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 performed an English translation of his poem “I am a poet, I am a poet”, which he supplemented with some verses before the European prom. 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 place went to the Spanish poet Mama Fiera with 177 points, with a rhythmic poem about the dictatorship of the time, tick-tick-tack-tack, while third place went to the English representative Mithago with 159 points, whose poem is linked to his transgenderism and physical disability, and therefore to his repeated marginalized position in society.
The most discussed topic was social media anxiety, less the theme of war linked to poetry, but one of the most special moments of the evening was the arrival of the Ukrainian poet Igor Mitrov, who left directly from the front 3000 km away , just 5 minutes before the start of the slam.
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.
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2024-01-23 17:28:25
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