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UNESCO Creative Cities Network Annual Meeting

From 25 – 28 May 2015, Kanazawa UNESCO City of Craft and Folk Arts (designated in 2009) in Japan hosted the IX Annual Meeting of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN). Krakow UNESCO City of Literature (designated in 2013) took an active part in the meeting, as it was also nominated during the previous 2014 meeting in Chengdu to represent the Cities of Literature in the Steering Group created to ensure strategic and efficient communication between UNESCO and the rapidly growing network. During the meeting, Krakow presented on its key initiatives and activities from the past year, including its two literary festivals, the City Codes and Read KRK! projects, support for the modernization of local libraries and independent bookstores and much more. For more about the City of Literature programme run in Krakow, please visit our programme website.

During the meeting, representatives of 69 cities from 32 different countries were tasked with the following:

  • Review the past initiatives undertaken in the effort to use creativity as an enabler and mobilizer of sustainable urban development;
  • Develop new partnerships and projects as well as build on existing ones;
  • Address the development of a more geographically balance network;
  • Reflect on the strategic objectives of the Network;
  • Establish criteria for the selection of future host cities of the Network’s Annual Meetings;
  • Address formal periodic review of membership
  • Identify the key areas of growth and development for the year.

Previous Creative Cities annual meetings have been held in Paris (UNESCO HQ, 2008), Santa Fe (2008), Lyon (2009), Shenzhen (2010), Seoul (2011), Montréal (2012), Bologna (2013) and Chengdu (2014). The 2016 Annual Meeting will be held in in Östersund, Sweden.

More information about the meeting may be found at the official website as well as on the UNESCO Creative Cities Network website.

During the third day of the festival, poets confessed to imaginary arguments, smuggling, and the fact that in principle, they use words in order to give space some breathing room.

The third day of the Miłosz Festival began with a rescue operation in the Charming Kingdom – a land of magicians and fairy tale writers, where every book has its good ghost. However, when fourteen Book Ghosts began to suffer from insomnia, the kingdom was in danger. Instead of sleeping during the day and haunting at night, the ghosts started to cause trouble during both day and night. Luckily, the children and parents taking part in the city game “Lullaby for the Book Ghosts” (“Księgoduchy do poduchy”) saved the land and the Festival could go on.

Robert Hass, speaking about his friendship with Czesław Miłosz, admitted that he has not stopped talking with Miłosz, even after his death. What is more, he has not stopped arguing with him, as seen in the poem “An Argument about Poetics Imagined at Squaw Valley after a Night Walk under the Mountain.” Robert Hass emphasised that he himself has spent a lot of time, wondering about the world – “you know, in New York, people go to the museum then, we in California go for a walk,” Hass said – but it was Miłosz who was the master, especially in describing the fine detail in such a way as to dazzle the world.

Speaking about his poetry, Hass stressed that he tries to find the right mix between pain and beauty, between his Catholic upbringing and sensuality. He did not want to create confessional poetry, but wanted to show that what constituted the core of his life was simply extraordinarily sweet.

An altogether different face of the poetry of Czesław Miłosz was discussed during the International Haiku Conference accompanying the Festival. Participants of the discussion searched for links between Polish poetry and the world’s shortest form of poetry, which was so valued by Miłosz.

Andrzej Franaszek, in turn, looked for the connection between Zbigniew Herbert and Ryszard Krynicki – the laureate of this year’s Herbert Literary Award. In a conversation with Ryszard Krynicki, he asked why, instead of an intergenerational conflict, his acquaintance with Herbert became a friendship. The poet admitted that during the times of Communist Poland, Zbigniew Herbert got him out of trouble many times, paradoxically calling for not publishing Krynicki abroad.

To raise the temperature of this story, let us add that it concerns a mysterious tablet and a poem that, according to Communist authorities, could threaten the regime. Franaszek spoke about this type of poetic smuggling with today’s publisher of Herbert’s work, honoured by the Herbert Foundation.

Magda Heydel asked Alice Oswald about what she smuggles into her poetry from her work as a gardener. The British poet admitted that she feels more like a translator of nature than a creative artist. “I follow the map of the river, and copy the voice of the water and the people connected with it,” said the author of the volume Dart, which shares its name with the river, near which the poet lives.

Oswald attaches great importance to the form of the poem – both its graphical shape and its rhythm. She always recites her poems from memory, and views writing them down almost like a musical composition. “Basically, words only serve to properly separate space,” says the author of the poem in which she interviews a particularly unpredictable wind.

Also unpredictable was the result of the Spanish-Polish marathon Republica Poetica. Who was the undisputed leader? The poetic draw was guaranteed by Marta Eloy-Cichocka, who hosted the Polish-Spanish evening, while Marcin Oleś provided the musical garnish with his sensual bass playing.

