The 2006 People's Poetry Gathering

The 2006 People's Poetry Gathering sponsored by City Lore and Poets House will center around a special theme: Poetry from the World's Endangered Languages. The Gathering is part of a multi-pronged initiative to document and disseminate some of the world's endangered oral poetry traditions through public programs, publications and the web, spanning the chasm of language.

Our featured languages for 2006 are the Celtic languages Breton, Irish, Scots Gaelic, and Welsh. The program will include contemporary literary and performance poets as well as musicians working in the Celtic languages. The cultural contributions of the Celts and Celtic languages in the diaspora, such as the influence of Celtic writers on English and French poetry, Irish theater, and American vaudeville will also be explored.

Programming from other regions of the world includes a new epic poem in Mandinka and a Basque dinner featuring bertsolariak poets. The Gathering will also celebrate a wide range of poetry traditions and traditions of the Gathering itself -- hosting open mics, readings by well known poets in keeping with the theme of language, and events that have become a hallmark of the Gathering such as a reading from Edgar Allen Poe's work in the graveyard at midnight.