It is a festival of Poetry and made with poets, but it is designed so that everyone can enjoy it and includes many other arts. “Poesia a Sul” starts tomorrow, Friday, and will celebrate this literary genre not only in Olhão, but also in Lagos, Castro Marim and Ayamonte, in neighboring Spain, until 28 October.
For ten days, the public is challenged to celebrate poetry in a variety of ways: with those who write it and with it written and spoken, but also through other artistic expressions, such as cinema, theater, plastic arts, literature, philosophy, drawing is music.
This multiplicity of arts indicates what the organization of the International Festival “Poesia a Sul” intends with this event. «The public can expect what we offered in previous editions, perhaps with more people and with a stronger international dimension. But let's keep the same tone as always, that of a festival that is inclusive», he revealed to Sul Informação Fernando Cabrita, commissioner of the festival.
Because, he stressed, this «is not a festival of renowned artists, although they also have a place here, nor of damned poets, in litigation with the world, although there are some who may be, nor of people who have never edited, although they are there those who have never edited, not even from ideological and party-linked poets, although there are also poets committed to this festival».
«Above all, it is a gathering of people who see themselves in this specific type of literature and who do it in their own way, without us, the organization, making any value judgment about what is good or bad. There are many who do this, but there is a special critic, which is time, who will make this distinction more accurately than we do», summarized Fernando Cabrita.
As in the three previous years, the 4th edition of the event will feature the presence of many poets, some of whom are well known to the general public. This has been, moreover, a hallmark of “Poesia a Sul”, where names such as Manuel Alegre or Gastão Cruz have passed, and this year will feature the Portuguese Teresa Rita Lopes, Casimiro Brito, Maria Teresa Horta and Maria do Rosário Pedreira, just to give a few examples, since "there are many others less consecrated, which is not why they cease to take place."
From across borders will come Catherine Dumas (France), Manuel Moya (Spain), Iris Violeta Pujol (Puerto Rico), Márcia Souto (Brazil), Uberto Stabile (Spain), Chi Trung (Vietnam), Antonio Orihuela (Spain) and Yasmina Tippenhauer (Colombia), among others.
From the vast program, which can be consulted online, Fernando Cabrita highlights the theater play “Buenas Noches Sosiego”, which the Municipal Auditorium of Olhão will host on Saturday, October 20th, at 21 pm. «This is a tribute from the Basque country to Fernando Pessoa, starred by Iker Ortiz de Zarate, an excellent Basque actor», explains the commissioner of “Poesia a Sul”.
«On the 27th, also Saturday, we will have a colloquium in homage to João Lúcio, which inspires the festival this year, which celebrates the centenary of his death. We chose him not just for being a poet from home, but because he is one of the introducers of literary modernism in Portugal», he added,.
All of this, says Fernando Cabrita, only makes sense if the public joins. That is why he launches an appeal to the Algarvians and Andalusians to show up. "It's the people who have the most important role in all of this, because if they don't show up, it's not worth it," he declared. Sul Informação, the event's commissioner.
In 2018, “Poesia a Sul”, which was born and has been carried out in Olhão, is marked by expansion to other territories, namely to the Algarve councils of Lagos and Castro Marim, but also to Ayamonte. The festival will also go to «some parishes» of the municipality of Olho.
As Fernando Cabrita told in the conversation he had with the Sul Informação, this expansion of the territorial influence of the event resulted from invitations that were addressed «to the organizers of “Poesia a Sul” and not to the poets who will be here».
"This means that we were able to establish a brand and demonstrates the level of maturity that we have reached and the consolidation that we have been doing", considered the commissioner of the festival.
What is also a sign of the consolidation of the event is the support that comes from the “365Algarve” program, which is «a recognition of what we have been doing».
Despite not having motivated a change in the program, «which would always be the same», since any problems that might have arisen would have been resolved, «with the support of the Municipality of Olhão, as always happened», this support from “365Algarve” will allow « make a massive dissemination of the festival, through billboards and distributing publicity and advertising in the Algarve and Andalusia. I believe this will make a difference, when it comes to public participation».
The inclusion of “Poesia a Sul” in this cultural program, promoted jointly by the Secretary of State for Tourism and Culture, will also be linked to what the festival has achieved, in just three years.
«It has been very fruitful, right from the start because, in three years, we were able to get the twinning of the international festival “Poesia a Sul” in Olhão, which is a city with 40 thousand inhabitants, with the international poetry festival of Marrakesh, which is a city with one million inhabitants. And it's an equal relationship. This allowed us to exchange experiences, place our editions in Morocco and bring Moroccan poets here. We are also twinned with the Aracena festival, in Spain, which despite being a town with less population than Olhão, is nicknamed by the Spaniards as the “very cultured Aracena“», illustrated Fernando Cabrita.
With about 70 confirmed participants, from 16 countries, the “Poesia a Sul” has cultural events scheduled in various locations in Olhão, namely the Municipal Auditorium, the António Rosa Mendes Municipal Archive, the Sociedade Recreativa Progresso Olhanense, the Re-Criativa República 14, the Municipality of Olhão, the Jardim João Lúcio, the Municipal Museum – Edifício do Compromisso Marítimo, the Galeria Sul, Sol e Sal, Municipal Markets, Caique Bom Sucesso or some of the bars in the markets, in addition to initiatives in Castro Marim, Lagos and Ayamonte.
Comments