Barcelona Poesia: A Large-Scale Literary Festival
The city of Barcelona is hosting the 27th edition of the Barcelona Poesia festival, an event that has established itself as a cultural benchmark on the Barcelona agenda. For one week, the festival will offer a wide range of poetic activities, with the participation of more than 130 poets of national and international renown.
This edition of Barcelona Poesia has been designed to satisfy the most diverse poetic sensibilities, exploring the different literary currents and the richness of the poetic fact. The festival will have about forty parallel proposals that will take place throughout the month of May.
A Spectacular Opening
The starting gun of the festival will be given by the Mallorcan writer Antònia Vicens, who will deliver the inaugural address under the title ‘Tears, Oil, Salt’, which will take the form of a prayer in honor of poetry. The event will take place on Wednesday, May 15 at 7 p.m. in Paral·lel room 62.
The opening day will continue with the show ‘Barcelona Ratafia’, a humorous proposal that will bring together some of Catalonia’s most renowned poets on the stage of the Raval room. Mireia Calafell, Marina de Cabo, Jordi Solà, Hug Casals, Irene Tarrés and Joan Tomàs Martínez will share their verses with actors and actresses Núria Martínez-Vernis, Oriol Sauleda, Núria Coromines, Frances Ribes Renshaw and Quimet Pla.
The finishing touch to the opening day will be the performance of Lydia Lunch, an icon of spoken poetry and American counterculture since the 1970s. The New York artist will present her poetic-musical performance ‘Rise Above’, accompanied by Ian White’s percussion improvisation.
A Luxury Poster
In addition to Lydia Lunch, the festival will feature the participation of prominent poets such as Anja Golob, Raquel Santanera, Francisco Ferrer Lerín and Raquel Lima. Among the names that stand out in the program is also Joseba Sarrionandia, one of the most relevant Basque writers in literature written in Basque.
Sarrionandia is not only known for his literary side, but also for his political militancy. In 1980 he was sentenced to 22 years in prison for belonging to the ETA organization, but five years later he escaped from the Martutene prison hiding in a loudspeaker after a concert by the singer Imanol Larzabal. His escape was immortalized in the song ‘Sarri, sarri’ by the punk group Kortatu.
Another writer who has suffered repression for his ideas is Abdellatif Laâbi, Moroccan poet, founder of the magazine ‘Souffles’ and a key figure in the literary and cultural renewal of the Maghrib. Laâbi was arrested for his opposition to the regime and sentenced to ten years in prison. Following his release in 1980, he went into exile in France, where he currently resides.
Beyond Written Poetry
Barcelona Poesia also offers other attractive proposals, such as the production and premiere of ‘Titó. 46 Minuts in the life of l’alba’, a show based on a poem by the English writer Alice Oswald. The work stars the Irish poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin and the Mallorcan singer and songwriter Mar Grimalt, fusing poetry and music.
The festival also includes a program of musical recitals that offer various perspectives on poetry. Among them, ‘Xant de Cabrota’ stands out, with mimologies, myths and traditional voices from the Pyrenees, and ‘Verger desclòs’, which brings together the artist and poet Perejaume and the Mallorcan poet and novelist Carles Rebassa.