Poetry Day / Poetry from a bird’s-eye perspective

PARTNEŘI

Dopravní podnik hl. m. Prahy, a.s.
British Council
Multikulturní centrum Praha
PEN klub Praha
Bohemia bagel
Maďarské kulturní středisko v Praze
Kosmas.cz
Čítárny
Arena reklamní a mediální agentura

INTRO

Most people associate poetry with spring – but perhaps we most need it in the dull, grey, misty autumn. This is why the date of the Poetry Day was set on the anniversary of the great Romantic poet K.H.Mácha on 16th November.

The 6th Poetry Day aims to celebrate poetry in our lives, it aims to ask questions about what poetry is, and it aims to enjoy poetry in many forms – the spoken word, theatre, performance, music, visual art, film.

There are events ranging from celebrations in schools to discussions about the nature of contemporary poetry in universities. Almost all of the events are in Czech – though there are also readings and performances in Romani, English, Scottish, Spanish and Hungarian. Many towns outside of Prague are participating in the celebrations - Děčín, Kroměříž, Plzeň, Ústi nad labem, Teplice, Vlachovo březí, Olomouc, Liberec, Pardubice, Mělník, Písek.

Almost all of the events are organised independently and are centrally publicised and coordinated by a loosely associated group of poetry lovers, mainly the organisers of the Poezie pro cestující project and Totem.cz. Please participate in this and in future poetry days.

A LITTLE HISTORY

The first Poetry Day in 1999 was organised by the literary and cultural Klub 8 and took place on the occasion of the launch of the Poezie pro cestující (Poetry for Travellers) project, which displayed poetry on Prague’s metro system, the 2nd celebrated Poetry in Places, experimenting with unexpected locations for poetry readings, the 3rd was called “Poetry beside us” and extended the range of participation, the 4th was called Places for Poetry/Poetry for places and focused on poetry inspired by place. Last year’s Poetry Day was a “Carnival” of poetry. This year’s theme – Poetry from a bird’s-eye perspective is perhaps simply asking that we try thinking about poetry from another angle from the usual.