XIX International Poetry Festival of Medellín
July 4 to 11, 2009

Poetry reading XVIII International Poetry Festival of Medellin

The legendary Congolese poet Jean-Baptiste Tati Loutard, currently Minister  of State of Hydrocarbons of his country; the Senegalese Amadou Lamine Sall, president of the African House of International Poetry; and the South African Zinzi Mandela, daughter of the great leader Nelson Mandela, are some of the African poets that will take part in the 19th International Poetry Festival of Medellín which will take place between July 4 and 11 in this and other ten Colombian cities,  convened and organized by the Poetry Review Prometeo.

Other outstanding poets that will take part in the Festival are the Sayed Mohammad Zia and Mahbobah Ebrahimi from Afghanistan; Fuad Rifka, from Lebanon;  Huu Thinh, National Hero of Vietnam; Ghassan Zaqtan, director of the Ramallah Poetry House in Palestine; Arthur Sze, Jayne Cortés and Jack Hirshman, poet laureate and director of the International Poetry Festival of San Francisco, from the United States;  John Agard and Grace Nichols from Guyana; Édouard Glissant from Martinique; Roberto Fernández Retamar, director of Casa de las Américas, from Cuba; Jorge Riechman from Spain; Vera Pavlova from Russia; Inger Elisabeth Hansen and Torgeir Schjerven, from Norway; Agneta Falk, from Sweden; Klaus Merz, from Switzeland; and Giovanni Quessep, Jotamario Arbeláez, Carlos Vásquez, Nicolás Suescún, Mario Rivero and Alvaro Miranda, from Colombia, among others.

The Festival is sponsored by the Office of the Mayor of Medellín, the City Council of Medellín, the Hivos Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation, the Döen Foundation, the Caipirinha Foundation, the government of Switzerland and Germany, and the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, among other institutions.

It is expected that this year’s Festival, one of the most significant in its history of almost two decades, will contribute to establish an atmosphere of dialogue and reconciliation among Colombians, helping to overcome the hatred and profound differences dividing Colombian society,  in order to at last put an end to the civil conflict that broke out around the middle of the last century.

On the other hand, in a self-critical effort, the Festival aims at overcoming old episodes that implied the generally unfair antagonism of critics who are not aware of the immense contribution of world poetry to  the Medellín Festival poetic design, which has promoted many projects and poetry festivals in our continent, and produced the first audivisual world selection of poetry, that has already included 330 poets from 133 countries in the Web site of the Festival, among many other achievements.

The following poets have confirmed their attendance to the XIX International Poetry Festival of Medellín:
Rashidah Ismaili AbuBakr (Benin); Jean-Baptiste Tati Loutard (Congo), Fatma Quandil (Egypt); Lenrie Peters (Gambia); Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana); Mvula Ya Nangolo (Namibia); Ifi Amadiume (Nigeria); Amodou Lamine Sall (Senegal); Daniel Kunene and Zinzi Mandela (South Africa); Tahar Bekri (Tunisia); Mercedes Roffé (Argentina); Matilde Casazola (Bolivia); Nicole Brossard (Canada); Giovanni Quessep, Jotamario Arbeláez, Mario Rivero, Carlos Vásquez, Gustavo Tatis Guerra, Miguel Iriarte, Nicolás Suescún, Álvaro Miranda, Carlos Enrique Sierra, Victor Raúl Jaramillo, Tallulah Flórez, Eugenia Sánchez Nieto,  Jesús Gómez and Angie Gaona (Colombia); Graciela Huinao (Chile, Mapuche Nation); Roberto Fernández Retamar (Cuba), Yvon Gordon Vailakis (Ecuador), Arthur Sze, Jayne Cortés and Jack Hirschman (United States); John Agard and Grace Nichols (Guyana), Édouard Glissant (Martinique); Moravia Ochoa (Panama); José Luis Ayala (Peru, Aymara Nation); Antonio Trujillo (República Bolivariana de Venezuela); Mahobah Ebrahimi and Sayed Mohammad Zia (Afghanistan); Alice Sun-Cua (Philippines); Fadhil Al-Azzawi and Anwar Al-Ghassani; Fuad Rifka (Labanon); Ghassan Zaqtan (Palestine); Hussein Habasch (Syria); Gulrukhsor Safieva (Tadzhikistan); Huu Thinh (Vietnam); Jorge Riechmann (Spain); Ersi Sotiropoulos (Greece); Sigurdur Pálson (Iceland); Guido Oldani (Italy); Inger Elisabeth Hansen and Torgeir Schjervertf (Norway); Michael Schmidt (United Kingdom), Vera Pavlova (Russia); Agneta Falk (Sweden); and Klaus Merz (Switzerland).

We are expecting, among others, the answer of Rosario Murillo (Nicaragua), Uwe Kolbe (Germany), Peter Verhelst (Belgium), and Henk van der Waal (The Netherlands).