World Poetry Day 2023

14 March, 2023

7 mins read

World Poetry Day 2023 is a project of the Granada City Council (throug Granada UNESCO City of Literature Office of the Arts Departament), the University of Granada (through the Aula de Literatura), and the Asociación del Diente de Oro.

With the collaboration of: Centro de Lenguas Modernas of the University of Granada, Botanical Garden, University of Granada Law School, Centro de Lenguas Eslavas, Library of Andalusia, and Centro Federico García Lorca.

World Poetry Day | March 21, 2023 | Readings at: Granada City Council Patio (Plaza del Carmen), from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm | Botanical Garden of the University of Granada, from 5:00 to 6:30 pm | Bookstores and ohter institutional venues, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Prologue: Special Sesion of Poetry Slam Granada at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas | March 18, 2023 | Venue and time: Centro de Lenguas Modernas of the University of Granada, from 12:00 to 2:00 pm (broadcast live on the Youtube channel of the Madraza-Centro de Cultura Contemporánea of the University of Granada)

Free entry until full capacity

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A bit of history

As you know, in 1999 UNESCO declared 21 March as World Poetry Day. Granada particularly celebrates this date since 2017, when the Granada UNESCO City of Literature Programme designed a set of public readings of poets of the city in bookstores and other institutional spaces. The project consisted of a set of simultaneous readings in the city’s bookstores throughout the afternoon of March 21, 2017. The result was very relevant in terms of participating poets and bookstores and the audience. Granada proposed to the UNESCO Cities of Literature around the world a joint celebration of this date, an initiative that has been very well received. World Poetry Day has since been incorporated into Granada’s cultural calendar, only altered by the covid-19 pandemic. In 2023, after the cancellation of 2020 and the modification of the model in the 2021 and 2022 editions, World Poetry Day returns to bookstores, generating a huge simultaneous public reading that demonstrates the strength of the fabric of artists and creators from Granada.

Objetives

Promote and disseminate bookstores in the city of Granada among citizens, with special emphasis on independent bookstores. Bring poetry closer to the public through a party of free public readings. Support the fabric of writers and artists of the city of Granada. Promote knowledge, contacts and alliances between writers, based on ideas of inclusion and equality. Reinforce the position of Granada within the world group of UNESCO Cities of Literature with an event of international projection. Communicate at the national level, with special emphasis on the media, the strength of Granada as a city of writers and artists of the word. Disseminate the image of Granada as a cultural city in southern Europe.

Internacionalization of the project

The project became international in 2018 when Granada exhibited its World Poetry Day model to the UNESCO Cities of Literature. Since then a growing group of Cities of Literature from all over the world celebrate this date together with Granada. Each city organizes its own events, but they connect with each other to multiply their diffusion. Granada designs each year the poster (the author of the last editions is Jacinto Gutiérrez), which is proposed to the UNESCO Cities of Literature as a possible joint model, and with the offer to adapt it by modifying names, information about events, logos, etc. In addition, cities generate a single international press release that is sent to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

2023 Edition: Return to bookstores, tribute to Versos al aire libre, children’s poetry readings and Poetry Slam Granada / Simultaneous programming of UNESCO Cities of Literature

After the cancellation of 2020 edition due to the covid-19 pandemic, in 2021 and 2022 World Poetry Day was resized to adapt to the new social and health situation. It continued to be held, but in few spaces, without an audience in 2021 (in the Centro Municipal La Chumbera and the Centro de Lenguas Modernas) and with a restricted audience in 2022 (in the Cuarto Real de Santo Domingo, the Centro Federico García Lorca and Centro de Lenguas Modernas).

The 2023 edition consolidates the collaboration of the University of Granada, which began in 2021, in addition to the presence of the Asociación del Diente de Oro. This new edition represents, above all, a return to the initial model of multiple simultaneous readings in the bookstores of the city throughout the afternoon of March 21. In 2023 there are fifteen bookstores that have agreed to participate in the project, with readings starting at seven in the evening. In addition, the reading hours are extended to the morning, with an opening ceremony in the City Council Patio, at 11 am, and in the early afternoon, with an outdoor reading in the Botanical Garden of the University of Granada.

Bookstores and institutional spaces

Bookstores: Atlas / Babel (Gran Capitán) / Dauro-Troa / El Corte Inglés (Arabial) / El Corte Inglés (Carrera de la Virgen) / Inusual / Juan de Mairena / Lees Otras Cosas / Moriarty / Picasso / Praga / Re-Read / Sostiene Pereira / Tremenda / Un Mundo Feliz.

