Monday, June 21, 1993

Poetry International 1993/1994, v1

POETRY INTERNATIONAL 1993/1994 (1st draft)    Maureen Hurley

Holland's enormously successful Poetry International festival is the cultural highlight of Rotterdam—a futuristic concrete city known for its shipyards and little else. Razed to the ground by the Nazis in 1940, the city completely rebuilt itself from the rubble; some say it's culturally brain-dead. It's the largest industrial port in the world. In 1968, there wasn't much happening: no TV or radio stations, no publishing houses—in short, no culture. There still isn't much to see in Rotterdam today, and little to distinguish it from any other modern city if it hadn't been for a ship of fools who decided to declare verbal warfare on Rotterdam's lack of culture by hurling poems at it.

“WWII was long over, it was obvious something had to be done,” says Martin Mooij, the director of Poetry International. According to Mooij, the budding Rotterdam Arts Council invited him to become their director of literature. His job, to develop a literary community, was a bit like sending Don Quixote out with oars to joust with windmills. The 25-year-old organization has spawned other innovative projects and events besides the readings: a Dutch and Italian poetry exchange, translation workshops, a poetry archives and documentation center, putting pressure on repressive governments to release incarcerated poets, painting lines of poetry on garbage trucks. . .

Yes, painting lines of poetry on garbage trucks. . . It's an odd ark indeed when all 400 of Rotterdam's municipal garbage trucks flaunt lines of poetry: “Good morning beauty,” and “Always be clean so that the air will be clean.” Mooij explains, “One was the title of a book, and the other, a line from Rafael Oberti. Sometimes I just get crazy ideas for publicity. Rotterdam gets 30 to 40 new trucks a year. That's 30 to 40 more poets whose work gets read. At this point, I know everything about the cleaning service.”

Holland's second most important city, Rotterdam, has put the Netherlands on both the shipping and the poetry map. Amsterdam is the capitol of the Netherlands; both cities support one million inhabitants. (For those of you a bit shaky on geography, think Dutch: wooden shoes, Edam and Gouda cheese, tulips, windmills and canals: sorry, the story of the little boy Hans Brinker with his finger in the dyke is an American invention. I'll skip the historical legacies we owe to the Dutch: the pilgrim fathers, and New York nee  Nieuwe Amsterdam, Waal Straat, Haarlem. . .)

Since 1970, over 1000 poets from all over the world have boarded Rotterdam's gangplanks to participate in the annual ten-day festival held during the third and fourth weeks of June. For many poets from Holland and Flanders, the festival offers a unique opportunity to read with poets of international repute. Past luminaries include the European poets: Herbert Zbigniew of Poland, Vasko Popa of Yugoslavia, Miroslav Holub of Czechoslovakia, Lar Gustafsson of Sweden, Gunther Grass of Germany, Seamus Heaney of Ireland; The Russians: Bella Akhmadulina, Andrei Voznesenski, Yosef Trotsky; poets from the Americas: Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Octavio Paz of Mexico, Pablo Neruda of Chile; from the Middle East: Yehuda Amichi of Israel; and Randra from Indonesia. (PI archives.)

Poetry International's focus is on the situation of poetry in the Western World, Eastern Europe, China, Africa, and the Third World. Each festival focuses on a particular region, or is dedicated to a certain language—Russian, Hebrew, African. The 1992 Poetry International event was on China, last year’s1993 festival featured Latin American poets. “Everywhere, all of us here in the Netherlands—we think we are the center, or the heart of the world,” chuckles Mooij self-patronizingly.

The idea of “world poetry” began by accident in 1976, when Mooij was secretary of the literary department of the Rotterdam Arts Council. “Someone said 'Why don't you poets go and read at the statue of the poet, Tollen in the park.' We tried it on a Sunday afternoon. What we didn't know is that the immigrant workers—from Tunisia, Morocco, Antilles, Indonesia, Suriname—all went to the park.” Some 80-to 90,000 people came to see to poets, musicians, and dancers perform. “The event was highly appreciated; it became increasingly clear for people to hear poetry in their own languages,” says Mooij. “Prose is more difficult than poetry; it's easier to bring people together with poetry—it's the most intimate center of the human being.”

In the West, it's considered a problem if no one reads a poet's work, versus the other extreme of giving one's life up for the sake of poetry. “The most important reason for Poetry International is to create a forum for the human voice suppressed in so many ways. It brings poets from both extremes together to meet, hear and read each other's work. We're in a comfortable position to be forum. We are completely neutral, we don't speak about politics.  A Government of the Tongue,” says Mooij. “We give people the opportunity to express themselves and find out what's going on in the world of language.” Mooij quickly pointed out that poets are invited on the merit of their work, not because they're the privileged ministers of culture, etc. Mooij said “At first we asked local poets who should be invited. Now an international advisory board selects the poets.”

“We became our own foundation in 1980.” Poetry International is made possible by public funding through the Minister of Culture, the Municipality of Rotterdam, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, several Dutch foundations, and an anonymous American donor. Not all events take place in Rotterdam: “Poetry on the Road,”brings extra programs into other Dutch cities; at the end of June one event will take place in Enschede, a town near the German border.”

