Our final poetry news round-up of the week takes a look at some of the things planned for UNESCO’s World Poetry Day on 21st March.
inVERSE Film Series Launched for World Poetry Day
March 21st marks World Poetry Day and Jack Jewers, the award-winning filmmaker will be celebrating with the launch of “inVERSE”, his reimagined collection of 5 of the oldest poems the world has to offer.
Each of the poems has been reimagined in the form of a short film, which explores the world today. The poems range in timescale from Italy in the 1st Century to 1500 BCE Mesopotamia. Using the language of the time the films explore the human condition and time. Despite their age, these poems are not dry, and it is hard to imagine they were written so long ago.
The five films, which will all be released on Sunday are:
Love Song – this is based on an Egyptian love poem that was penned in 1400 BCE
Long Wall – a poem dating back to the Han Dynasty in China
My Heart – an ancient Mesopotamian poem
The Look – a poem taken from Ovid’s Ars Amarosa, dating from the first century
The Dawn – Based on Salutation to the Dawn, by Kalidasa, an ancient Indian poet.
All of the films will be available to watch for free via the website for inverse films.
Poetry on Landmarks
As part of this year”s World Poetry Day, there are plans to project poetry onto some of the landmarks in London.
The project is the work of a word installation artist and the projected poems will feature on buildings like Tate Modern, Royal Festival Hall and the Royal Opera House. The poems have been created by Christina Reihill and are collectively called “Presence”. They explore the subject of the pandemic and how the presence of so many of the things that society relied on stopped and the feelings that brought.
The buildings in question have been carefully and deliberately chosen for the projection, they are all buildings with links to the Arts, buildings that for the last 12 months have either been completely closed to the public or which have been closed, reponed and then closed again. The idea is to bring life back to them, even if it is only on the outside.
The installation will be available to view at the different locations at separate times with a production crew moving around the city to re-install it at each location during the evening.
Manchester Poetry Library Celebrates World Poetry Day
The Poetry Library in Manchester is planning to celebrate with new poetry being read out loud in its iconic doorway this weekend. The pieces have been commissioned with the idea of the doorway being a portal and a number of the region’s poets will be filmed reciting them to celebrate the day and the vibrant poetry scene in the city.
They will also be releasing a film of a new reading by Imtiaz Dharker.
The library has been closed for most of the last 12 months. However, they are looking forward to when they can reopen and have lots of exciting things planned.
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