As if it had never left, poetry returns to Barcelona next week with around fifty performances and more than 180 participants in the 26th edition of Barcelona Poesia. “We have programmed a festival that goes beyond words but in a very sensible way”, says Josep Pedrals, curator with Maria CallÃs. Both have emphasized that this year’s strong point is the return to the origins, to the spoken word, although seven multidisciplinary shows have also been produced. The image of the festival is by the photographer Tanit Plana, who has made several proposals based on artificial intelligence fed with poems by poets.
The festival will begin next Tuesday, with a foreword by the Catalan Letters Honor Prize, Josep Piera – “we proposed him before, huh?!” said Pedrals -, followed by a magazine walk by the col Valencian group Poetry Spam, which will start from the Palau de la Virreina to Sala Paral·lel 62, where many of the events will take place.
One of the highlights will be premiered there, the show Roger Mas’s journey. The Solsonà singer-songwriter will perform a concert with a quintet of musicians around a thirty-minute piece that synthesizes his world. “I’m very excited, it’s a project that is changing and that the public wants to finish polishing”, he explained to La Vanguardia. It is a kind of work in progress with more parts recited than sung and which must be the core of the next album. After the premiere, Mas will hold the assembly in Solsona on June 9.
Other shows during the week will be Cels cambiants – by Nurosfera with text by Núria Perpinyà –, Pitó – text by Guim Valls interpreted by Paula Blanco–, Doma –Martà Sales and Dorian Wood–, a recital concert by the Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadah with Remei from Ca la Fresca, the concert El nom en el somni by Sabina Witt and the recital concert Cantares dende’l pie by Nacho Vegas based on the poetic tradition in the Asturian language – preceded by a recital in Asturian by Xaime MartÃnez and Maria GarcÃa DÃaz-.
Another of the outstanding events will be, on Wednesday, the solemn presentation of the Floral Games prize to Joan Tomà s MartÃnez Grimalt for Fosca negra, in the Saló de Cent of Barcelona City Hall.
Among the recitals, there will be something for all tastes, such as that of Jan Wagner, one of Germany’s most awarded poets, the Croatian Sanja Bajovic, Alfonso Alegre and Edgardo Dobry, that of Maria Josep Escrivà with Xavier Mas Craviotto, the Carles Camps Mundó and Montserrat Rodés or the one dedicated to new voices, with Clara Fiol, Aina Garcia Carbó, Eduard Olesti and Andreu Alós.
There will also be several tributes: to Jaume Pérez Montaner for his 85th birthday, to Jaume Vidal Alcover for the centenary of his birth and to Alejandra Pizarnik for the fiftieth anniversary of his death, in addition to the event Fanals nihilistes en la obscor del seny, in honor of Carles Hac Mor.
Other contemporary classical poets, such as Joan Brossa (with Els Pirates Teatre), Jacint Verdaguer (with Neus Dalmau) and Anna Dodas (with representatives of various generations) will also have dedicated acts.
If in other years the acts were chronicled in verse, this year they will be done in a live daily podcast with Carlota Freixenet (of Punkis Decimonóniques), Júlia Bacardit (of Les Golfes) and Bernat Reher (Mentrimentres).
At the end of the most poetic week, the 38th Barcelona International Poetry Festival, at the Palau de la Música, there will be Ana Martins Marques (Brazil), José Eugenio Sánchez (Mexico), Blanca Llum Vidal (Catalonia), Danez Smith ( USA), Imad Abu Sà leh (Egypt) and Olga Novo (Galicia), with the musical participation of Joana Gomila and Laia Vallès.