Poetry International cooperates with other poetry festivals worldwide: San Francisco, Toronto, China, Senegal, Russia, and Jerusalem. “We have a good networking system.” A new project Mooij would like to see in place is an international clearing-house style newsletter for his contacts in other countries.

We in the West tend to forget the high price poets in repressive societies may pay for igniting the green fuse of their “varied and sullen craft.” Sometimes invited poets can't participate in the festival because they are in prison, or have problems with their government getting a visa, or passport, etc. Through the attentions of Poetry International, many poets have gained their freedom. “In the beginning I didn't believe in giving out poetry awards, but we do give awards to prosecuted poets.” Says Mooij, “It began as a fluke. I don't know exactly how it happened, but I'd published some Turkish children's books, and I spoke about an imprisoned poet, Nevzat Celik; the editor promised to write to some official, and the poet was set free!”

“We cooperate closely with PEN International, and the Index on Censorship.” So far,14 poets have been awarded        what's it called?    WHEN??   Since then, 12 poets have been freed. From Africa, Breyten Breytenbach, Moroccan poet Abdellativ Laabi, Song Lin of China, now residing in Paris, and South Korean Papkno Hae who's been condemned to prison. Mooij hopes Hae will be freed soon.

Some poets may be able to leave their country, but the price is high; to return is an act of madness. Such is the case of Chinese poet Duo Duo whom Mooij met at a literary party in Beijing in 1988. The University of Leiden translated his work, and he was invited to the festival. Meanwhile, because of Tianennmen Square, no one was allowed to leave the country. A fortuitous accident, Mooij's secretary sent the airline ticket to the wrong place, to the airport desk, not to the Netherlands Embassy. Duo Duo picked up his ticket and left for London where journalists interviewed him about the massacre; he found couldn't go back to China. In 1992 he was a lecturer and taught poetry workshops at the University of Leiden under the auspices of the Prince Bernhard Fund. During his tenure, Duo Duo quickly branched out and published plays, essays in newspapers, and filmscripts for Dutch television. In 1993, Bei Dao was also awarded the prestigeous post.

 Bei Dao is in the same predicament. He was invited to the west in 1985, the first year he was allowed to travel to the Netherlands. At a 1989 PEN Congress, Bei Dao was chosen as the guest of honor, which angered an official representative of Chinese branch of PEN, making it impossible for Bei Dao to return. “He is a important writer,” Mooij hopes he will find his own place here; “He has problems getting published in his own country.” He will also teach workshops at the University of Leiden next Fall. The one-year writer in residence lecturships are made possible by businessmen, and the Prince Bernard Foundation (named for the father of Dutch Queen Beatrix)

According to Mooij, some prominent Dutch and Flemish poets include Belgian poet Hugo Claus, and Dutch poets Gerrit Rouwenaar, Remco Campert, psychatrist Rutger Kopland, J. Bernlef, the religiously inspired Ida Gerhardt, Leo Vroman, Bert Schierbeek, Jules Deelder, a performance artist, and poet-playright Judith Herzberg. Herzberg seemed to be the most active with numerous readings, lectures, films, children's plays, etc. Past criticism of Poetry International includes comments such as:  most of the poets seem to be from the 60-something crowd (with the exception of Deelder.) “Poets of a certain age. . . Some of the forever-voices tha have always been there,” grumbled one Amsterdam poet. “What's missing are the poets from 30- to 40-year-old bracket.” A lively counter festival featuring Beat poetry and jazz with Allan Ginsburg, Wanda Coleman and others, was simultaneously held at neighboring city, The Hague.

Though numerous writers are translated into Dutch—over one-quarter of all books published in Holland are translations—it's difficult for many Dutch writers to get into print. Poetry International offers selected Dutch poets international exposure.

Certainly it could be said the majority of the poets attending the 1993 Poetry International festival were of a certain age, but the line-up included luminaries Miroslav Holub (Czech Republic), Hugo Claus, (Belgium) Seamus Heaney (Ireland), Ilya Kutek, Dmitri Prigov (Russia), Breyten Breytenbach (South Africa), Homero Aradjis (Mexico) Josef Brodsky, Charles Simic (USA),
Remco Campert, Leo Vroman, Bert Schierbeek, Judith Herzberg, Anne Vetger,  Maria van Dahlen (Holland)—women poets are not equally represented.

Charles Simic used to teach at Sonoma State interview tidbits...
The Night Mayor of Rotterdam Jules Deelder performed at the pre-festival event

Mooij sees his role as a “(dis)organizer, not a writer. This is a beautiful country with a good social system that made Poetry International possible, However there's the other side. I have to stop work at 62, I'd like to stay on a long time. . .” And as the upcoming 25th anniversary of Poetry International approaches, Mooij asks, “What is our future? Where are we going?”

This is the final version for a South African University of Durban publication that never got used. By right, it is a separate article.

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