International Poetry Festival in Lousada, Portugal

2017-06-15

On 6-7 June an International Poetry Festival was held in Lousada, Portugal under the European ePublisher Project, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

There were 2 days of activities and interaction among all partners and the general public, where poetry has crossed the language barrier and was the queen of communication. Day 6 began with the presentation of the project Diogo Piçarra in Pessoa, in which the singer and composer presented his book based on the poems of the great poet Fernando Pessoa, which delighted the approximately 200 people present, mostly young students of the 12th grade from the schools of the county of Lousada.

In the afternoon, it was time to remember Álvaro Feijó, the most famous poet from Lousada. We visited the house where the poet lived in his childhood and Youth and where some of his poems were recited, in the Library of the house. Nowadays Casa de Vilar belongs to a nephew of the poet, who makes animated films and manages the Animation Film Museum installed in a part of the house.

On 7 afternoon, after a very enjoyable visit to two characteristic places in the municipality of Lousada, Quinta da Tapada and Casa de Juste, the Municipal Library was filled with poets to celebrate poetry. João Pedro Mésseder, Portuguese poet of the month of March, spoke about his life as a writer and poet. Then two students who won the Poetry Reading Contest organized by Lousada Library Network read poems of some of the greatest Portuguese poets. The poetry afternoon reached its highest moment when the invited poets of Lithuania, Poland and Finland presented their poems to the participants in their own language. Two fantastic days!