Berlin hosts Europe’s largest poetry festival

Germany hosts Europe’s largest poetry festival, celebrating its 25th edition in Berlin, featuring poetry from minority languages such as Catalan.

Transcript

00:00Inside a circus tent in Berlin, movement mixes with the spoken word. This is part of the

00:0925th annual edition of what's billed as the largest poetry festival in Europe. Two poets

00:15from Spain said they performed their work in Catalan to highlight how endangered the

00:20language is.

00:22Poetry does express this feeling of being in a language that is not a hegemonic language,

00:34so a language that is not part of the main European cultural, like historically thinking.

00:44But Catalan does have a huge importance.

00:52Yael Manuel Ermay tackled the use of language and gender identity. They said the German

00:57language with its gender nouns forces people to think in binary terms.

01:03It's just, it's so weird because we learn languages in school, but actually I never

01:07learned to talk about myself, so there was definitely just some language not provided

01:11to me, and then I definitely feel like exploring it through poetry, like, or trying to express

01:19myself through poetry, not within that weird school setting that wasn't really beneficial

01:25for me, definitely helped me.

01:29Works are being presented across the city, from an audio installation next to a techno

01:33club to a restaurant courtyard. More than 150 artists from around the world are coming

01:41to Berlin for this festival, and the subjects reflect that diversity, from an American artist

01:47talking about homophobia in the U.S. to Ukrainian poets talking about how the war is impacting

01:53their homes.

01:54The performers say they hope poetry will provide a wider European audience an emotional connection

02:00to their subject matter.

02:02Poetry is not only about the specific words, it's a universal language, and through this

02:09we try to expand not only the spoken word, but the images, the rhythm, the effects, the

02:18feelings.

02:19The festival runs until the 21st. There will also be training for poetry educators, workshops

02:25for children, and a panel on socio-political issues.