Is stage poetry inferior, or do we then exclude large groups? #pifr

Report on a hidden battlefield. Poetry International in Rotterdam has moved into a new, informal venue. The home of the Ro theatre in William Boothlaan, just over basic than the Theatre on that strange square. And the terrace between roaring motorbikes is lively, full of old and young lovers of poetry. Or of spoken word, or from slam. Anyone who might think Poetry International is an elitist poetry festival will be deceived on this sunny Thursday afternoon. A stenographic report.

15:30 Poetry slam championship for Rotterdam schoolchildren.

That you drop in to a churning hall full of swinging and cheering schoolchildren. And that it is then about poetry. Slampoetry admittedly, but it is poetry. Anyone who dares to say that the high art of poetry is over should really go and have a look here. This is where the seeds are being sown for new poets, who will crawl up from this swirling mass, this tasty primordial soup of art. This is where a single talent emerges that will once again, like the great poets at Poetry, move people deeply: intellectually, emotionally, or literarily. It is already happening. It starts with cheering for a well-chosen rhyme.

16:00 Poetry bus.

An old red bus, and young poets, some perhaps more spoken word than highly poetic, who managed to hold a full terrace of fans to their lips. A boy from Brussels who talks enthusiastically, sometimes almost menacingly, about the terrorist friends he grew up with.

17:00 The talk show.

In which the boss of the Poetry Bus has to explain to host Daniel Dee why there is no difference between stage poetry and written poetry. That every poet is after all about sound, rhythm, meaning.

18:00 digest

That during dinner, backstage, where you see the chairman of the jury already being very amicable with the officially still unknown winner of the C Buddingh' Prize, and in a good conversation you come to the realisation that it is indeed permissible to distinguish between stage poetry and written poetry, but that it is then a difference between pure show poetry, and the higher art of written, designed poetry, as that one magazine still sets itself apart from the other.

19:45 Just before the evening programme

But that we should also realise that all these new forms - rap, spoken word, slam poetry, practised by people who did not grow up in the Western tradition. That we should therefore realise that in denigrating stage poetry, we are also sidelining a very large part of our society in the arts. Time, then, for a great connection between performing arts and poetry.

Poetry International continues until 11 June.