A sparkling little gem of a festival in March in Moëlan-sur-Mer on the undulating coast of Finistère.
Poetry projects
Titian Puts Down His Paintbrush and Picks up His Guitar
Titian, the 16th century Venetian painter, was, according to the Tate gallery catalogue, “famed for his uncompromising blues”. Using previously unknown pigments, he developed new shades of blue, based around ultramarine. In effect he invented The Blues. This was recorded and filmed in Austin TX with Robert Galindo on guitar.
Festival Mediterranju tal-Letteratura ta’ Malta – Festival of Mediterranean Literature
For the last few years I have been invited to participate in this festival which includes poets and other writers from the Mediterranean and beyond. The 3-day festival is preceded by 4 days of workshops where the invited poets meet to talk about their work, each others’ work and poetry in general. On stage they read their texts in the language in which they were written and this is followed by a translation into English or Maltese. I work with the poets in these workshops to provide English translations, using either a rudimentary English translation or a French version, that often being a language we have in common, and then read my translations on stage alongside the poet. I also provide English translation for the Maltese poets to work from and for any other poet who wishes to translate a text into their own language.
In 2016 I worked with Abdelrahim Said from Morocco, Roja Chamankar from Iran and Rodolfo Hasler from Cuba. In 2017 I worked with Lilia Ben Romdhane from Tunisia, Jean Portante from Luxembourg,John Acquilina from Malta and Asja Bakic from Bosnia. In 2018 I worked with Ali Thareb from Iraq, Laia Lopez Manrique from Spain and Massimo Barilla from Sicily.
The festival also gives me an opportunity to read my own poems and to have them translated by other invited poets.
Maelström Fiestival, Bruxelles
An adventurous four day festival of poetry every May, with art, music, dance and theatre thrown into the poetic mix. In 2017 and 2018 I took part in the ‘Roue des Poètes’with my dear poet friend Ceejay in the streets around the main venue and in the Méga Slam-Jam Festival Finales.
Austin International Poetry Festival
A 4-day festival every first weekend of April, taking place in bookshops, coffee shops, libraries and colleges around the city of Austin, Texas. I am a member of the festival Board of Directors and read at the festival every year. I also hosted a poetry translation workshop – in 2017 and 2108 with Roja Chamankar – and was and was privileged to do some dual language readings with her of both our poetry.
A window to a hypothetical sky
Une Fenêtre au ciel iréel (a window to a hypothetical sky)
An evening of readings from the works of 6 poets who had been, or currently are, imprisoned, held at Le Soleil Bleu in Lodève, SW France, which I organised as part of the Printemps des Poètes, March 2017. The title is from a line from a poem by Abdellatif Laabi.
Published poetry
Anthologie des poètes sémaphoristes 2019. Editions Maison de la Poésie, Pays de Quimperlé, 2019. Poem: ‘Vers la flamme’.
Anthologie des poètes sémaphoristes 2018. Editions Maison de la Poésie, Pays de Quimperlé, 2018. Poem: ‘Entre deux souffles’.
di-verse-city, 2018. An anthology of the 2107 Austin International Poetry Festival, AIPF, Austin TX, 2017. Poem.
Herrings. An anthology from the 2016 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. Blue Door Press, 2017. Poem: ‘Podcasting’.
La Volée, No 10 – juin 2017. Poems: ‘Le rhinocéros’, ‘Chaque trace’.
Urgence Poésie
A member of this insurrectionist poetry collective, originally formed in Lodève, SW France, as a protest again the local authority’s withdrawal of funding from a long-running poetry festival, ‘Voix de la Mediterannee’ for no clear reason. The collective organised two poetry festivals, Urgence Poésie, in the town, in July 2015 and July 2016, plus two all-night poetry reading marathons and a day dedicated to the poetry of Mahmoud Darwich.
La Rencontre Internationale de la Poésie, Safi, Morocco
I was an invited poet to this international poetry festival in March 2015 where the theme was ‘poésie et résistence’. Readings were held in French and in Arabic at the university, cultural centre and the high school.