“The Original Poetry, evicted”. Finally, the new ownership of the venue has dismissed the continuity of the poetry cycle that had been held there since 2001 and which had turned it into a meeting point and place of worship for those interested in poetry.
This was announced this Monday by the coordinators of the cycle, Laia Carbonell, Maria Sevilla and Raquel Santanera, who denounce “the nocturnality, contempt and lack of communication with which the handover was carried out”, in addition to “the destruction of ‘a reference space that has long been part of the cultural, literary and poetic history of the 21st century in Barcelona, ??with the set of sculptural work and visual poetry that integrated it’.
Ferran Garcia, who coordinated the cycle between the end of 2001 and 2019, and who had numerous sculptural pieces on display, explains that he spoke with the new owners at the end of June and it seemed that there was some hope, but that in the end there is no been like that “Now we need to think about a new stage of refounding, because the work that was done there must continue”, concludes Garcia. He has been in contact with the new ownership and has been able to keep many of the pieces that were there, although he regrets that some must have ended up in the junkyard, like a huge metal fish that hung in a wall Garcia understands that it is the law of the market, but he also thinks that there could have been more communication, given the long poetic history of the place. “Now we need to think about a new stage of refounding, because the work that was done there must continue”, concludes Garcia.
And it is that since its birth, under the programming and guidance of Meritxell Cucurella-Jorba, it had been a bar where poetic performances of all kinds were held, a fact that brought together many of those interested in the most restless poetry on a weekly basis, and which growing over time and under the coordination of Garcia and the poet Josep Pedrals.
On the networks there have been many who have raised their voices in the last few hours to regret it, such as Dolors Miquel (the last recital, in June, was to present a book of his), Joan Todó (he gave the first recitals) , Míriam Cano (remembering having met his best friends there), Miquel Adam, Laia MaLo or Marçal Font.
The coordinators have announced, however, that the recitals will not end, that for the time being they will resume at the Calders Bookstore on September 13.
