The 12th Athens International Poetry Festival will commence on Monday, September 28, at the Athens Concert Hall, featuring poets from Greece and around the globe. The opening ceremony is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall, a prominent cultural venue in Greece. Admission is free with an online reservation, allowing a maximum of two tickets per person. This year, the festival, in collaboration with the Poets’ Circle, is themed “No Exit: Poems for Fractured Times.” It aims to explore poetry's role amidst geopolitical tensions, threats to democratic values, and the rising impact of artificial intelligence on reality perception.
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The festival emphasizes the necessity of poetry as a reaffirmation of European identity, a supporter of democratic culture, and a promoter of a meaningful humanistic education. The opening ceremony will include poetry readings from both Greek and international writers, incorporating spoken word, visual art, and music to voice contemporary collective anxieties while highlighting humanity's sensitivity and enduring hope.
Participants include renowned poets such as Harold Alva Viale from Peru, Ilya Kaminsky and Alicia Stallings from the United States, Chiara Catapano from Italy, Andrea Cote from Colombia, and several others from countries like Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Egypt. Greek poets featured in the event include Giorgos Alisanoglou, Anna Afentoulidou, and others.
The ceremony will be hosted by Ioanna Angelidi, with musical accompaniment by Vasilis Papadopoulos on piano. This event marks not just the festival's official start but also serves as an invitation for audiences to engage with diverse languages and perspectives through the voices of the participating poets.