Article
Poetry International Festival 2009 diary
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June 14, 2009
Things are relatively quiet in the Rotterdam City theatre today, with the first public event today, the launch of They Came to See a Poet, a special box-set of 15 CDs featuring of audio recordings of Poetry International Festival, beginning this evening at 8pm.
Last night, however, the theatre was packed with poets from around the world, performers, editors, translators, organisers and audience members, among whom was Queen Beatrix, for the opening ceremony of the festival. Words, whether sung, spoken or written, were married with sound and music in an hour and a half long extravaganza of poetry and performance, beginning with the hard-hitting DAKOTA, a digital work by Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries with text set to percussion, and ending with the evocative music of De Kift, a Dutch band.
In between were poetry readings from some of the guest poets to the festival, including Kazuko Shiraishi (Japan), who read her poem, ‘The Tulip’s Ear’, from a long scroll, and Gert Vlok Nel who charmed the audience singing his beautiful ‘River’. The lyrics of three Johnny Cash songs took on new force in Äffi, a powerful solo dance triptych by Scapino, while, in a piece with four performers, four chairs and four chalkboards hooked up to microphones, Slagwerkgroep Den Haag interwove sound and text, investigating themes of free-expression, dialogue and fluidity of interpretation.
The event last night was shown on the PIW site via video live streaming. If you missed it, you can catch more performances this week. Visit the PIW Festival page to see the timetable.
You can also click here to watch a short YouTube video diary with highlights from the opening ceremony.
Monday, 15 June
Last night, the CD boxset of audio recordings from the last forty years of the festival, They Came to See a Poet, was launched with an event that included archive and audio video recordings along with live readings by poets whose voices feature in CDs. Ironically for an event that was all about the sound of the poet, one of the highlights was a reminder that poetry can be visual too, with a compelling translation into sign language of Herbert Zbigniew’s poem ‘Pebble’. Umberto Fiori (Italy) also gave an excellent talk about his recent reflections on modern European poetry and its divergence away from the oral tradition onto the page.
Many poets began their day this morning with a translation workshop, in which poets sit together, surrounded by dictionaries, working on the translation into their own language of a chosen poem.
Meanwhile, the Poetry International Web staff prepared for the filming of this year’s Poetry Clips, which we will be uploading on the site after editing. You will soon be able to watch short portraits of Matthew Sweeney, Sigitas Parulskis, Luke Davies, George Szirtes and Vera Pavlova. We will be doing more interviews and filmings throughout the week and look forward to publishing the results on the website.
Tonight we are looking forward to the digital poetry event, Bits of Poetry, which we will be live streaming on the PIW website from 20.00 to 21.00 CET.
This will be followed by live streaming of the international programme event with Yang Lian (China) Mourid Barghouti (Palestine) and Nachoem M. Wijnberg (Netherlands) from 21.30 to 22.30 CET.
The Poetry Clips have been sponsored by Eckhart Interior Design Group, Rotterdam. www.eckhart.nl.
Tuesday, 16 June
Poetry in the Afternoon
Luke Davies interviewed by Michael Brennan, editor of the Australian domain.
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Poetry Talk
George Szirtes interviewed by Judith Palmer, editor of the UK domain.
{newMp3Window url="media/original/c7/14825_090616_poetry_TA.mp3" title="George Szirtes / Judith Palmer"}
Wednesday, 17 June
The last few days have been busy and exciting. Yesterday we filmed more Poetry Clips which will be uploaded on the website after the festival. I’m looking forward to seeing the final edits of these short films which have been so enjoyable to make.
After filming, we watched Luke Davies in conversation with Australian PIW domain editor Michael Brennan in the Poetry in the Afternoon event in the foyer. Luke read from several poetry collections, including his most recent collection, Totem (an extract of which he also read for his Poetry Clip), and from his cult novel Candy. The talk gave an excellent overview of Luke’s life and writing, and a strong sense of his poetic impulses and preoccupations. Afterwards the audience was lucky enough to be able to watch an extract from a short film that Luke has just finished making as writer-director.
