Successful Closure of III International Poetry Festival, Santo Domingo 2011

Successful Closure of III International Poetry Festival, Santo Domingo 2011
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 10/24/2011

The Ministry of Culture officially closed the third edition of the International Poetry Festival, Santo Domingo 2011 in a ceremony at the Culture Hall of the Eduardo Brito National Theater.

“Poetry Flourishes on this Side of the Ocean.” The Festival honored the memory of Dominican poet Manuel del Cabral, celebrated by the Ministry of Culture.

Poets representing Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Italy attended the Third International Poetry Festival, Santo Domingo 2011, held under the slogan “Poetry Flourishes on this Side of the Ocean.” The Festival honored the memory of Dominican poet Manuel del Cabral, celebrated by the Ministry of Culture.

The proclamation highlights poetry as a way of integrating the world´s nations and their highest democratic aspirations which implies a condemnation of human rights violations and breakdown in the state of law as well as viewing poetry as a path to overcoming ideological, ethnic, linguistic and gender barriers, among other relevant issues.

Starting on Thursday October 20, poets recited their work in various venues where they shared it with other writers, students and Dominican readers.

The Parque Colón of Colonial City, UNIBE, the Narciso González Cultural Center, the   Pedro Mir Forum of the Cuesta Bookstore, the Consistorial Palace of Santiago and train cars and stations of the Metro of Santo Domingo, are some of the places where poets recited their work. They also went to Santa Teresita, La Salle, San Miguel Arcángel, Belisario Peguero and Cardenal Sancha Schools.

As part of this celebration, on Thursday the 20th, Poetry Plaza (Plaza de la Poesía) was inaugurated in homage to Salomé Ureña, on Las Atarazanas Street. Friday the 21st, National Day of Poetry in honor the birth of Dominican poet Salomé Ureña de Henríquez, there was a special program that began with the laying of a Floral Wreath at the Pantheon of the Patria followed by lectures on poetry in different places around the country.

There were also important Dominican poetry anthology presentations, published in Spain and Italy including “Twentieth Century Poetry of the Dominican Republic” and the important Spanish Visor collection “Chants of the Air: Anthology of Contemporary Dominican Poetry” by the Italian, Emanuele Bertini, in a bilingual edition.

International poets who participated in the Festival included: Alan Mills and Carlos López (Guatemala); Eleonora Requena (Venezuela); Aleyda Quevedo Rojas (Ecuador); Anthony Phelps (Haiti); Alex Fleites and César López (Cuba); Claribel Alegría (Nicaragua), Claudio Daniel (Brazil), Coral Bracho and Hernán Bravo Valera (Mexico), Darío Jaramillo Agudelo and Jotamario Arbeláez (Colombia), Eduardo Chirinos and Marco Martos (Peru), Héctor Hernández Montecinos (Chile), Hugo Mujica and Lila Zemborain (Argentina), Joaquín Morales (Paraguay), José Ramón Ripoll and Luis García Montero (Spain), Juan Carlos Orihuela (Bolivia), Juana Goergen and Néstor Barreto (Puerto Rico), Luis Chaves (Costa Rica), Mariella Nigro (Uruguay), and Silvio Mignano and Zingonia Zingone (Italy).

Poets invited to participate from the Dominican Republic were Alfonso Quiñones, Soledad Álvarez, Ángela Hernández, Iky Tejada, Pedro José Gris, Cayo Claudio Espinal, Dionisio De Jesús, Federico Jóvine Bermúdez, Fernando Cabrera, Jesús Cordero, Juan Carlos Mieses and Rafael Hilario Medina, among others.


José Mármol, president of the Organizing Committee; Nicaraguan poet Claribel Alegría; Mateo Morrison, Deputy Minister of Culture and Alejandro Cabral, son of Manuel del Cabral.