On January 20, 2024, the European poetry slam championship was held at the De Singel concert hall in Antwerp, Belgium, in which 31 poets from 31 European countries participated. The winner was poet Joonas Veelmaa, who released his debut collection in 2022. This is the first time that an Estonian poet has been awarded in a high-level European final. The victory is also special because there has never been such a large participation in the European competition: this year for the first time Latvia, Romania, Ukraine and Scotland participated in the competition.
By a pleasant coincidence, Joonas Veelmaa, winner of the Estonian National Slam in Tartu, brought the title to Estonia just in time for the opening of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024. Sirel Heinloo and Toomas Leppik, leader of the Estonian Poetry Club and the Estonian NGO Lavalulue operating in Tartu, and Heili Jõe, cultural advisor of Estonia in Belgium.
Joonas Veelmaa presented an English translation of his poem “I am a poet, I am a poet”, which he supplemented with some verses before the European tour. The ironic phrase “I AM A POET A POET AM I” became a real hit among listeners. The English translation of the poem was done by Mirjam Parve and Ragne Schults, and the subtitles were translated into French, Spanish and Dutch, translated by Antoine Chalvin, Elisa Martínez de Marañón and Frans van Nes.
The judging system of this time’s parade was inspired by Eurovision, and the judges were the organizers of poetry parades from all 31 countries, who had traveled with their poets. Joonas Veelmaa thus received high scores from organizers from all over Europe who come into contact with poetry on a daily basis.
Veelmaa’s poetry plays with the border of identity between a creative person and a “simple” person, it allows identification with both sides, and in both cases also in an ironic way. The poem immediately captivated the audience in the concert hall and won first place with an impressive 216 points. Second is the Spanish poet Mama Fiera with 177 points with a poem about following the rhythmic dictatorship of tick-tock-tock-time and England representative Mithago finished third with 159 pointswhose poetry is linked to his transgenderism and his physical disability, and therefore to his repeatedly marginalized position in society.
The most discussed topic was social media anxiety, the topic of war was less related to poetry, but one of the most special moments of the evening was that just 5 minutes before the start of the Slam, someone drove straight from front for 3000 km. distant Arrival of the Ukrainian poet Igor Mitrov.
The ten most popular poets of the European poetry fair are now invited to participate in the world poetry fair, which this time takes place in Togo, Africa, and where poets from other continents also meet. From Europe, in addition to the first three places, representatives of Austria, Denmark, Scotland, Germany, Sweden, Ireland and France also arrived.
To get to the next European poetry competition in Slovakia, you need to show up as a participant in the preliminaries in Tartu, Tallinn, Pärnu or Viljandi and also pass the city final, in order to finally be able to perform at the nationwide Estonian Slämm, which usually takes place in September. The next preliminary round in Tartu will take place on February 8 in Vilde and Vines, with the writer Urmas Vadi as a guest. The Tallinn preliminaries will take place on February 12th in Heldekes and the poet Sveta Grigorjeva will be a guest there.
Joonas Veelmaa’s poetry can be seen from the recording of the live broadcast EK Slam Poetry – livestream – 20.01.24 – 19:00 The time of his performance is 14:39:40 and the winner will be announced at 16:51:00 .
The European Poetry Festival was organized by:
- THE SINGLE
- Spooninmybrain.org
- World Poetry Swarm Organization (WPSO) led by Philip Meersman
The Estonian Poetry Fair is organized by Lavaluule Estonian MTÜ (www.lavaluule.ee)
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2024-01-23 16:30:17
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