Big-name authors, aspiring young bards and members of the general public will all feel at home at this year’s Taipei Poetry Festival (臺北詩歌節), which is celebrating its 10th birthday with a series of activities, readings, seminars, performances and concerts that honor past achievements and explore new possibilities.
The highlight of the event is next Saturday’s Poets’ Night, where local poets of different generations will hold readings with renowned theater director Li Huan-hsiung (黎煥雄) serving as stage director. The names of the participants read like a who’s who of Taiwan’s literary establishment, including Cheng Chou-yu (鄭愁予), Yang Mu (楊牧), Shang Qin (商禽), Yang Ze (楊澤), Jiao Tong (焦桐), Hung Hung (鴻鴻) and Xu Huei-zhi (許悔之).
Apart from the main poetry gathering, celebrated poetesses will have a lady’s night out on Monday at the Eslite Xinyi Store (誠品信義店) to talk about their distinct styles and sensibilities. Aboriginal poets such as Adaw Palaf and Moyan from the Ami tribe and Mo Naneg of the Paiwan tribe will take to the stage on Wednesday.
As one of this year’s themes is cross-cultural and hybrid forms, poets from China, France, Japan and the US will hold readings on Sunday and attend panel discussions at various colleges and universities in Taipei to share their experiences working in different cultures and with different media.
Laura Mullen from the US, for example, is a literature and cinema professor known for her experimental writing that challenges literary and gender conventions. French poet Stephane Bouquet is also an accomplished screenwriter, and Ryoko Sekiguchi takes inspiration from different cultures and writes both in Japanese and French.
WHAT: 2009 Taipei Poetry Festival (第十屆台北詩歌節)
WHEN: Today to Nov. 29
WHERE: Main venues include Zhongshan Hall (台北市中山堂), Eslite Xinyi Store (誠品信義店) and Taipei Artist Village (台北國際藝術村)
ON THE NET: poetry.culture.gov.tw
The opening night gala performance to be held at Zhongshan Hall (台北市中山堂) tomorrow evening will see artists from various fields paying tribute to poets by incorporating poems into their art. Participating artists include nanguan (南管) player Wang Xinxin
(王心心) and writer Wang Wen-hua (王文華) as well as musicians Summer Lei (雷光夏) and Lin Sheng-xiang (林生祥).
Members of the general public can take an active part in the festival by writing a poem and putting it in one of the “poetry donation” boxes at Eslite’s Dunnan and Xinyi branches. The best submissions will receive awards and writers will be given the opportunity to read their works during the festival.
Entry to most activities is free, but registration is required in advance for the opening gala performance and some of the readings. For more information, call (02) 2351-0116 or visit the event’s bilingual site at poetry.culture.gov.tw.
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