What awaits us on the fourth day of the festival? A great May picnic in the picturesque Józef Mehoffer House Garden, but also the chance to get to know Anthony Miłosz, the poet’s son. The great finale will be taken care of by Yurii Andrukhovych – poet, translator, ambassador of Free Ukraine and frontman of the band Karbido, with whom he will perform a concert at Re Club to cap off the fourth edition of the Miłosz Festival.

 

The second day of the Miłosz Festival was abundant in what poetry lovers like the most – direct meetings with poets, who have spoken about their creativity in prose. “My works are a game of light and dark,” said Marie Lundquist, while Charles Simic admitted, that for him, a poem is a small and intricate watch, in which every word has its place. This is why he edits some of them even five times – in later editions of his volumes.

The day saw a symbolic meeting between Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska – the nominees for the Wisława Szymborska Literary Prize were announced during the festival named for the author of The Captive Mind. The jury selected five writers from among the 214 submitted entries – one of them will receive the prize in October.

The nominees were: Roman Honet, Jakobe Mansztajn, Mirosław Mrozek, Jacek Podsiadło and Maciej Robert. Abel Murcia Soriano, member of the jury, emphasised that the selected poets differ from one another in absolutely everything, and it was this distinction that the jury focused on.

Justyna Czechowska also asked Marie Lundquist about the differences. Her work – extremely feminine and intimate was daringly translated from Swedish by Zbigniew Kruszyński. Is a man able to properly interpret poetry created by a woman? Marie Lundquist admitted, that in their new form, her poems take on a new colour and she herself has started to look at them differently.

The Swedish poet emphasised that since her debut, she has been accompanied by a sense of strangeness – her first poems were published in Danish in one of the local literary magazines. “Perhaps this is why I am still sceptical about the language I use in my poetry,” she added, although she admitted that it could be a matter of Scandinavian nostalgia.

Charles Simic, in turn, confessed that he did not consider himself to be a poet for a long time. “I’ve always wanted to be a painter,” the Serbian-American artist said. Perhaps this is why he works on his poems with such a precision, so he can improve them again and again even after publication.

Charles Simic’s poetry evokes strong reactions – his Greek hairdresser decided to devote a series of oil paintings to it, and one of his anxious readers sent him a copy of the Bible, worried about his salvation. The poet admitted to knowing that at least one marriage was entered into under the influence of his poem, “Crazy About Her Shrimp.”

The festival does not cater only to its adult readers. In cooperation with the Festival of Literature for Children, the organisers invited children and Miś Fiś to play. The author of the book, Wojciech Bonowicz, presented the newest adventure of the beloved character to the youngest members of the audience, causing peals of laughter.

A more bluesy mood was brought to us by Adam Zagajewski and his guests, who, along with pianist Joachim Menzel, presented the Requiem for poets. Thanks to this meeting poets who have passed away returned in a moving encounter through their poems.

What will the third day of the poetry celebration in Krakow bring? Fans of the work of Robert Haas and Alice Oswald will be able to meet them in person during author meetings. On Saturday, readers will also meet Ryszard Krynicki, laureate of the 2015 Zbigniew Herbert Literary Award.

Following further footsteps of the work of Czesław Miłosz, on Saturday, we will look for his connections with haiku – during the International Haiku Conference. The evening will end with the Republica Poetica meeting – an incredible marathon, with participating poets from Poland, Spain, Mexico and Chile, accompanied by Marcin Oleś, one of the most outstanding Polish jazz bassists.

The great celebration of poetry in Krakow has begun – the fourth edition of the Miłosz Festival is off and running. This year, dozens of Polish and foreign creators, along with readers, will focus on The Book of Luminous Things. “During the festival, we will not cense the chapel of Czesław Miłosz. His creativity will be a starting point for our talks and discussions,” said Jerzy Illg from the Festival’s Programme Council.

The originators of the poetry celebration reminded that the inspiration for them were the Meetings of the Poets of the East and the West[Spotkania poetów Wschodu i Zachodu] begun by Czesław Miłosz. “It was here, in Krakow, that everything began,” said the vice-mayor of Krakow, Magdalena Sroka. Zofia Król from the Festival Programme Council noted that what was most important was “not to keep Miłosz where you cannot reach.”
The inaugural lecture was delivered by Ruth Padel, a British poet and the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin, who stressed that concern for the environment is one of the most important poets‘ responsibilities. “I know that Czesław Miłosz wanted to be an ornithologist when he was a boy. As children, we probably read the same books about nature,” she added.

