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2018 UNESCO ISTANBUL FESTIVAL - WORLD POETRY DAY 21-22 MART 2018

21-22 MARCH 2018

WE ARE CELEBRATING UNESCO WORLD POETRY DAY 2018 IN ISTANBUL AT BAHÇEŞEHİR UNIVERSITY THROUGH POETS FROM AROUND THE WORLD…

They say poetry is all about life… That is very true… When we examine how humans developed language as a tool of communications during the infancy of civilization, at a time when human beings started to live within a sort of a communal structure, we can readily see that poetry used to be one of the first forms of speech among our ancestors…

Why? Because poetry is the best way of expression to reflect our soul, our sentiments, our desires, our grief and so much more...

After all, we can recognize that in the history of almost all societies, the oral traditions of spoken word, stories, phases, the rhythm, music, tempo and even the magic of poetry has influenced legends and tales which were passed down by word of mouth, and has been a driving force in our espousing universal human values…

As we are crossing the threshold of the Information Age, we can observe that poetry maintains its traditional encompassing and magical power, and it can also make a sound comeback. This is so because poetry gives us a literary tool, a capacity, in this globalized world where the alienated individual among the crowd can get across his or her genuine cry in an effective way to society and other people.

THE UNESCO ISTANBUL FESTIVAL - WORLD POETRY DAY, which hosted 15 foreign poets and 12 Turkish poets last year, performs an important role in promoting the strong poetry tradition of our country internationally in a cultural dimension and introduces world poets to Turkish poetry and literature lovers.

In this beautiful city of Istanbul, which has groomed many poets throughout centuries since antiquity, we are very happy and feel extremely proud that this festival is being conducted under the auspices and hosting of Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, Turkey.