eMultipoetry Project Krakow UNESCO City of Literature

Posted: Saturday Jun 20, 2015

In May a slice of Dunedin editor and writer Emma Neale’s poetry featured on a wall, at a corner of the Main Square and Bracka St, Krakow, Poland as part of a collaboration between the successful poetry project eMultipoetry and the UNESCO Cities of Literature. 

During the first 11 days of every month, it will be possible to read poetry from 11 UNESCO Cities of Literature on the wall of the Potocki building. These will be poems from the members of the Creative Cities Network’s literary cities: Dublin, Edinburgh, Iowa City, Krakow, Melbourne, Norwich, Reykjavik, Dunedin, Heidelberg, Prague, and Granada. Everyday a poem from a different city will be presented in Polish and English. The poetry projection project was started in this spot by the Poemat Foundation in 2002. The project began as part of the “366 poems in 365 days” initiative organized by Michał Zabłocki. In central tourist locations in Krakow and Warsaw, on the facades of two buildings, every day throughout the year, 366 of Zabłocki’s poems were projected. This was a world premiere of an entire volume of poetry presented in a one-of-a-kind fashion: on a wall. 

From this point forward, poetry has been ever-present on the facade of the building at the corner of the Main Square and Bracka St. The concept of this project is an ideal fit with the strategy of the UNESCO Cities of Literature, which consider the goal to build and strengthen international cooperation to be highly important. The idea was born during the international conference “Creative Cities and Regions”, which took place in Krakow, October 2012, as part of the Reading Malopolska project. 

The poems projected by Dunedin are from the following poets:  Emma Neale, Hone Tuwhare, David Eggleton, Janet Frame, Vincent O'Sullivan, James K Baxter, Sue Wootton, Brian Turner and Charles Brasch.

This is the second time this project has partnered with all the UNESCO Cities of Literature. The organizers of this project are the Krakow Festival Office and the Poemat Foundation Partners of the project: UNESCO Cities of Literature, including Dublin, Edinburgh, Iowa City, Melbourne, Norwich, Reykjavik, Dunedin, Heidelberg, Prague, and Granada.