Friday 9 June, Festive Opening Night

Poetry in the dark, chat bots, artificial intelligence, the alphabet of the future; on Friday, June 9, the Poetry International Festival is all about experimentation, because whether it's about the creation, form or presentation of poetry, things can always be surprisingly different. An adventurous evening for which Poetry is collaborating with Poetry Circle 010 and the Rotterdam art and architecture firm LIMINAAL and others. The evening begins with There is a poem for that!, the spectacular opening parade Poetry is known for. Directed by Rajiv 'The Chief' Bagwanbhali, all the festival poets will perform in surprising ways.   

Program outline

Poets  
After the opening, this evening sees one of the highlights of the festival, the performance by Ada Limón, the first Latinx Poet Laureate of the US. There will also be readings by Theophilus Kwek from Singapore and Greek poet Danae Sioziou, among others. In A poem in the dark, the lights go out and you'll notice how (differently) poetry comes in when you can only hear it.  

Talks 
In the Talks, festival poets and guests go into depth. Soft Machines: Poetry & A.I. probes the opportunities for artificial intelligence in poetry; AI generators can produce the craziest, most cryptic and poetic texts. Dichters & denkers (Poets & thinkers) explores the limits to the imagination. Walk out enlightened at the end of this engaging conversation between poets and philosophers.

There is a feature film for that! 
Every day the festival presents impressive poetic films, introduced by film experts or poets. Today you can see Petite Fille, an intimate documentary about the girl Sasha, born in a boy's body. You can visit the films with a day ticket or passe-partout, but you can also buy a separate ticket for them via the LantarenVenster website. 

In the foyer 
During the festival the foyer of LantarenVenster is buzzing. Enjoy performances and mini concerts, score your favorite anthologies and fine goodies at the Bosch&DeJong book stand or dance into the night. Today we present to you Holland's most swinging flautist and BoyEdgar Prize winner Ronald Snijders, theatrical spoken word performances by Poetry Circle 010 and records with dance guarantee by DJ Mike Willeijns. 

Workshops
During the festival you can participate in writing workshops in collaboration with The Writer's Guide (To The Galaxy) and of course the annual translation workshops with festival translators and poets. You will need a separate ticket to participate; the workshops will appear online soon.