Empowering Youth through Poetry: Bridging Generations and Fostering Hope

Giving voice to the youth. Breathing life into the new generations of poetry, an art form that remains ever relevant. Not by chance, even in the era of chatgpt, it calls for contemporaneity. The intellectual antidote in a world that cannot find peace, pervaded by dozens of wars and local conflicts. Poetry, to give space to the hopes of a society less subjected to injustices and to break down intergenerational barriers. In view of World Poetry Day on the 21st, the Capital celebrates it again this year with the Poetry Portraits Festival, which takes place throughout the day on Friday 15th at the Auditorium Conciliazione. The ambitious goal is to attract the interest of a diverse audience. And, above all, to bring poetic writing closer to the world of young people. For the first time this year, students will take the stage at the event promoted by the Rome Foundation. A group of Lumsa students will share their experience of meeting the well-known Italian poetess Vivian Lamarque, organized by Poetry Portraits. This seventeenth edition, which will see the presence of 40 poets from all over the world, will be entirely focused on the great Muse, avoiding other forms of collateral show and in-depth study. The few planned, in fact, such as the intervention of the illusionist Davide Spada, are all closely linked to the main theme. Spada will perform immediately after the critic Paolo Lagozzi who will delve into the theme of illusion and the magic of poetry. While artificial intelligence will be discussed by Vincenzo Della Mea, author of a book of poems written by gpt-2. The presence of the English poetess Arch Hades, author of the first collective and interdisciplinary non-fungible token (nft) work auctioned, sold by Christie's for 525 thousand dollars, is also expected. The great director of the event, Franco Parasassi, president of the Rome Foundation, highlights its uniqueness. To this original trait, in his opinion, "a certain dose of bold courage is accompanied, because in these so dark and full of concerns times," he notes, "it may seem paradoxical to focus attention on the muse of poetry. In reality, it is an apparent paradox. The words and voices that make up poetry call the world, retain it and reinvent it, and this makes poetry the closest of the arts to the everyday. It would be nice if we all practiced poetry, especially the young, if our dialogue with the poets was not episodic," his hope. The jury of the Rome Foundation award, chaired this year by the authoritative economist, as well as Neapolitan poet, Cesare Imbriani, has decided to award the prize to Bianca Tarozzi for her authenticity in poetic representation. To the Irishman Michael Longley, exceptional witness to the contradictions of his territory, goes the Rome Foundation International Award. While to the Dutch myth, now over ninety years old, Cees Nooteboom, the Special Award has been attributed. Finally, two more Awards. The Poetry Portraits 280 contest, dedicated to poetry in 280 characters, is joined by the third edition of Poetry Portraits.print. The award that winks at the young is given to those who are under 30 years old (and have never published before) and consists of the publication of the first collection of poems with the publishing house Interno poesia. "We are convinced that poetry calls for contemporaneity, it does not oppose technology, it does not contrast it because it is independent of everything," emphasizes Imbriani.