Other Venues: Granada City Council (Patio) / Library of Andalusia (Sala Valdelomar) / Centro de Lenguas Modernas of the University of Granada / Centro José Guerrero / Botanical Garden of the University of Granada.

Participating poets

Francisco Acuyo / Carlos Allende / Jesús Amaya / Carlos Andreoli / Leila Araújo / Miguel Ángel Arcas / Teresa Ariza Periáñez / Miguel Ángel Barrera Maturana / Víctor Bayona / Javier Benítez / Marga Blanco / Javier Bozalongo / Javier Calderón / Lola Callejón / Carmen Canet / Virgilio Cara / Joaquín Carmona / Pedro Luis Casanova / Eduardo Castro / Juan José Castro / Olalla Castro / Nieves Chillón / Alicia Choín / Miguel Ángel Contreras / Jorge Díaz Martínez / Cristóbal Domínguez Durán / Mónica Doña / Pedro Enríquez / Sergio Escribano / Violeta Font / Mónica Francés / Trinidad Gan / José Ganivet Zarcos / Guillermo García Domingo / Jairo García Jaramillo / Javier Gilabert / Teresa Gómez / José Miguel Gómez Acosta / José Manuel Gómez Espín / Ioana Gruia / Munir Hachemi / Katia-Sofia Hakim / Carmen Hernández Montalbán / Dori Hernández Montalbán / María Elena Higueruelo / Raimundo Iáñez / Juanjo Ibáñez / Fernando Jaén / Alfredo Lombardo / Fernando López Castellano / Iñaki López de Aberasturi / José Miguel López Hidalgo / Juan E. Martín / Maribel Martín Peregrina / Erika Martínez / Josefina Martos Peregrín / Paula Melchor / Luis Melgarejo / Ángeles Mora / Gracia Morales / Rosa Morillas / Noelia Muñoz / Javier Navarro / Sergio Navarro / Anita Núñez-Torrón Stock / Rosa Ortega / Nuria Ortega Riba / Juan Javier Ortigosa / Yolanda Ortiz / María Ovelar / Raquel Paiz / Alejandro Pedregosa / Juan Peregrina / Salvador Pérez Dueñas / Ramón Repiso / Gerardo Rodríguez Salas / José Carlos Rosales / Jesús Saavedra / Carmen Salas del Río / Alfonso Salazar / Álvaro Salvador / María Sánchez-Saorín / Fernando Soriano / Marina Tapia / Sara Toro / Joaquín Torquemada / Ayes Tortosa / José Luis Vicario / Cristina Zarca Pérez.

Programme

Opening ceremony. City Council Patio | 11:00 am

The official opening of the day of readings will take place in the City Council Patio, from 11 am, with free entry until full capacity. Representatives of the organizing institutions will take part, and you will be able to enjoy the reading of poems by:

Virgilio Cara
Paula Melchor
Ángeles Mora

Venues. Botanical Garden | 5:00 to 6:30 pm

The first reading session of the afternoon will take place outdoors in the Botanical Garden of the University of Granada, next to the University Law School. They will start at 5:00 pm and will last until 6:30 pm, with free entry until full capacity. The participating poets are:

Alfonso Salazar
Guillermo García Domingo
Leira Araújo
Miguel Ángel Barrera
Javier Benítez
Marga Blanco
Pedro Luis Casanova
Mónica Francés
Katia-Sofia Hakim
María Elena Higueruelo
Juan E. Martín
Luis Melgarejo
Sergio Navarro
Ramón Repiso
José Carlos Rosales

Venues. Bookstores | 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Atlas (Fábrica Vieja, 7) | 8:00 pm

Javier Bozalongo
Carmen Canet
Mónica Doña
José Luis Vicario

Babel (Gran Capitán, no number) – Tribute to “Versos al Aire Libre” on the 70th anniversary of its creation | 8:00 pm

Javier Gilabert
Fernando Jaén
Gerardo Rodríguez Salas

And the participation of Rafael Egea (reading poems by Julio Alfredo Egea), Soledad Gallardo (reading poems by José Carlos Gallardo), Marina Guillén (reading poems by Rafael Guillén), and Elena Martín-Vivaldi Caballero (reading poems by María Elena Martín Vivaldi).

