Fotos: Arquivo Secretaria da Cultura/DF
Although it counts on the support of the Secretariat of Culture and other agencies of the federal and district governments, the Biennial International of Poetry of Brasilia is not a chapa-branca event. We will not have a Nobel Prize super structure. We are going to need enough solidarity to mobilize everybody. We will have defects, imperfections, but we must be generous, warm. We want you to help with transport to take the national and international guests to recite their poems in some places in the city. We want them to offer solidary lodging. The BIP is ours, the party is ours. I want you to divide that responsibility with us.
The speech above, of the general coordinator of the I BIP, poet and professor Antonio Miranda, pulled out a long applause of the auditorium of poets and artists, invited this past Friday 18th, by him and the Secretary of Culture of the DF, Silvestre Gorgulho, for a meeting of clarification on the philosophy of the event and of explanations on the program.
The meeting took place at the auditorium of the National Library of Brasilia, at 4pm and almost 70 persons assisted, between poets, plastic musicians, artists, filmmakers, business man partners of the event, ambassadors, representative diplomats and of the local government.
“I am happy to see this room full of people and that they believe in us”, Antonio Miranda said in front of the almost full audience. When finishing the descriptive projection of the programming of the I BIP, the coordinator of the event answered the questions of the auditorium, and emphasized: “We are not going to think that the Biennial is business-oriented. The most fabulous part of an event like this one is to take knowledge of the poetry that is being made in the world; it is to be able to meet poets of different continents, it is brotherhood, an unforgettable relationship”.
Miranda also said that the Biennial wants to conquer readers and form new poets. “We cannot know who he is a good poet, who is not so good, and nor is the case. If each one will be able to have five minutes of glory in the Biennial, he/she will have years of glory in the Internet, because we will reorganize the site with the register of all the events, until the end of the event”.
Fotos: Arquivo Secretaria da Cultura/DF
The meeting was opened by the Secretary of Culture with one short speech, where Antonio Miranda was praised as poet and recognized internationally as a professional. Gorgulho only said that “we have to give our best and we need to learn to make better in the biennials that will follow”.
Commentaries
“Where have you seen poets to be the guests of honor of an event made for them? It is incredible…” Tita Lima e Silva, poetess.
“How you have worked! How the program of the Biennial grew!” Santiago Naud, poet.
“I liked the programming, exactly vast and diversified. It is the face of Miranda, it is his style of making things”. Luis Turiba, poet and journalist.
“I find that they are exaggerating in the programming. Brasilia does not have public for poetry that supports an event thus so great. It should start with something smaller, more concentrated, and go expanding in the next biennials.” Jose Carlos Taveira, poet and publisher.
“Brasilia not only has public for events of the size and boldness of this Biennial. Our city deserves, needs and receives initiatives like this one with open arms. To cultivate the poetry, an art known for not giving profit, is not only one act of courage: it is an act of certainty in the transforming power of the verb. I am grateful to Miranda for this gift”. Pablo Jose Cunha, poet and journalist.
“I found the meeting excellent. I already knew part of the program and I could know more. I am betting in the event, even because the people who are involved are very compromised to the art in the city. And it is necessary to dare, without boldness you will not go far.” Juliana Monteiro, owner of the Bookstore and Bistrô Rayuela.
Translated by Monica Pineda
