21st poesiefestival berlin is taking place online - #planetpgoeson offers talks, panels, interviews, cross-regionally produced video formats and an e-learning educational programme

24.03.2020

Due to the worldwide Covid-19 crisis, the Haus für Poesie is holding the poesiefestival berlin online. We are going to make a virtual offering of all programme items available from 5 to 11 June in a form modified and redesigned for digital formats. Live streams, panels and an extensive media library will take the festival into the virtual world, accessible at home for everyone anywhere on the planet.

“We became painfully aware that we had to cancel the poesiefestival berlin in analogue space. But in such a worldwide crisis there may also lie an opportunity. Exceptional times require exceptional measures. And so we have decided not to cancel the festival altogether – we will carry on with it and it will happen online, rethought both technologically and aesthetically and not as a desperate substitute,” says Festival Director Dr. Thomas Wohlfahrt.

The Haus für Poesie and the festival team are convinced that cultural and social life should not come to a standstill even in a state of emergency. The ability of poetry to grasp reality with language means that it can speak directly to people and, as an adaptable genre, can react creatively to this crisis.

The online festival is an ambitious move, a challenge and an experiment because all the people involved are restricted in their movements. But it is also the chance to continue working with each other and producing important content at a time when the cancellation of events is threatening the livelihoods of many artists and others involved in creative and cultural fields.

The poesiefestival berlin offers, under the headline Planet P, an international programme with authors from four continents. This year’s country focus is directed at Canada.

The Haus für Poesie will keep the media informed of how things are progressing with regular updates on our website and in social media as well as in our press releases.

The poesiefestival berlin has been taking place since 2000 and is the biggest of its kind in Europe. As well as the book, poetry has long sought other forms of presentation and experiments with theatre, performance, music, dance, film and digital media. The festival enables poetry to be experienced in all its diversity of forms and welcomes up to 13,000 visitors each year.

The poesiefestival berlin is a project of the Haus für Poesie in co-operation with the Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste) and is sponsored by the Capital Cultural Fund (Hauptstadtkulturfonds).


FRI 5th – THU 11th of June 2020
21st poesiefestival berlin: Planet P
Online Edition #planetpgoeson

Social Media
Facebook @poesiefestivalberlin
Instagram @hausfuerpoesie

Website
haus-fuer-poesie.org/

Press images
haus-fuer-poesie.org/en/press/press-photos/

For enquiries and information
Haus für Poesie
Silvia Jackson
Head of Media and Public Relations
Tel: 030. 48 52 45 24
Email: presse@haus-fuer-poesie.org