A little later, Judith Palmer, director of the Poetry Society, PIW’s UK domain partner, lead an insightful interview with George Szirtes, who is Hungarian-born but has resided in the UK since his childhood, and who writes in English. George has already also filmed a Poetry Clip with us, reading ‘My Father Carries Me Across a Field’, based on his memories of fleeing Hungary as a child.
The two international programmes last night featured Umberto Fiori, Gert Vlok Nel, Jacques Roubaud; and Arjen Duinker, Sigitas Parulskis and Piotr Sommer. A highlight among the readings of these poets, all of them compelling, was Jacques Roubaud’s surprisingly expressive and witty performance of ‘La Vie: Sonnet’, which is composed uniquely of two digits: 1 and 0.
Today PIW staff spent the day in a meeting with all visiting domain editors and potential new partners to the website. There were some very lively and important discussions about the website and its future direction and it was wonderful to have all editors together round one table, speaking to each other face to face rather than via email, and bringing up important questions about how we can make PIW better and better.
Poetry Talk
Presentation of POEZIJA magazine
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Thursday, 18 June
Poetry Talk
Kazuko Shiraishi interviewed by Yasuhiro Yotsumoto, editor of the Japanese domain.
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Friday, 19 June
The end of the festival is approaching, and while it might be a relief to return to normal life after a hectic week, it will also be sad to say goodbye to all the people who have converged in Rotterdam from so many places, all with poetry as the focal point.
Last night the two international events were both excellent, with Bei Dao (China), Maura Dooley (UK) and Kazuko Shiraishi (Japan) reading at 20.00 hrs in the main theatre, and Luke Davies (Australia), L. F. Rosen (Netherlands) and Valzhyna Mort (Belarus) reading at 21.30 hrs in the small theatre. Some audience members had seen Kazuko Shiraishi in conversation earlier in the evening with PIW Japan editor Yasuhiro Yosumoto, who asked her about her experiences growing up in Vancouver, and then in Japan, as a young girl. Later in the evening, she read her poems to musical accompaniment from her friend and colleague, the musician Itaru Oki. As an entr’acte in the small theatre, the solo violinist Liza Ferschtman stunned the audience music by Belgium composer Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe. It was also a delight to listen to Valzhyna Mort's expressive readings in Belrusian.
I’m off to watch the results of the translation workshops now, followed a little later by a Poetry Talk with Don Share talking to Vera Pavlova and Dunya Mikhail.
Poetry Talk
Dunya Mikhail and Vera Pavlova interviewed by Don Share, senior editor of Poetry magazine in Chicago.
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Monday, 22 June
It feels strange not dashing around the theatre, knowing that all the posters and books and art installations have been packed away, that all the guest poets have left Rotterdam for their homes around the world. The festival ended on a series of high points: the Itinerant Poetry Library signed up its 1000th Valued Patron at about 7.45 pm on Friday evening; audience members divided themselves between two international poetry events at 8 pm, and everyone reconverged for the closing event and launch of the anthology of poems written during the last 40 years of the festival, Kijk, het heeft gewaaid. Poets including Dunya Mikhail, Vera Pavlova and George Szirtes read poems and translations they had worked on during the festival; the Poetry Clip of Maura Dooley was screened; Wolter Wierbos entertained us with his solo trombone improvisations; Luke Davies and Matthew Sweeney presented the strange results of the Chinese Whispers translation project with a great deal of wry humour. Afterwards there was much dancing and celebration well into the light early hours of the next morning.
NOW AVAILABLE: POETRY CLIPS 2009
Sunday, 14 JuneThings are relatively quiet in the Rotterdam City theatre today, with the first public event today, the launch of They Came to See a Poet, a special box-set of 15 CDs featuring of audio recordings of Poetry International Festival, beginning this evening at 8pm.
