Sha’ar Internation Poetry Festival will take place from November 28 – 30, 2013 at Beit HaGefen in Haifa. The word Sha’ar means gate in Hebrew and poetry in Arabic, and the festival opens the gate to poetry and to conversations between people from all over the world who gather to share in the experience. Now in its 13th edition, Sha’ar is jointly presented by Helicon, the Haifa Municipality and Beit HaGefen. All Sha’ar events are free and open to the public.
The theme for this year’s festival is “The Streets Take Off Slowly: Poetic Journeys.” Festival events will include poetry readings, music performances and film screenings. Poets from England, Germany, Latvia, Hungary, Holland and Turkey will be participating in the festival, as well as poetry festival directors from Holland, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Slovenia and England.
Israeli poets participating in the festival include: Aggi Mishol, Dory Manor, Noam Partoum, Raquel Chalfi, Haviva Fadia, Hanna Abu Hanna, Hedva Harechavi, Rami Saari, Amira Hess, Rafi Weichert, and many more…
Some Festival highlights:
Music performances by Shem Tov Levy, Dikla, Benny Bashan, Cut ‘N Bass, Yinon Mualem with Ariel Kassim and Hila Lahav, HaOrvim and a drumming circle.
The wonderful actor Yossi Graber will present a poetry reading.
Tami and Ronen Izhaki will perform their dance piece “This Now Is” – A duet inspired by the creation story of Adam and Eve and Plato’s Symposium, describing the mythical bond between a man and a woman and the relationship that derives from this bond.
A screening of I am Bialik, the “mostly true” saga of director Aviv Talmor, self-proclaimed “frustrated poet and literature teacher” who embarks on a search for a father figure that leads him to Haim Nachman Bialik, Israel’s national poet, who brought the Hebrew language back into the language of modern poetry.
This year, for the first time, the festival will award “The Helicon Prize in the name of Rami Ditzni.” The 15,000 NIS prize will be awarded to an emerging poet.
The full program is available on the festival website, and more updates on the Sha’ar facebook event page. Sha’ar Artistic Committee: Yakir Ben-Moshe, Adi Asis; Helicon Director and Festival Producer: Ziona Shami; Content and Production Manager: Galia Bachrach.
