Introduction

Background

X Edition

The International School of Poetry was born with the Vienna, Medellín, and La Habana experiences as forerunners and cornerstones. This X Edition will be held virtually on October 8 and face-to-face on October 12, 13, 14 and 15, as one more activity within the FIP International Poetry Festival of Buenos Aires in 2022. The aim of the School is to delve into the poetic experience from different viewpoints in order to answer some tricky questions: What is poetry? What should I do with a book of poems? Where does a poem come from? What is poetry for? What does the poem do to us?

Through unofficial schooling activities carried out by some of our international and national writers, we show the creative possibilities of words, challenging participants to ponder over the questions mentioned above and enter the world of poetry. 

Our goal is to discover new and young readers and to learn new ways of expressing poetry collectively by means of various proposals that encourage the use of the body, the voice and other media.

Poetry is not only written by poets. It is a poetic perception that enriches and widens the universe of anyone who experiences it.

It is a misbelief to think that only few have access to poetry, that only “cultured” people may understand it. What if poetry was everywhere, waiting to be revealed?

Many avoid reading a book of poems because it may be difficult, blunt or sensitive. Instead, we think poetry is for all those working in libraries, teaching, for the parent reading aloud to their children when they go to sleep, for those who want to listen to the music of the world in a shell (that is the poem, according to Octavio Paz), but also for everyone who wishes to get closer to this world. This School of Poetry aims at discovering the different aspects within the great power of poetry.

This X Edition will be hybrid. We´ll have two different types of workshops: one will be virtual but the others being face-to-face ones, where we will enjoy poetry again, as we enjoy any artwork or music itself. We hope we can discover together the power of words and their everyday richfulness, talk about contemplation, thought and dreams, and express all those poetic ideas and feelings that arise from within, which may be beautiful, cruel or sad. Poems are never to be forgotten. Poetry is, in its true size and form, fertile and abundant. Poetry helps us to see one another and to see ourselves.


Festival Internacional de poesía de Bs As

Background