(Inforpress) – Four dozen poets from Cape Verde, the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands are gathered in Praia for the 6th International Poetry Meeting of Macaronesia, a four-day debate on poetry and a call for worldwide peace.

According to the event’s organizer, poet Vera Duarte, this meeting, which had its inaugural conference on the theme “Cape Verde and the Azores, Circulating Voices: Jorge Barbosa, Pedro da Silveira, Urbano Bettencourt,” will feature 28 speeches on poetry, which will then be collected in a book and magazine by the Cape Verdean Academy of Letters, as well as a video with everything that was portrayed at the event.

“This information captured at this meeting can be used for studies, in schools, universities, meetings, so poetry can reach more people, and various countries,” she said.

According to her, the poetry festival on the Morabeza islands will also appeal for peace, especially to countries at war, and she congratulates the work of the United Nations for the help it has given to these people.

On the other hand, Vera Duarte explained that the participants in the meeting will have the chance to get to know Cape Verde, considering that all this will help the country be known worldwide.

The Cape Verdean poet Jorge Barbosa will be honored at the meeting. According to Vera Duarte, the author of “Archipelago” is “much admired” because “like no other poet, he sang about the islands of Cape Verde, about the good and the bad, and his poetry challenges everyone.”

For his part, International Commissioner João Carlos Abreu said that this international meeting of poets was a testament to how committed everyone is to valuing cultures, with exchanges that he considered fundamental to developing new bonds of friendship and, with these, also bringing the archipelagos of Macaronesia closer together in an affirmation of their presence in the broader world as bridge-builders between the different peoples of the universe.

“Poetry is a force and a vehicle for promoting people and, at the same time, regions, such as people, landscapes, cultures, histories and seas,” he said.

Present at the opening of the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Olavo Correia, said that without poetry and culture, everyone’s past and present become a “silent caste” because “poetry embraces the world that needs peace”.

“Poetry is also a way of seeing the world, which needs it very much, especially at this time of so much war ravaging the world,” he said.

Referring to the honoree, Jorge Barbosa, the governor said that the Ministry of Finance, in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and Praia City Council, wants to erect a bust in memory of this clairvoyant poet. Also, in honor of all Cape Verdean and Macaronesian poets, that is, from all over the world, which will be installed in Alexandre Albuquerque Square in Platô.

On the other hand, he said that from next year, books will pay only 200 escudos in taxes and that all statistical taxes on them will be eliminated because, he explained, a society that doesn’t read is a society that is “condemned to failure and backwardness.”

In his speech, he also said that artists who were not previously part of the Micro and Small Business Regime (Rempe) will be able to be and that from next year, they will be exempt from import duties on raw materials (equipment), including vehicles, to set up their own businesses.

“They will also have the conditions to be able to fulfill their tax obligations, so that they can have the right to a pension, retirement so that they can be dignified citizens in this republic that strives for the dignity of the human person,” he said.

The VI International Poetry Meeting of Macaronesia happened in Praia from the 13th to the 16th of November.

DG/JMV
Inforpress/Fim

Bruma Publications was present with our first book of a lusophone poet translated to English, and our PBBI director presented a talk on how poetry can serve as an instrument to avert violence and war.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance)  at California State University, Fresno.