Three months of hard work, experiencing poetry, expressing ourselves, making friends – this is what happened to adolescent participating in the Engage project in Kraków this year. A dozen young people from High School No. 5 has decided to step in this adventure in March with uncertainty, doubts and shyness. At the beginning of June the stood bravely on stage with courage, proud and self-confidence.
All the adolescents have been attending regular poetry workshop dedicated to slam and performative poetry from both perspectives theoretical and practical. Two main leaders – Michał Sowiński, literary critic and Rudka Zydel, poet and slam champion have shown them the excitement of exploring poetry. Some of the participants were poets themselves, some were to discovered poetry soul. During the workshops they were gaining knowledge about the tradition of poetry as well as practicing their skills and discovering new ways of expression. They were aware that the big final would come and it would be their task to present the whole work they have done to the audience. Their day.
We decided to include the final into Miłosz Festival’s program. The biggest celebration of poetry in Poland sounds like a perfect condition to make their bow. The city for 4 days becomes a real capital of poetry, Kraków is full of literature’s writers and lovers. What an atmosphere!
The final event organized by students was a slam poetry competition fully open for the audience – everyone could sign in and perform. Many adolescents from the workshops decided to go on stage and read a poem bravely and proudly. And their poetry was deep and mature, about their dreams, relationships, hard decisions. In a word – chapeau bas!
Special congrats should go to Maciek, an adolescent who wonderfully hosted the whole event and impressed the audience.
TEXT BY: Elżbieta Foltyniak
