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2018 UNESCO WORLD POETRY DAY ISTANBUL FESTIVAL

21-22 MARCH 2018

WE COMMEMORATE UNESCO WORLD POETRY DAY IN ISTANBUL AT BAHÇEŞEHİR UNIVERSITY WITH INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION…

They say poetry is life… And it is very true… When we look at how people developed the language they would use to communicate with one another in the earliest stages of civilization, when they first began to live in communities, we see that the earliest forms of speech used by our ancestors were poetic… 

Why? Because poetry is a form of expression that comes from the very depths of our hearts and souls and best reflects our emotions, desires and sorrows… 

That is why we must recognize that in the past of nearly all societies, in the oral literary stages before the emergence of writing, the rhythm, music, tempo and even the magic of poetry found their way into legends and tales passed down from generation to generation, and became a driving force in making us beings who hold today's universal human values… 

Even as we move beyond the thresholds of the Information Age, we observe that poetry has not lost its traditional inclusiveness and magic and continues to make strong comebacks. This is because poetry offers us a literary medium through which the individual, growing lonely in the crowd of a globalizing world, can most effectively express an inner cry and convey messages to society and to others. 

Held with the participation of 15 international and 12 Turkish poets, the 2018 UNESCO WORLD POETRY DAY ISTANBUL FESTIVAL fulfills an important role in promoting our country, with its very strong poetic tradition and heritage, at the international cultural level, and in presenting world poetry to Turkish poetry and literature enthusiasts. 

We take great pleasure and pride in holding this festival under the auspices and hosting of Bahçeşehir University in beautiful Istanbul, a city that has nurtured countless poets over the centuries since ancient times.