Coracle Europe Festival 2021

Coracle Europe is a pan-European partnership of arts and cultural organisations committed to ensuring that Wales remains creatively connected to Europe and beyond. Since 2018 this partnership has hosted an annual international arts festival in west Wales. In the face of the challenges of pandemic, our free festival of resilience will take place between 16 and 19 April 2021 online. The links to the digital platforms where you can join the Coracle Europe Festival and the event details can all be found at the festival program page here!

Programme All times listed are British Summertime Wednesday 14 and 16 April there will be festival special story care and share sessions hosted by People Speak up and facilitated by Rufus Mufasa

Friday 16 April

18.00 : Story Telling with Deirdre Wadding Enter a world of ancient Irish gods and heroes with a storytelling session by Deirde Wadding, mythological storyteller, poet and pagan priestess.

19.30 : Axelsson and Boberg Spread Worry The duo Axelsson och Boberg sprider oro is a collaboration between musician Magnus Axelsson and poet Christer Boberg, both living in Gothenburg, Sweden. The 16 minute text and sound piece, Hej orgel! (Hey organ!) was performed live during Tranås at the Fringe in October 2020. The recorded version is now premièring at the Coracle Europe Festival 2021.

Saturday 17 April

11.00 : Poets without Borders (part 1) Hosted by Pankhuri Sinha, this is a group of internationally acclaimed poets, from all over the world, who meet for regular, periodic, theme based readings, celebrating poetry, the art of writing and performing poetry. The idea is to enrich from the cultural diversity on show here and also improve upon the poetic craft. Most of all, it is to unite poets as a coherent group and to promote poetry over all other forms of art and entertainment. It is also an effort to underline the importance of poetry as a medium of resistance, and platform for the fight of rights. Two films were made for the Coracle Europe Festival from a recent live event themed around Easter, Springtime, Passover, Holi, Nawroz.

14.00 : Gransgenerational Manifests On the 18 April at 16.00 Éfrin Gonzalez will host a panel discussion with four Guatemalan writers on facebook live (click on the title to find this Spanish language event) Convesatio - Manifestos transgeneracionales: Gautemala entre siglos. The discussion will feature Estuardo Prada, Emilio Rodriguz, Alejandro Marre and Simón Pedroza. write4word is collaboraing in the process of providing an English language subtitled version of this event as a film but in the meantime Éfrin provides us here with his own personal introduction and background to the discussion, with readings from the manifest authors.

15.00 : Rhian Elizabeth - Passion for Words (You Tube Première) here This is the YouTube premiere of a live event at the 2018 Tranås at the Fringe festival. Rhian talks about Disability Poetry and introduces Word Ward, an ongoing project for writers with disabilities and long-terms conditions.

16.00 : Ataxia, only joking. - Readings from Louise and Karl Treharne (You Tube Première) here Mel Perry of write4word presents a dialogue between Louise and Karl Treharne. They express their experiences of living as a couple with Louise's significant life-limiting physical and cognitive impairments

17.00 : Spoken Word Saturday - hosted by Eleanor Shaw

19.00 : Rockport Poetry Festival Prelude and 'Poets in Therapy' Between 2pm and 3:45pm EDT will be a traditional Open Mic that does not require prior registration. It will be “first come first serve” and we will accommodate as many poets as possible in that one hour and forty-five minutes. Please Note: the Open Mic is NOT open to any poet who is already scheduled to read at either the Rockport Poetry Fest Sunday program or the Coracle Europe Festival.At 4pm EDT, we are thrilled to present Poets in Therapy, a film by Finlay Hall from Scotland. A film about poets, featuring poets. Finlay will introduce and host this part of the Prelude event.

Sunday 18 April

12.00 : Poetry Films This programme features films by: Milica Denkovic Elizabeth Torres Christer Boberg Dominic Williams Inês Lampreia Calvin Wharton clare e potter and Jo Shapland

14.00 : The Rock Port Poetry Festival 2021, Global Voices The 3rd Annual Rockport Poetry Fest goes international this year: GLOBAL VOICES: Poetry from Around the World: Live Stream Event starts 9am EST (in Australia!) 80+ poets from 22 countries will read their poems live ALL DAY streaming on Zoom and YouTube Live

Monday 19 April

11.00 : Poets without Borders (part 2) Hosted by Pankhuri Sinha, this is a group of internationally acclaimed poets, from all over the world, who meet for regular, periodic, theme based readings, celebrating poetry, the art of writing and performing poetry. The idea is to enrich from the cultural diversity on show here and also improve upon the poetic craft. Most of all, it is to unite poets as a coherent group and to promote poetry over all other forms of art and entertainment. It is also an effort to underline the importance of poetry as a medium of resistance, and platform for the fight of rights. Two films were made for the Coracle Europe Festival from a recent live event themed around Easter, Springtime, Passover, Holi, Nawroz.

14.00 : An interview with Madam Neverstop An interview with Elizabeth Torres from May 2020, two months into European lockdowns. Considering the impact upon those working in the arts and actions of adaptability and resilience.

16.00 : The Llansteffan Writers A sharing by participants in a village writing circle, facilitated by Mel Perry. Funny and moving short fiction, memoir and poetry have emerged from the wide range of themes that we have explored. Written and read by Wendy Evans, Celia Strange, Alison Terry and Lottie Williams.

18.00 : Festival Special Pilsnerpoesi/Poems & Pints