FIRST CALL FOR THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF POETRY OF RESISTANCE

IN HONOUR OF THE CUBAN FIVE
Anti-terrorist fighters now imprisoned in the U.S.A.

 

 

The Co-ordinating Committee of the First International Festival of Poetry of Resistance issues a CALL to organizations, unions, associations, ethno-cultural groups, societies and individuals to gather together to celebrate resistance in various forms. The Committee also calls on all other constituencies to participate in the Festival to campaign in favour of justice for the dispossessed, the voiceless and the wounded and in defense of our environment for a world of peace with justice. This Festival co-incides with National Poetry Month in Toronto, in Canada and internationally.

 

We do this to promote opposition to a culture of war, violence, and greed, and to promote an end to racism and discrimination.

 

The Festival will encourage popular participation in creative processes which celebrate the life, needs and dreams of the common people and of their communities. We also hope it provides a space where cultural differences make us richer and where we can create without competition.

                   

Through poetry, performance, film, visual arts, sounds, signs, music, ceremonial songs, myths, stories and events in public and other spaces, we hope to be part of the world movement of people who choose poetry and other creative expressions as a way to resist destructive globalization and to participate in a collective dream, voice and space to make a better world for everybody.

 

We seek representation and participation from the diverse communities nestled in so many parts of Toronto, the province and the country. Each has a role to play in this project because each has a rich history of poetry of resistance. By presenting activities during that week, communities will get to know each other and share the common goals of peace with resistance to injustice.

 

Statement of Principles

 

The organizers of the Festival believe that international solidarity can bring about cultural development for a world of peace. The diversity of our planet is to be cherished and celebrated, not marginalized or destroyed by the greed of a few. We believe that diversity is the soul of creative self-determination, individually, communally and globally.

 

This solidarity is what can bring justice to and freedom for the Cuban Five: Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez – who tried to prevent terrorist attacks originating from southern Florida.  They are now in their tenth year of imprisonment as political prisoners in the United States and this Festival honours them as symbols of courage, dignity and the world-wide struggle for peace with justice.

 

Well-known personalities, including Nobel Prize winners and members of parliaments, who have already publicly endorsed the appeal for freedom for the Cuban Five, are found at the end of this Call.

 

Our suggestions to proceed:

 

1.-Please approach constituencies, organizations, societies, individuals, etc. to agree to participate in this Festival;

 

2.-Discuss the form, content, locale, etc. of your presentation(s) for the Week of Poetry of Resistance and let the organizers know with summaries of event(s) planned: Get in touch with Lisa Makarchuk or Maria Elena Mesa Mejia at the following email addresses or telephone number: lisamakarchuk@sympatico.ca (416-603 9858) or   m_e_mesa@yahoo.ca

 

3.-We expect to publish a programme for the Festival including summaries of events, information about the Five; general information, advertising, etc.

 

 4.-We expect to have performances in various venues around Toronto and plan to have a Jury pick and publish some of the poetry presented at the Festival.

 

Co-ordinating Committee

 

Klyde Broox - Arnold Itwaru - Natasha Ksonzek - Lisa Makarchuk

Maria Elena Mesa Mejia - Charles Roach - Frank Saptel

resistancepoetryfest@gmail.com  (416) 603 9858

www.freethefivecc.org

For more information on the Cuban Five: www.freethefive.org; www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca

 

 

Personalities and representatives who, in one form or another, have taken a stand in favour of freedom for the Cuban Five:

 

