MEXICO CITY (appro).- Under the theme “Constellations: voice, body and word” this 25th edition of the Poetry out loud festival seeks to investigate the process of expanding the spectrum of the voice as an exercise that involves the body in contact with sound, word and voice.
Just as it happened with the theatrical movement Poetry out loud that Juan José Arreola promoted back in 1957, in which the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Octavio Paz, and other poets and writers of the second half of the 20th century later became involved. Interrupted, but not broken, the festival continues that tradition, that of the voice in all its expressions.
And following this tradition, according to Cinthya García Leyva and Macarena Hernández, curators of this edition, the starting point of the 25th anniversary of the meeting “is found in the notion of rituality as a creative action, but also as a manager, as well as in the importance that public spaces currently grant the recovery of audiences, particularly free audiences.”
Thus, artists of the stature of Matana Roberts (USA) –recognized as one of the most important exponents of current experimental music and spoken word–, Bartolina Xixa (Argentina), Raja Kirik (Indonesia), Claire Rousay (USA) and national figures from different parts of the Republic, such as Patricio Hidalgo and El Afrojarocho, Bárbara Lázara or Elvis Guerra, among others.
The activities…
Matana Roberts is an American sound experimentalist, saxophonist, composer. She will present Coin Coin Chapter Three: river run thee –named among the best Avant Albums (2015) by Rolling Stone magazine–, which delves into the characteristics of the African-American community and history under her unique vision of jazz.
Indonesian duo Raja Kirik will bring together the sounds of traditional instruments and dances from the island of Java with contemporary punk, digital noise, IDM, hard dance and more in a performance that puts the history of Dutch colonial oppression in tension. with a present of global contemporary violence.
There will be a different activity in sound installations with “Funeral Rituals” –a selection of songs and rhythms of funeral rites from various locations around the world by Félix Blume– and the exhibition of Radioarte Winning Works within the framework of the International Biennial from Radio 14, curated by Tito Rivas and Mirna Castro, in collaboration with the National Music Library.
The theme associated with the body presents the premiere of “Polvareda”, a collective improvisation by Katia Castañeda, Mitzi Dávalos, Nadia Lartigue and Juan Francisco Maldonado, developed in situ for the Casa del Lago spaces, an act that plays with the tensions between word and action, between language and what it intends to name.
There will also be a presentation by Patricio Hidalgo and the Afrojarocho collective with their own expressions from Veracruz, which will close this festival with a great fandango.
The festival will also feature the workshop “Psiconavigaciones Ambient: audiovisual documentation of sound practices”, given by the independent music producer and music journalist Ejival.
All activities are free at Casa del Lago, but space is limited. The complete program can be seen at casadellago.unam.mx/pva2023/