**Library of Andalusia. Sala Val del Omar – Presentation of Antología bilingüe de la mejor poesía rusa | 7:00 pm**

In the Sala Val del Omar of the Library of Andalusia, at 7:00 pm, there will be the presentation of the Antología bilingüe de la mejor poesía rusa (Berenice, 2023), selected, prefaced, and translated by the writer and UGR professor Joaquín Torquemada. The presentation will be in charge of the Granada poet Francisco Acuyo and Joaquín Torquemada. Likewise, a dramatized bilingual reading of some of the best poems in the anthology will be offered. Activity organized by the Centro de Lenguas Eslavas of the University of Granada in collaboration with the Library of Andalusia.

Francisco Acuyo
Joaquín Torquemada

Centro Museo José Guerrero – Children’s poetry reading | 7:00 pm

Professor Andrea Villarrubia will give voice to a selection of poems from the Príncipe Preguntón Award of poetry for children published by the Granada Provincial Council, in the bookstore of the Centro José Guerrero.

Andrea Villarrubia

Other actions. Poetry Slam Granada at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas. Saturday, March 18, at 12:00 pm

With an 11-year tradition, Poetry Slam Granada is one of the longest-running and most relevant venues on the national Slam scene, and has been presenting poets over the years who have revolutionized the public reading of poems such as Gata Cattana, Sergio Escribano, Laura Sam or Scandar Algeet. As in previous years, Poetry Slam Granada will hold a prologue session for World Poetry Day at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas, broadcast live through the YouTube Channel of the Madraza-Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de la Universidad de Granada. As a special guest we will have the slammer Aníta Núñez-Torrón Stock. It will also be the debut of a very young poet, José Manuel Gómez Espín, who is 18 years old and is studying in his 2nd year of the Humanities High School at the IES La Sagra in Huéscar (Granada).

Other UNESCO Cities of Literature that will hold events on March 21

Dunedin (Nueva Zealand), Durban (South Africa), Heidelberg (Germany), Iowa City (United Stated), Lillehammer (Norway), Melbourne (Australia), Milan (Italy), Nanjing (China), Nottingham (United Kingdom), Quebec City (Canada), Seattle (United States), Tartu (Estonia), Wonju (South Korea). A summary of their activities here.

A bit of history

Objetives

Internacionalization of the project

2023 Edition: Return to bookstores, tribute to Versos al aire libre, children’s poetry readings and Poetry Slam Granada / Simultaneous programming of UNESCO Cities of Literature

Bookstores and institutional spaces

Participating poets

Other readers / Space coordinators

Programme

Opening ceremony. City Council Patio | 11:00 am

Venues. Botanical Garden | 5:00 to 6:30 pm

Venues. Bookstores | 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Atlas (Fábrica Vieja, 7) | 8:00 pm

Babel (Gran Capitán, no number) – Tribute to “Versos al Aire Libre” on the 70th anniversary of its creation | 8:00 pm

Library of Andalusia. Sala Val del Omar – Presentation of Antología bilingüe de la mejor poesía rusa | 7:00 pm

Centro Museo José Guerrero – Children’s poetry reading | 7:00 pm

El Corte Inglés (Carrera de la Virgen, 20-22) | 7:00 pm

Hipercor Arabial (Arabial, 97) | 7:00 pm

Inusual (Natalio Rivas, 7) | 8:00 pm

Juan de Mairena (Periodista Francisco de Paula Terrón, 7) | 7:00 pm

Lees Otras Cosas (Plaza de San Isidro) | 7:30 pm

Moriarty (Carril del Picón, 26) | 7:00 pm

Picasso (Obispo Hurtado, 5) | 8:00 pm

Praga (Gracia, 33) | 8:00 pm

Re-Read (Gran Vía de Colón, 47) | 8:00 pm

Sostiene Pereira (Horno de la Merced, 4) | 7:00 pm

Tremenda (Molinos, 22) | 7:00 pm

Troa Dauro (Zacatín, 3) | 7:00 pm

Un Mundo Feliz (Avenida de Cervantes, 25) | 7:00 pm

Other actions. Poetry Slam Granada at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas. Saturday, March 18, at 12:00 pm

Other UNESCO Cities of Literature that will hold events on March 21

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**Library of Andalusia. Sala Val del Omar – Presentation of Antología bilingüe de la mejor poesía rusa | 7:00 pm**