Live Literature

In the early part of the year, our programming included The Fire Gilders: A Celebration of Brigid’s Day and Black History Month (in partnership with the Embassy of Ireland USA and the African American Irish Diaspora Network). The online event featured five poets from the US and Ireland, who read their work and discussed their experiences.

Also in February, we presented IrelandScotland St Brigid’s Day 2021: poetry films with Julie Morrissy and Iona Lee (with the Scottish Poetry Library and Department of Foreign Affairs).

Poetry Ireland partnered on ‘Come, let the blazing truth blind: poetic responses to the legacy of Ireland’s religious-run institutions’, presented online in April. Also in April, we presented Beautiful Speech: A Tribute to Eavan Boland, marking the one-year anniversary of the much-loved poet’s death.

A Celebration of Brigid’s Day and Black History Month took place on 1 February

Poetry Speaks: Poems and Moving Image

Our collaborations with the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation continued throughout 2021 and included: Poetry Speaks: Poems and Moving Image, an installation of 33 poetry films shown in IMMA’s Formal Gardens and online, Ghosts of the Recent Past (poetry films in response to the IMMA installation) and Poetic Reflections, Words Upon the Windowpane (NYC’s Irish Repertory Theatre).

We were also delighted to produce six new poetry films with the Foundation and poets Stephen Sexton, Padraig Regan, Dawn Watson, Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi, Ciara Ní É and Kimberly Reyes. We partnered with Festival in a Van to run a number of Covid-safe live performances for community groups around the island. World Animal Day and the theme of One Welfare were celebrated in October, with the online launch of a poetry pamphlet, ‘Of Claws and Hooves and Meadows’, in partnership with the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine.

We supported the launch of Dagogo Hart’s The Home Project, commissioned by Poetry Ireland and funded by the Arts Council’s Commissions Award. The series of three poetry films were warmly received

Uruemu’s Home, one of the films in The Home Project online. In December, two Poetry Ireland Introductions live events were staged at Smock Alley, featuring all 10 Introductions participants alongside musicians Bróna Keogh and Laura Elizabeth Hughes.

Other events and partnerships during 2021 included Acts of Commission: a two-part showcase of new poetry commissions of poets of the North of Ireland, Lemme Talk and the European Poetry Festival. We also supported Derek Mahon: A Celebration, organised by Trinity College School of English in November.

Poetry Ireland provided in-kind support to the Working-Class Writing Archive, to Trudie Gorman who was awarded a New Work award from Arts and Disability Ireland to work on her first collection, to the Anthology of Trans Writers, and to the Writing Home workshops, which provide creative engagement for residents in homeless services (with Colm Keegan, Kilkenny County Council and Creative Ireland).

Other supports and partnerships during 2021 included IMRAM, Dublin Book Festival, ‘about blank’ by Adam Wyeth, the John Hewitt Society Birthday Readings, DUBH (led by Felispeaks and partnered with the Dublin Theatre Festival), O’Bhéal, Over the Edge, Amergin Poetry Festival and many more.

Poet Rachael Hegarty, one of the performers at Words Move, part of Festival in a Van, at IMMA. Photo: Leon Farrell