all photos and films by the author of the article
I was very pleased that Ioan Cristescu – General Director of The National Musum of Romanian Literature (NMRL) and Gabriela Toma – Programme Coordinator at NMRL – both embraced the idea of organizing a workshop in poetry performance in English. So, they invited – at my recommendation – Andy Willoughby from Great Britain at The XIVth Bucharest International Poetry Festival mid September.
I hold the opinion that the poets musn’t only come and offer their readings and/or performances to the poetry-loving audiences. Some of them – who have both the gift and generosity – can conceive and carry out a workshop in poetry with young students. That means also that you give much more to the community than in your 10 minutes performance: you inspire a group of young people to discover the poetry in themselves and at the same time become creative, inspired. You working hand in glove with them and sharing with them your own poetical experiences and endeavours, your passion and dislikes, your doubts and achievements as a human being. At the same time, you find the means to make your students discover during the workshop their sensibility and develop their imagination. You create an artistical bond with the your students that is beyond poetry.
Andy Willoughby was not only teaching many years creative writing, but had organized numerous spoken word, poetry performance meetings for more than two decades in Great Britain. We were so fortunate that one of his former students in Great Britain, Iulia Ioana Iliescu, not only joined the group of young poets that attended the above-mentioned three-day-workshop, but also was decisive in discovering most of the students that attended the workshop.
The British poet is a seasoned performer of poetry. I first met him in Tartu & Tallin (Estonia) and Turku & Helsinki (Finland) at a festival in two countries that took place more than ten years ago. I was impressed by his performance. I was impressed also by his heartfelt personality. The organizers of the Bucharest festival offered the workshop a beautiful room, all the necessary materials for the workshop in a historical building, The Gabroveni Inn in Bucharest Old Town that was transformed not long ago in a cultural hub where there are art exhibitions, theatre performances, music concerts and, of course, the performance night of The Bucharest International Poetry Festival and this year, for the first time, the workshop in performance poetry in English we are discussing.
I must confide that I took part in one of the workshops and was impressed by the work Andy & his poetry students put in: they were asked to draw charts of their soul in the form of the Dâmbovița river (one of the two rivers that cross Bucharest) and is 200 metres away from the workshop, to exchange the drawings and ask the other participants what they felt about their drawings – as a matter of fact what they thought of their soul –, the next day to take a walk along the Dâmbovița river and dive into its ever flowing personality, to write a haiku inspired by their drawing etc.
I felt and saw Andy’s enthusiasm transmitted to the whole group: not only did they do the inner search suggested by him, but they were imbued with the same enthusiasm of discovery as you can see in a short film here.
I myself became exuberant being immersed in the workshop and wrote two haikus and a poem all in English, inspired by one of the drawings of the students that took part in the poetical adventure.
Did I get into the soul of somebody, or did I discover again my passion for the ever flowing waters that is built-in my genes. So, I serpented through the crystal clear Dâmbovița river that founded Bucharest centuries ago and found myself in the emerging airy dusk promising to become a night, but what a night.