However, nature is only one of the many areas of Ruth Padel’s interests. The author of the volume The Art of Kintsugi is a fan on both opera and rock, and loves ancient Greece as much as modern London, where she teaches poetry at King’s College.

Inspired by the prehistoric drawings in the Pech Merle cave in France, Ruth Padel wondered in her lecture about the connection between form and truth – could horses drawn thousands of years ago really be spotted (the author of The Art of Kintsugi was delighted to discover spotted horses harnessed to Krakow’s horse-drawn carriages). The poet noted that both art and science begin with the observation of nature. She also agreed with Miłosz, who said that the world we know is only the surface of the true and most essential depth. She reminded the audience that Miłosz spoke of himself as a hunter of meaning, and emphasised that poetry should be loyal to reality.

It was this loyalty that was the subject of the discussion of Zofia Król’s guests – California poet and Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Haas, and literary critics Anna Kałuża and Piotr Śliwiński. During the debate Useful Books?, they discussed the role of poetry, although as Haas admitted, Czesław Miłosz, who was his friend, “considered discussions of poetry to be too pretentious, and preferred to read poetry with his students instead.” The American emphasised that Miłosz continued searching for language that could capture the lived experience.

The panellists argued about whether poetry, as Miłosz would wish, should be understandable, and what role the “useful books” should play today. Together, they came up with the modern metaphor of poetry as a black box on a plane, sunk to the bottom of the ocean, and the signal we should search for. Contemporary useful poetry may be socially engaged, fight for ecology, translate the processes taking place in the world around us. It can also, as Czesław Miłosz wanted, “be an antidote for the phase of civilisation we are currently in.”

The critics also outlined the landscape of contemporary Polish poetry, noting that there have been numerous attempts to break up “the monument called Miłosz,” and adding that there are young poets in Poland, who can skilfully read contemporary reality.

Together, the guests of this year’s festival created a new Book of Luminous Things, through an evening reading of poems they would like to present to Polish readers. They took us to a Chinese restaurant in New York, somewhere in the Greek islands, and in the alleys of Ljubljana. During the final of the first day of the festival on the stage of the Krakow Academy of Dramatic Arts, we heard poems in Swedish, Belarusian, Catalan and Polish. The poets let us make ourselves comfortable in their languages, but also made us guests of their imagination.

On Friday, during the second day of the Festival, poetry lovers are in for a special treat – at 11 am, the Wisława Szymborska Foundation will announce the nominations for the Wisława Szymborska Literary Prize. A little earlier, at 10 am, the children will begin their activities by taking a walk around Main Square with Michał Rusinek, the secretary of the Nobelist. The second day of the Miłosz Festival will be a day of meetings with poets – audiences will be able to get to know, among others, Marie Lundquist and Charles Simic. And in the evening at 9 pm, we will honour the memory of the artists who have passed away. Adam Zagajewski will be the host of the blues-themed event. “It will not be another sad and weepy All Souls’ Day,” said the poet. Pianist Joachim Menzel will provide the music during the evening.

Starting today (May 1st), in the very centre of Krakow and on the corner of the Main Square and Bracka St., it will be possible to read poetry from 11 UNESCO Cities of Literature ! As part of the “Multipoetry” project, during the first week of every month, on the wall of the Potocki building, poems from the members of the Creative Cities Network’s literary cities: Dublin, Edinburgh, Iowa City, Krakow, Melbourne, Norwich, Reykjavik, Dunedin, Heidelberg, Prague, and Granada, will be projected. Everyday a poem from a different city will be presented in Polish and English.

The poetry projection project was started in this spot by the Poemat Foundation in 2002. The project began as part of the “366 poems in 365 days” initiative organized by Michał Zabłocki. In central tourist locations in Krakow and Warsaw, on the facades of two buildings, every day throughout the year, 366 of Zabłocki’s poems were projected. This was a world premiere of an entire volume of poetry presented in a one-of-a-kind fashion: on a wall. From this point forward, poetry has been everpresent on the facade of the building at the corner of the Main Square and Bracka St.

The concept of this project is an ideal fit with the strategy of the UNESCO Cities of Literature, whose key goal is to build and strengthen international cooperation. The idea was born during the international conference “Creative Cities and Regions”, which took place in Krakow, October 2012, as part of the Reading Malopolska project. This is the second time this project has been organized on this scale together with all the UNESCO Cities of Literature.

Read more about the poems and the poets here.

In order to participate in the project, go here.

The organizers of this project are the Krakow Festival Office and the Poemat Foundation

Partners of the project: UNESCO Cities of Literature, including Dublin, Edinburgh, Iowa City, Melbourne, Norwich, Reykjavik, Dunedin, Heidelberg, Prague, and Granada

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