Corporation of Art and Poetry Prometeo

The constitution of the Corporation of Art and Poetry was created based on the need to protect a socially projected effort, born of the language of poetry and materialised in various activities, of which the International Poetry Festival of Medellín represents the need to dream and to construct a reality opposed to the political, economic and social barbarism of our day.

Once this medium of expression is open, the Festival, in its ethnic, linguistic and cultural plurality, succeeds in making an essential contribution to the spiritual and cultural life of the city.

The present age is one of convulsion, saturated with cultural moulds, the flow of capital, mass production, dehumanisation, individualisation, and competition among economic and social groups. It is a time in which all is processed, institutionalised and assimilated by the structures of control.

The PROMETEO Corporation of Art and Poetry is formed by a group of poets and artists (among them: Fernando Rendón, Gabriel Jaime Franco, Gloria Chvatal, Luis Eduardo Rendón, Lucía Estrada, Jairo Guzmán, José Martínez, Luis Fernando Rivera, Gloria Chvatal, Luisa Aguilar, Tatiana Mejía, Rafael Quiroz, Nidia Naranjo, Beatriz Ortega, Angela García, Cristian Acevedo, Ignacio Trujillo, Juliana Arteaga, Ángela Chaverra, Leidy Acevedo), united since the early 90's with the co-operation of poets from several countries through PROMETEO magazine. All of PROMETEO's activities and projects are born of the need to fill the voids that exist on the cultural plane, specifically in the development of the creative potentialities of language through poetry and its transcendence in the life of the city.

The Corporation acquired its legal identity in 1993 in order to obtain the resources that fund its activities, commenced in 1991:

• 17 annual Festivals since 1991, in which near of 794 poets from 142 countries and five continents have participated. The festival has organised more than 1.000 collective poetry readings in 33 Colombian cities: Medellín, Armenia, Barrancabermeja, Barranquilla, Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Cartago, Cúcuta, Ibagué, Leticia, Manizales, Pereira, Popayán, Quibdó, Santa Marta, San Andrés y Providencia, Tuluá, Tunja, Turbo, Valledupar, Villavicencio, Bello, Copacabana, Envigado, Itagüí, Rionegro, Sabaneta, Apartadó and Santa Fe de Antioquia. Poetry readings have been held in indoor and outdoor auditoriums, in streets, parks, bridges, slum neighbourhoods, universities, libraries, theatres, trade union and co-operative buildings, high schools, cultural centres, bars, open fields, coliseums, shopping malls, metro stations, museums, factories, churches, jails, hospitals, hilltops, ecological reservations and in the city planetarium.

 
• The active co-ordination of projects of solidarity with our country, deeply affected by a more than forty-year civil war, epresented in different campaigns searching the reopening of dialogue among the enemies. The international circulation of an open letter to the governments of the world, signed by 900 poets and writers of 115 countries, in an attempt to encourage the peace process in Colombia.

 
• The publication of PROMETEO magazine, founded in 1982, with 77 issues to date and 14 books of poetry in the Hipnos series.

 
• Edition and inclusion an unique worldwide poetry anthology at Internet, with 238 poems by same number of poets from 121 countries of five continents. Al Youtube web: http://www.youtube.com/user/revistaprometeo At Prometeo Web: http://www.festivaldepoesiademedellin.org/pub.php/es/Multimedia/index.htm
  
  
• Ten versions of the Poetry School of Medellín (founded in 1996) in with 60 free courses have been taught to nearly 1.300 students, as well as 70 conferences, conversations and workshops given by established poets of the Americas, Europe and Asia. This activity has generated a new creative space for the young people of Medellín.

 
• Realization of the Proyecto Gulliver, under the auspices of the France Libertés Foundation, this Project consists of 16 workshops of literary appreciation, reading stimulation and poetic creation, for 400 children from public schools, in 16 communes (collections of neighborhoods) in the city of Medellín, between September, 2005 and March, 2006. Second part of the Project begun at August 2007 and will extend during 2007 at 16 public schools at Medellin.

 
 
• Dozens of Reading Stimulation, Poetry Appreciation and Literary Creation Workshops since 1992, intended for young poets, teachers, students and children from different areas of Medellín and Antioquia.

 
• International Exhibitions of Poetry Books and Magazines, in the context of the Festival, which facilitated the community's access to fundamental poetic works, published by such prestigious publishers as Visor, Hiperión, Alianza Editorial, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Tusquets, Planeta y Editorial Norma, among many others.

 
• The First International Experimental Poetry Exhibition in 2001, with visual, phonetic and performance poetry.

 
• The recording of CD's. In 2000, a double CD was recorded which narrates a history of the Festival, and is at once an oral anthology of contemporary world poetry, read by the participating poets of the first nine Festivals.

 
• Realization, in 2003, of the I World Summit of Poetry for the Peace of Colombia, in which participated as presenters both Colombian and foreign poets, as well as members of NGO’s of human rights, and some ministers and vice ministers of culture of Latin American area who exposed on the following issues: Culture and globalization, The writer and politics, Forced displacement, Biodiversity, human and cultural rightsl, and finally, The armed conflict as seen by the Colombian poets.
   
• Airing of the "Torre Abolida" poetry program for radio (1994-1996).

 
• Editing of an anthology of documentaries focusing on the Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellin. To date, the entity has edited (in DVCam format) a series of 17 poetry documentaries, under the title "Time for Poetry" (Tiempo de Poesía). They were premiered at the XIII International Poetry Festival of Medellin and were shown on Venezuelan television in 2004.

 
• Creation of the Latin American Network of International Poetry Festivals in November 2005, in coordination with the World Poetry Festival in Venezuela, whose foundation was overseen by the magazine "Revista Prometeo".
   
• Direct assessment to the Venezuelan Ministry of Culture for the creation of a World Poetry Festival in 2004.
   
• Editing, in two languages (Spanish-English), of the Colombian poetry page for Poetry International in Rotterdam, in which 43 Colombian poets have already been included.

 
• Since 1986, annual auspice of the Poetry Prize the Gaceta de Cuba.

 
• At September, 2006, the Right Livelihood Award has decided to grant the 2006 Alternative Nobel Peace Prize to the International Poetry Festival of Medellín, among 73 candidates of 40 nations, activists for truth, peace and social justice.