Fifty-six Canadian Members of Parliament – 110 British Members of Parliament – Karel De Gucht, Foreign Affairs Minister, Belgium – Mikis Theodorakis – Arnold Itwaru – Keith Ellis – Charles Roach – Juan Carranza – Paul Copeland – Canadian Federation of Students – Canadian Labour Congress – Confederation des syndicates nationaux (CSN) – Claudette Carbonneau, President (CSN) - Alfredo Guevara - Joao Pedro Stedile - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Rigoberta Menchu - Desmond Tutu - Harold Pinter - Günter Grass - José Saramago - Wole Soyinka - Nadine Gordimer - Adolfo Perez Esquivel - Zhores Alfiorov - Jose Ramos Horta - Evo Morales - Fernando Rendón - Noam Chomsky - Patch Adams - Danny Glover - Ignacio Ramonet - Aleida Guevara - Alice Walker - Augusto Boal - Harry Belafonte -  Danielle Mitterand - Cindy Sheehan - Oscar Niemeyer - Eduardo Galeano - Manu Chao -Pablo González Casanova - Daniel Ortega - Tariq Alí - Mario Benedetti - Alicia Alonso - Armand Mattelart - Angela Davis - Walter Salles - Andy Montanez - Alfonso Sastre - Frei Betto - Günter Belchaus - Leonard Weinglass - Amy Carter - James Petras - Danny Rivera - Howard Zinn -Fernando Pino Solanas - Silvio Rodríguez - Luis Eduardo Aute - James Cockcroft - Hernando Calvo Ospina - Gianni Miná - W. J. T. Mitchell - Thiago de Mello - Fernando Solanas - Mumia Abu-Jamal - Ramsey Clark - Istvan Meszaros - Victor Heredia - Ernesto Cardenal - Pablo Milanes - José Luis Sampedro - Jorge Sanjinés - Ricardo Alarcon - William Blum - Piero Gleijeses - Saul Landau - Michael Parenti - Michael Steven Smith - Jitendra Sharma - Wayne S. Smith - Lisandro Otero - Roberto Fernández Retamar - Gabriel Jaime Franco - Blanca Chancosa - Jorge Enrique Adoum - Ronald Margolis - Jose Luis Sanpedro - Schafik Handall - Vicente Feliu - Daniel Viglietti - Arturo Corcuera - Gloria Chavatal - Suzy Castor - Piero Gleijeses -  Hildebrando Pérez - Rafael Cancel Miranda - Miguel D 'Escoto - Samuel Ruiz García - Nancy Morejon - Manuel Cabieses - Pablo Gonzalez Casanova - Juan Mari Bras - Miguel Bonasso - Gonzalo Ituarte - Roy Brown - Atilio Borón - Víctor Víctor - Stella Calloni - Miguel Urbano - James Cockcroft - Maribel Permuy - Gustavo Iruegas - Jorge Enrique Adoum - Volodia Teitelboim - Emir Sader - Luis Britto Garcia - Fernando Morais - Belén Gopegui - Michel Collon - Cintio Vitier - Noé Jitrik - Lucius Walker Jr - Eric Toussaint - Paolo Beneventi - Howard Zinn - Michael Lebowitz - James Early - Juan Formell - Isaac Rosa Camacho -Manuel Cabieses Donoso - Humberto Solás - Wim Dierckxsens - Omara Portuondo - Osvaldo Léon - Medea Benjamín - Manuel Mendive - Constantino Bértolo - Salim Lamrani - Gennaro Carotenuto - Carlo Frabetti - Gianni Vattimo - Pierre Richard - Raul Zurita - Hebe de Bonafini - Michael Lebowitz - Keith Ellis - Víctor Flores Olea - Aldo Díaz Lacayo - Javier Corcuera - Rosa Meneses - Matías Bosch - Lasse Söderberg - Raúl Zibechi - Harold Gramatges - Luisa Valenzuela - Armand Mattelart - Isabel Parra - Luis Britto - Tomas Borge - Leo Brower - Nalu Faria - Ángela García - Abelardo Estorino - Alicia Jrapko - Alfredo Sosa Bravo - Jorge Riechman - Michele Mattelart - Fernando Pérez - John Saxe Fernández - Winston Orrillo - Roberto Fabelo - Milagros Rivera - Héctor Díaz Polanco - Catherine Legna, - Adigio Benítez - Eva Björklund - Daysi Granados - Fernando Butazzoni - Electo Silva - Luis Zamora - Marilia Guimaraes - Alvaro Marin - Angel Augier - Setsuko Ono - Santiago Alba - Jean Marie Binoche - Fernando Buen Abad Domínguez - Desiderio Navarro - Marta Bras Vilella - Pepe Viñoles - Luis Carbonell - Tununa Mercado - Rubens  Diniz - Antón  Arrufat - Al Campbell - Ramón Chao - Ana Esther Ceceña - Manuel Rodríguez - Puerto Rico - Víctor Ego Ducrot - Ricardo Antunes - Gloria Chvatal - Carilda Oliver Labra - Gloria la Riva - Olga Lucas - Rosa Elena Gaspar de Alba - Guillermo de la Paz -

Claudia Camba - Marcelo Ernandez Macedo - Marta Harnecker – Celina González - Julián Malatesta - César López - Brian Becker - Alicia Hermida  - Julio Pomar - Carolina Virgüez - Rafael Bernabe - Frank Fernández  -  Célia Ravera - Alcira Argumedo - Ronaldo Carmona - Nicolás Suescún  - Fina García Marruz - Ann Sparanese - Javier Couso - Jesús Chediak - Digna Guerra - Néstor Kohan - Imeldo Álvarez - Rafael Quiroz - Francisco de Oráa - Jane Franklin - Manuel Talens - Tata Güines - José Enrique González Ruiz - María José Caramez - Eduardo Dalter - Ricardo Gebrim - Antonio Vidal - Zabier Hernández - Graziella Pogolotti - Berta Joubert-Ceci - Higinio Polo - Pablo Kilberg - Juan Valdés Montero - Ayrton Centeno - Irene Amador - Jaime Sarusky - Francisco Fernández Buey - Jaime Losada - Roberto Valera - Jalusa Barcelos - Carlos Pronzato - Hernando Calvo Ospina - Leonardo Acosta - Ángeles Maestro - Terezinha Lameira - Radamés Giró - Carlos Medina - Heloísa Fernandes - Lisandro Otero - Antonio Maira - Teresa Blanco - Claudia Korol - Lúcia Stumpf - Miguel Barnet - Montserrat Ponsa - Pablo Pacheco López - Domingo Richter - Julião Vieira - Nancy Morejón - Ana Ramos - Eduardo Wagner Ebendinger - Esteban

