Poetry Performance Ritta Baddoura at the World Poetry Day

Poems exist not only on paper, in data files or in the reader’s mind. They come live when they are spoken in the author’s voice. This is why UNESCO’s World Poetry Day – launched in 2000 – affirms not only the value of poetry and the multiplicity of the cultural wealth of language, but also the meaning of oral tradition. Every year in March, the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, along with its partners, collects the international poets who are living in Germany on fellowship programs. In 2008 the poets come from six countries – an opportunity for a world exhibition of poetry, read in six languages and in German translation. We invite you to a concert of verses, languages and voices.

On the occasion of the UNESCO World Poetry Day 2008, six authors, all fellows of various foundations, read a selection of their poems. In addition to Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria), Qassim Haddad (Bahrain), Christian Hawkey (USA), Piotr Sommer (Poland) and Ursular Krechel (Berlin), Solitude fellow Ritta Baddoura (Lebanon) is represented with an improvisation in French, Arabian and German. Her lyric-performance “Schreiten” (“Striding”) is based on excerpts from poems she wrote between 2002 and 2007. She explores and illuminates the process of walking in various metaphors – as an expression of and testimony to internal experiences and collective situations.

The evening is moderated by Knut Elstermann.

Ritta Baddoura (*1980 in Lebanon) studied clinical psychology at the Saint–Joseph University in Beirut and was also trained in music, painting and contemporary dance. She has published numerous poetry collections, among them Ritta parmi les bombes (Saqi Books Publisher, 2008) and the short story “Quinze”. Baddoura has performed her texts in Lebanon and on international stages. In 2007 she earned distinction by the Canadian Centre des auteurs dramatique (CEAD). Ritta Baddoura is a 2007/2008 Akademie fellow.

Stiftung Brandenburger Tor im Max Liebermann Haus, Pariser Platz 7, 10117 Berlin
Free admission, register at 030-22633030

A cooperative event sponsored by the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin and the Stiftung Brandenburger Tor with the Akademie Schloss Solitude, the DAAD Berlin artist program und the German UNESCO Commission.