Founding group of the World Poetry Movement (WPM)
At the 21º Medellin Poetry Festival, directors of 37 Poetry Festivals worldwide have conducted a 5-day meeting on the status of poetry and poetry festivals across the world, analyzing and discussing human concerns and issues regarding difficulties and achievements as part of local organizations promoting poetry in each of our cities and countries.
The first sessions discussed the relationship between poetry and peace and reconstruction of the human spirit, nature reconciliation and recovery, unity and cultural diversity of the peoples, material misery and poetic justice, and actions to take towards the globalization of poetry.
Participants decided to establish the World Poetry Movement, whose main purpose would be to increase cooperation between poetry festivals, thus strengthening our collective voice.
The World Poetry Movement recognizes that:
• Poetryprovides meaningful insights into the human condition.
• Contrary to the idea that languages divide the world, it is precisely the diversity of languages that enriches poetry festivals.
• The World Poetry Movement will strengthen each festival in their local and global approach to their challenges and concerns.
• The exceptional connection with the public evidenced in the Medellin Poetry Festivalhighlights the value ofpoetry reachingpeople.
Main objectives of the World Poetry Movement are:
• That all poets, poetry initiatives and organizations are invited to join the World Poetry Movement.
• To promote the growth of poetry festivals across the world in all their diversity.
• To enhance communication between poetry festivals and poetry organizations.
• To promote the development of poetry schools and poetry initiatives.
• To explore audience development initiatives to broaden publics and access to poetry.
• To address issues such as publishing, translation and the general concerns of poets worldwide.
This movement begins a significant process that goes beyond individual concerns and creates exciting possibilities for poets and poetry events worldwide – we stand with humility and care for the birth of this new project.
Founding festivals are:
Tomás Arias, representative of Barcelona Poesía (Spain)
Kwame Dawes, representative of Calabash International Literary Festival
Sixto Cabrera, representative of Encuentro Latinoamericano de Poesía en Veracruz (Mexico)
José María Memet, director del Encuentro Internacional de Poetas ChilePoesía
Otoniel Guevara, poet and director del Encuentro Internacional de Poetas El Turno del Ofendido (El Salvador)
Fernando Rendón, Gabriel Jaime Franco, Jairo Guzmán and y Gloria Chvatal, representatives of Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín (Colombia)
Alex Pausides, poet and director of Festival Internacional de Poesía de La Habana (Cuba)
Fernando Valverde, poet and director of Festival Internacional de Poesía de Granada (Spain)
Gaston Bellemare, director of Festival International de la Poèsie de Trois-Rivières (Canada)
Amir Or, poet and director of the International Poetry Festival Sha’ar (Israel)
Iryna Vikyrchak, poet and executive director of The International Poetry Festival
Meridian Czernowitz (Ukraine)
Lello Voce, poet and representative of International Poetry Festival RomaPoesía and Absolute Poetry (Italy)
Rira Abbasi, director of International Festival of Peace Poetry (Irán)
Graciela Araoz, poet and director of Festival Internacional de Poesía de Buenos Aires (Argentina)
José Mármol, poet and director of Festival Internacional de Poesía de RepúblicaDominicana
Giovanni Gómez, poet and director of Festival Internacional de Poesía Luna de Locos (Pereira, Colombia)
Aaron Rueda, representative of the Festival Iberoamericano de Poesía “Salvador Díaz Mirón” (Mexico)
Rodolfo Dada, poet and representative of Festival Internacional de Poesía de Costa Rica
Rigoberto Paredes, poet and director of Festival Internacional de Poesía de Honduras
Lucy Cristina Chau, poet and director of Festival Internacional de Poesía Ars Amandi (Panama)
Marvin García, poet and director del Festival Internacional de Poesía de Quetzaltenango (Guatemala)
Vilma Reyes and Vicente Rodríguez Nietzche, poet, and representative del Festival Internacional de Poesía de Puerto Rico
Rafael del Castillo and Fernando Linero, poets and representatives of Festival Internacional de Poesía de Bogotá (Colombia)
Gabriel Impaglioni, poet and director of Festival Internacional de Poesía Palabra en el Mundo (Argentina/Italy)
Ataol Behramoglu, poet and organizer of International Poetry Festival of Smirna (Turkey)
Rati Saxena, poet and director of Krytia International Poetry Festival (India)
Thomas Wolfhart, director of Literaturwerkstatt Berlin (Germany)
Endre Ruset, poet and director of Norsk Litteraturfestival (Norway)
Regina Dyck, director of Poetry on the Road (Bremen, Germany)
Peter Rorvik, director of Poetry Africa (South Africa)
Bas Kwakman, director of Poetry International Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
Céline Hémon, director of International Communications of Les Printemps des Poètes (France)
Zabier Hernández, director of the Recital Internacional de Poesía desde el Sur, (Pasto, Colombia)
Jack Hirschmann, poet and director of San Francisco International Poetry Festival (United States)
Nikola Madzirov, poet and representative of Struga Poetry Evenings (Macedonia)
Ban’ya Natsuishi, director of Tokyo Poetry Festival (Japan)