Llorach - Hebernilda Isabel García - Cecília Conde - Pablo Armando Fernández - Berta Riaza - Marcello Guimarães - Luis Baeza - Carmen Vargas - Reinaldo González - Miguel Anxo Fernán Vello - Eduardo Heras León - Ana Tendler - Mabel Albanese - Ángel Guerra Cabrera - Teodoro Buarque de Holanda - Roberto Friol - Manuel Lidón Medina - Marta Speroni - Silvio Tendler - Wander Geraldo da Silva - Ambrosio Fornet - Sérgio Saboya - Silvano Humar - Sérgio Mambert - Ana María Muñoz Bachs - Luciano Alzaga - Julio García Espinosa - Esther Contreras - Luciano Rezende - José Steinsleger - Vivaldo Franco - Enrique Pineda Barnet - Caíque Botkay - Quim Capdevila - Eline Jonas

 

“In the end, we shall repose free and victorious in that sun that for now is being denied to us…”

                                 -Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez-one of the Cuban Five

 

 

The following is the original, more detailed statement of aims regarding the Festival:

 

 

 

FIRST INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF POETRY OF RESISTANCE/ FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE POESIA DE RESISTENCIA during Toronto’s Month of Poetry,

April 24 – 30, 2009

 

In honour of the Cuban Five, all of whom are published poets, cartoonists and writers, presently incarcerated in maximum security prisons in the United States

www.freethefive.org; www.freethefivecc.org

 

MISSION STATEMENT:

 

 We are a cultural committee whose aims are to promote and encourage popular participation in a cultural life of peace and ethical values as an antidote to a contemporary culture which is elitist and sometimes promotes a culture of war and violence.

 

We wish to promote the development of poetic language as a vehicle for artistic expression and creative processes which capture and present the life, needs and dreams of the common people.

 

We wish to increase the influence of poetry as a living word that generates hope for the future, participation and responsibility.

 

We wish to provide a vehicle for education and information about the life, thought and struggles of peoples who are resisting injustice, based on solidarity, tolerance and respect.

 

We wish to develop an  awareness in individuals and in society, in general, of the right to undistorted information and access to media to promote a people’s perspective without manipulation.

 

We wish to develop the solidarity of intellectuals, artists and poets throughout the world in search of justice and publicize any injustice as meted out in flagrant examples such the imprisonment of the Cuban Five.

 

THEMES:

 

Human, cultural, social and environmental rights

Globalization, ethnicity and wars

Human and biological diversity

Forced displacement of people

Justice for the unjustly imprisoned

Cultural and political exile

Countering racism and discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender, age

 

METHODOLOGY:

 

We would seek the mobilization, empowerment and participation at local, national and international levels by approaching various demographic, geographic and social communities and constituencies.

 

We would approach the City of Toronto to host and support such a festival during April. 2009, National Poetry Month.

 

We would establish links to and relationships with other festivals such as the International Poetry Festival of Medellin, Colombia, and the 5th World Festival of Poetry in Venezuela.

 

We would seek the participation of young people, women, seniors, physically challenged, aboriginals, immigrants, refugees, and people in general involved with the issues of the day.

 

 We would organize various venues for activities to take place: schools, universities, parks, city squares, indoor and outdoor auditoriums, libraries, co-operatives, cultural centres, bars, churches, jails, hospitals, etc.

 

The Free the Five Cultural Committee would issue a general call to those interested to establish a committee to oversee this project;

 

JURY:

We would organize a jury/editorial board of international and national writers and intellectuals to select poetry for publication in an anthology/book or in setting up a publication .

 

FINANCES:

 

We would approach individuals, governmental arts institutions and municipal bodies for grants and support starting with the Toronto Arts Council.. 

 

WE BELIEVE:

 

  • -that there cannot be peace without the equitable distribution of wealth to answer the basic needs of people, a recognition of diversity, respect for cultures, and an appreciation for their beauty and artistic expressions;

 

  • -that people have a right to education, to a cultural life based on collective and individual needs that nourishes creative expression within each community and is not imposed from institutionalized centres of power or from a dominant existing culture;

 

  • -that aesthetic, ethical and cultural values should not be based in the interests of a dominant culture based on colonial values;

 

  • -that countries have a right to self-determination;

 

  • -that the search for intellectual and cultural growth individually and collectively must be inspired and defended against the implementation of a culture of war, death and violence which affects all aspects of civil life such as fashion, sexuality, individualism, etc.  The use of human and material resources must be diverted toward peace, humanity and cultural development.

 

  • -that it is necessary to actively promote opposition to a culture of war and terror which implements unjust imprisonments, torture and massacres of innocent people and which abrogates international law in the process;

 

  • -that honour should be bestowed upon the Cuban Five for their courage, dignity and determination as political prisoners in the U.S. and that international solidarity will eventually free them and allow them to return to their families;

 

  • -that campaigns in favour of justice for the dispossessed,  campaigns that defend our environment, that are against racism and discrimination based on economic, racial, gender, sexual orientation or age factors  should be supported;

 

·        -that peace with justice must be gained if we are to save our planet and humanity.