Department of Cultural Affairs

 

Photo by LRM
Chen Yuxin (陳譽馨) (left), deputy director of Taipei City Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs, opens the festival. Beside her are Yang Jia-Xian (楊家嫻), the curator, Dan Osano （おさの だん/小佐野彈), the Japanese poet, and Hong-Hong (鴻鴻), the curator.
 

By Dory Chung
 
The theme of the 2019 Taipei Poetry Festival is “The Woodpecker on the Wall”. It showcases the richness and diversification of poetry through performances, lectures, poem film competition, and book exhibition. The festival started on September 21st and runs through October 6th. The organizer invites everyone to enjoy the beauty of poetry. There are poems and singers from Japan, Germany, America, Lithuania, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
 
This year is the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. That event demonstrated that people crave freedom. In Taiwan, people have been fighting for LGBT rights for more than 30 years, and now the same-sex marriage law just passed. It is like the wall collapsing. On the 28th of September, the poetry show “The Beauty of Darkness, the Beauty of Light” will be held. The famous German poet and artist who fought to demolish the Berlin Wall, Wolf Biermann, and his wife Pamela will sing classic protest songs from that time.
 

Photo by LRM
A poem from Dan Osano (小佐野彈).  
 

 

Photo by LRM
Dan Osano introduces Japanese poetry and his poems.
 

Now on its 4^th year, Taipei City’s “Poets in Residence Program” invited the rising Japanese poet, Dan Osano, to stay in the city. He introduced his new poem “War Flag” at the press conference. His first collection of poems   “From the Metal (メタリック)” won the 63rd poetry award right after it was published this year.
 

Photo by LRM
Yang Jia-Xian reads Dan Osano’s poem in Chinese.
 

 

Photo by LRM
Chen Yuxin talks about the history of the Taipei Poetry Festival.
 

A wall normally makes a boundary. People might feel safe inside the wall, but they might lose courage at the same time. The woodpecker pecks at the wall again and again as people chip away at a barrier repeatedly until it breaks. Come to the festival and you will find courage and strength.