Last night, however, the theatre was packed with poets from around the world, performers, editors, translators, organisers and audience members, among whom was Queen Beatrix, for the opening ceremony of the festival. Words, whether sung, spoken or written, were married with sound and music in an hour and a half long extravaganza of poetry and performance, beginning with the hard-hitting DAKOTA, a digital work by Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries with text set to percussion, and ending with the evocative music of De Kift, a Dutch band.
In between were poetry readings from some of the guest poets to the festival, including Kazuko Shiraishi (Japan), who read her poem, ‘The Tulip’s Ear’, from a long scroll, and Gert Vlok Nel who charmed the audience singing his beautiful ‘River’. The lyrics of three Johnny Cash songs took on new force in Äffi, a powerful solo dance triptych by Scapino, while, in a piece with four performers, four chairs and four chalkboards hooked up to microphones, Slagwerkgroep Den Haag interwove sound and text, investigating themes of free-expression, dialogue and fluidity of interpretation.
The event last night was shown on the PIW site via video live streaming. If you missed it, you can catch more performances this week. Visit the PIW Festival page to see the timetable.
You can also click here to watch a short YouTube video diary with highlights from the opening ceremony.
Monday, 15 June
Last night, the CD boxset of audio recordings from the last forty years of the festival, They Came to See a Poet, was launched with an event that included archive and audio video recordings along with live readings by poets whose voices feature in CDs. Ironically for an event that was all about the sound of the poet, one of the highlights was a reminder that poetry can be visual too, with a compelling translation into sign language of Herbert Zbigniew’s poem ‘Pebble’. Umberto Fiori (Italy) also gave an excellent talk about his recent reflections on modern European poetry and its divergence away from the oral tradition onto the page.
Many poets began their day this morning with a translation workshop, in which poets sit together, surrounded by dictionaries, working on the translation into their own language of a chosen poem.
Meanwhile, the Poetry International Web staff prepared for the filming of this year’s Poetry Clips, which we will be uploading on the site after editing. You will soon be able to watch short portraits of Matthew Sweeney, Sigitas Parulskis, Luke Davies, George Szirtes and Vera Pavlova. We will be doing more interviews and filmings throughout the week and look forward to publishing the results on the website.
Tonight we are looking forward to the digital poetry event, Bits of Poetry, which we will be live streaming on the PIW website from 20.00 to 21.00 CET.
This will be followed by live streaming of the international programme event with Yang Lian (China) Mourid Barghouti (Palestine) and Nachoem M. Wijnberg (Netherlands) from 21.30 to 22.30 CET.
The Poetry Clips have been sponsored by Eckhart Interior Design Group, Rotterdam. www.eckhart.nl.
Tuesday, 16 June
Poetry in the Afternoon
Luke Davies interviewed by Michael Brennan, editor of the Australian domain.
{newMp3Window url="media/original/d0/14824_Poetry_in_the_af.mp3" title="Luke Davies / Michael Brennan"}
Poetry Talk
George Szirtes interviewed by Judith Palmer, editor of the UK domain.
{newMp3Window url="media/original/c7/14825_090616_poetry_TA.mp3" title="George Szirtes / Judith Palmer"}
Wednesday, 17 June
The last few days have been busy and exciting. Yesterday we filmed more Poetry Clips which will be uploaded on the website after the festival. I’m looking forward to seeing the final edits of these short films which have been so enjoyable to make.
After filming, we watched Luke Davies in conversation with Australian PIW domain editor Michael Brennan in the Poetry in the Afternoon event in the foyer. Luke read from several poetry collections, including his most recent collection, Totem (an extract of which he also read for his Poetry Clip), and from his cult novel Candy. The talk gave an excellent overview of Luke’s life and writing, and a strong sense of his poetic impulses and preoccupations. Afterwards the audience was lucky enough to be able to watch an extract from a short film that Luke has just finished making as writer-director.
