greece and Arvis Viguls Latvia
Please reserve seats at info@griechische-kultur.de. Event will take place in English

These events are taking place with the cooperation of: EUNIC Berlin, Embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Royal Danish Embassy, Berlin
Project leaders: Alexander Gumz und Juliane Otto

* These events will take place in English with an German interpreter. 

Arvis Viguls Foto: Indans

Sat. 2 June 8 pm 
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg, Studio Admission: € 8 / 5
Event suitable for English speakers

With Jean-Baptiste Cabaud France Svetlana Carstean Romania Claudia Gauci Malta Georgi Gospodinov Bulgaria Jen Hadfield Great Britain Jonáš Hájek Czech Republic Maarja Kangro Estonia Gabrielė Labanauskaitė Lithuania Filipa Leal Portugal Luigi Nacci Italy Edward O'Dwyer Ireland Josep Pedrals Spain / Catalonia Ester Naomi Perquin Netherlands Gregor Podlogar Slovenia Marko Pogačar Croatia Olga Ravn Denmark Tom Reisen Luxembourg Harry Salmenniemi Finland Katharina Schultens Germany Martin Solotruk Slovakia Sotos Stavrakis Cyprus Yannis Stiggas Greece Gwenaëlle Stubbe Belgium Christoph Szalay Austria Zoltán Tolvaj Hungary Jenny Tunedal Sweden Arvis Viguls Latvia Agnieszka Wolny-Hamkało Poland. Evening hosted by Knut Elstermann journalist, Berlin

Europa is in the middle of an existential crisis. The dream of a unified continent is becoming a financial nightmare, with the visions of the founding fathers lying shattered amid neoliberal crisis management. Europe of its citizens is becoming the Europe of the bean counters. Only money matters, values are no longer important. The future of the idea of Europe is at stake.
For the poesiefestival berlin young poets from all 27 EU member states and the accession state Croatia are writing a renshi. In this chain poem they refer and relate to each other in literary terms, sounding out in their own artistic manner the highs and lows of Europe's many voices.  renshi.eu casts a critical eye, unclouded by market and political concerns, on what makes Europe tick now. On 2 June 2012, the poets will be presenting their work in a community poetic-political reading performance.
renshi.eu started in Greece, the epicentre of the current economic crisis but also the birthplace of European culture and democracy. Five groups of five or six  poets worked in the various countires in parallel on five different renshi strands, with each strand originating from a poem by Greek poet Yannis Stiggas.
Each part of the renshi was taken up by the next poet in line, varied, commented on. To finish, the chain poem then returned to its source, andYannis Stiggas wrote a final stanza for the five strands reflecting the traces his lines had left in the writing and thinking of the other poets.
The focus throughout was constantly on what the poets took in their countries to be Europe's status quo: international politics, day-to-day problems, but also the big designs, bedded on the figures and myths of this old and ever new idea. Using the previous poet as a starting point provided many diverse transformations revealing the characteristic features and power of the image-worlds, the density of allusion and the sounds of contemporary European verse. A polylog in poems has been created, a conversation on equal terms about past, present and future, about European values, crisis and utopia - a parliament of poets has convened. The European Parliament has undertaken patronage.

This is the place gentlemen

Many fathoms beneath nothingness
our hair 
enmeshed in its roots

my son my son Absalom

you will not have had a pendulum’s sway
as it is
we import time from Greenwich

because our time
has holes that are black and unfilled
you call out to love
and an echo comes back to you bloodied

it has myriad hands that were sliced off
not the hands of sculptures
   they later all 
turned to stone

Yannis Stiggas
(Translation: Peter Constantine)

A project as part of the poesiefestival berlin, under the patronage of the Europeanh Parliament, sponsored by the German Foreign Office, in cooperation with Literature Across Frontiers and the Education and Culture Dirctorate General of the European Commission and EUNIC Berlin and lyrikline.org, organised by the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin and its international partners:
Austria: Grazer Spielstätten GmbH, Belgium: International Center of Fine Arts Bozar, Bulgaria: Literaturen vestnik, Croatia: Croatian P.E.N. Centre, Cyprus: Ideogramma Czech Republic: Café Fra, Denmark: Danish Arts Council, Estonia: Estonian Literature Centre, Finland: Nuoren Voiman Liitto / Runokuu Festival, France: La passe du vent, Greece: Greek Culture Foundation, Hungary: Petöfi Irodalmi Múzeum, Ireland: Cuisle Limerick City International Poetry Festival, Italy: Absoluteville / Absolute Poetry, Latvia: Latvian Literature Centre, Lithuania: Koperator – The International Cultural Programme Centre, Luxembourg: Centre national de littérature, Malta: Inizjamed, Niederlande: Netherlands Letterenfonds / Dutch Foundation for Literature, Poland: Instytut Książki Kraków, Portugal: Casa Fernando Pessoa, Romania: Romanian Culture Institute Berlin, Sweden: Rámus förlag, Slovakia: Ars Poetica-International Poetry Festival, Slovenia: Days of Poetry and Wine, Spain: Propost.org, UK: Southbank Centre, London

With the kind support of: 
British Council, Bulgarian Embassy and Bulgarian Culture Institute Berlin, Embassy of the Republic of Estonia, Embassy of Ireland, Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in the Federal Republic of Germany, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, Embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus, Embassy of Spain, Royal Danish Embassy, Swedish Embassy, Berlin, Representation of the German-Speaking Community, of Wallonia and the Federation Wallonie Brussels, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Danish Arts Council, FILI Finnish Literature Exchange, Finland Institute in Germany, Greek Culture Foundation, Institut français Berlin, Institute Ramon Llull, Instituto Cervantes Berlin, Italian Culture Institute Berlin, Culture Ministry of Luxembourg, Austrian Culture Forum Berlin, Romanian Culture Institute Berlin, Slovakian Institute in Berlin, Czech Centre Berlin

Project leaders: Alexander Gumz und Juliane Otto