Poetry Day Ireland 2020 this Thursday, April 30 will take place as a digital/virtual festival due to the ongoing fight against Covid-19, allowing everyone to take part from the safety of their own home and collectively experience the joy of poetry.
Be part of it and let us know how you are celebrating Poetry that day #PoetryDayIRL
Now in its sixth year, this annual celebration of the spoken and written word is presented by Poetry Ireland in partnership with poetry lovers the length and breadth of the country and will be an uplifting and interactive opportunity for everyone to connect through virtual poetry workshops, video poetry readings, social media and much more. This year, Poetry Day Ireland is being dedicated to Eavan Boland, one of Ireland’s foremost and finest poets, who sadly passed away this week.
Events will include:
- Videos of well-known figures and poets reading poems will be released on social media.
- Virtual ‘pocket poems’, all with a time theme, to enjoy and share on social media and download from poetryday.ie.
- Get your own Typewriter poem, book in for a Zoom session with poet Stephen Maguire. He’ll have a brief chat with you about the person or thing you’d like a poem written about, and then type one up on his typewriter just for you.
- First in Line! Online Poetry Workshop for Beginners with Nessa O’Mahony. Explore the basic ingredients of a poem, and take part in exercises to fire up creativity in a fun, encouraging environment
- Video readings from the shortlisted poets for The Moth Poetry Prize in the run up to the live announcement on Instagram of the winner of the €10,000 prize at 5.30pm on 30th April
- Time-Themed Poetry Clinic with Poetry Ireland Poet in Residence, Catherine Ann Cullen. Submit your poem in advance and have a virtual one-on-one session with Catherine on Poetry Day Ireland
- Virtual Poetry Time at Alan Hanna’s Bookshop, featuring poets, writers, artists, scientists and actors
- Poetry Performance Challenge (Gaiety School of Acting) for Junior Cert and Leaving Cert students to engage with their exam poetry through performance by submitting short videos of them presenting one chosen poem in any format they wish
- Poesiaan online encounter with Brazilian poetry, music and arts including readings by: Mar Lima, Massimiliano Bianchi, Julianne Longo, Lia Santos, Sara Ribeiro, Rafael Mendes with music by Glauber Magalhaes.
- Mindfulness & Poetry morning retreat with Orlaith O’Sullivan – a morning of mindfulness practice devoted to beautiful silence and powerful words.
- An Instagram Live interactive Workshop presented by the Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again exhibition. Exploring Seamus Heaney’s poetry with the selected poems relating to the theme of Poetry Day Ireland 2020 – ‘There will be time.’
- The Time lapse – From the Front poetography series. Explore this film photography and poetry Instagram-based exhibition from photographer Letizia Lopreiato reflecting on Letizia’s own journey over the last two years using film photography to complete her lifelong work of poetry after a diagnosis of a rare genetic form of visual impairment.
Find out more about Poetry Day Ireland events and get involved at www.poetryday.ie.
The theme this year – ‘There will be time’ – has been in the works since last autumn, long before the current guidelines were put in place in Ireland. It was partly chosen as 2020 is a leap year, when we gain an extra day of time that didn’t exist in the previous year.
Today, the theme of time resonates with us in another way due to the impact of the Covid-19 measures on our daily lives and our sense of time passing. Each poem is, in a way, a time machine – travelling to the past or the present or the future, examining the way we were, are, and hope to be.
The Poetry Day Ireland team is keen to know how everyone will be marking this day at home – let them know by using #PoetryDayIRL.
You can follow the Poetry Day Ireland Twitter account at: @PoetryDay_IRL and Instagram account: @poetrydayirl
