Azorean Poetry in the Street, WALK&TALK Festival, Ponta Delgada
Azorean Poetry in the Street is a participative public art project conceived and coordinated by Richard Simas and Nisa Remígio, two Azor-descendants living in Montreal, Canada. Inspired by the rich poetic tradition within the islands as well in Azorean diaspora communities throughout the world, the project proposes a range of participative activities for all publics during the week of July the 22nd at WALK&TALK Festival in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel. Here are some examples:
Read & hear…The core of the project is reading and hearing poems in a variety of public contexts. Open street readings in public places will allow any passerby to read aloud from collected or original works. Evening events will offer ‘open mic’ opportunities for all readers, local poets, and participants of a two-day poetry-music/sound workshop.
Find & touch… Several activities will focus on rendering poetry visible around the city. In the spirit of arte pública festival, city dwellers will discover poems in various parts of the city: written on walls, distributed by strangers, in shop windows and bars, inserted in empty wine bottles, restaurant napkin holders, wedged between Ponta Delgada’s cobble-stones, or whispered privately by ‘poetic collaborators.’
Write & say… The public will be invited to write poems outdoors and pin them to a clothesline for anyone to read. A ‘perpetual poem’ will collect words and lines added throughout the day by passersby. A workshop open to all will explore reading poetry with musical/sound improvisation. Finally, a ‘video-portrait-poem’ project will record locals reading Azorean poetry. Partners: Québec Council of Arts and Letters; Diretor Regional das Comunidades
Contact & information
-WalkTalk Azores, www.walktalkazores.com https://www.facebook.com/events/680199478694979/
-Café Lusofone, Montreal https://www.facebook.com/cafelusofono/events
-Co-organizers: richardsimas@netaxis.ca & nisarem@gmail.com
CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS Anyone interested in participating in the Azorean Poetry in the Street Project in Ponta Delgada from July 22 to 27 is invited to contact us. We are looking for collaborators and people to assist in distributing, whispering, writing poems, filming, video editing and projecting that will take place during the project.
Workshop: writers, actors, musicians, performers, amateurs, students….anyone interested in attending the free ‘exploring reading poetry with musical/sound improvisation’ workshop should contact us.
Co-organizers: richardsimas@netaxis.ca & nisarem@gmail.com