A little later, Judith Palmer, director of the Poetry Society, PIW’s UK domain partner, lead an insightful interview with George Szirtes, who is Hungarian-born but has resided in the UK since his childhood, and who writes in English. George has already also filmed a Poetry Clip with us, reading ‘My Father Carries Me Across a Field’, based on his memories of fleeing Hungary as a child.
The two international programmes last night featured Umberto Fiori, Gert Vlok Nel, Jacques Roubaud; and Arjen Duinker, Sigitas Parulskis and Piotr Sommer. A highlight among the readings of these poets, all of them compelling, was Jacques Roubaud’s surprisingly expressive and witty performance of ‘La Vie: Sonnet’, which is composed uniquely of two digits: 1 and 0.
Today PIW staff spent the day in a meeting with all visiting domain editors and potential new partners to the website. There were some very lively and important discussions about the website and its future direction and it was wonderful to have all editors together round one table, speaking to each other face to face rather than via email, and bringing up important questions about how we can make PIW better and better.
Poetry Talk
Presentation of POEZIJA magazine
{newMp3Window url="media/original/59/14828_090617_poetry_po.mp3" title="Presentation of POEZIJA magazine"}
Thursday, 18 June
Poetry Talk
Kazuko Shiraishi interviewed by Yasuhiro Yotsumoto, editor of the Japanese domain.
{newMp3Window url="media/original/54/14827_090618_poetry_TA.mp3" title="Kazuko Shiraishi / Yasuhiro Yotsumoto"}
Friday, 19 June
The end of the festival is approaching, and while it might be a relief to return to normal life after a hectic week, it will also be sad to say goodbye to all the people who have converged in Rotterdam from so many places, all with poetry as the focal point.
Last night the two international events were both excellent, with Bei Dao (China), Maura Dooley (UK) and Kazuko Shiraishi (Japan) reading at 20.00 hrs in the main theatre, and Luke Davies (Australia), L. F. Rosen (Netherlands) and Valzhyna Mort (Belarus) reading at 21.30 hrs in the small theatre. Some audience members had seen Kazuko Shiraishi in conversation earlier in the evening with PIW Japan editor Yasuhiro Yosumoto, who asked her about her experiences growing up in Vancouver, and then in Japan, as a young girl. Later in the evening, she read her poems to musical accompaniment from her friend and colleague, the musician Itaru Oki. As an entr’acte in the small theatre, the solo violinist Liza Ferschtman stunned the audience music by Belgium composer Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe. It was also a delight to listen to Valzhyna Mort's expressive readings in Belrusian.
I’m off to watch the results of the translation workshops now, followed a little later by a Poetry Talk with Don Share talking to Vera Pavlova and Dunya Mikhail.
Poetry Talk
Dunya Mikhail and Vera Pavlova interviewed by Don Share, senior editor of Poetry magazine in Chicago.
{newMp3Window url="media/original/a7/14826_090619_poetry_TA.mp3" title="Dunya Mikhail, Vera Pavlova / Don Share"}
Monday, 22 June
It feels strange not dashing around the theatre, knowing that all the posters and books and art installations have been packed away, that all the guest poets have left Rotterdam for their homes around the world. The festival ended on a series of high points: the Itinerant Poetry Library signed up its 1000th Valued Patron at about 7.45 pm on Friday evening; audience members divided themselves between two international poetry events at 8 pm, and everyone reconverged for the closing event and launch of the anthology of poems written during the last 40 years of the festival, Kijk, het heeft gewaaid. Poets including Dunya Mikhail, Vera Pavlova and George Szirtes read poems and translations they had worked on during the festival; the Poetry Clip of Maura Dooley was screened; Wolter Wierbos entertained us with his solo trombone improvisations; Luke Davies and Matthew Sweeney presented the strange results of the Chinese Whispers translation project with a great deal of wry humour. Afterwards there was much dancing and celebration well into the light early hours of the next morning.
© Sarah Ream
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