1. Vision.
The World Poetry Movement promotes poetry as an essential form of expression and communication for humanity. Poetry is an art form and a tool for social and cultural transformation.
The World Poetry Movement encourages cooperation among poets worldwide, who share their cultural perspectives and experiences through poetry. The movement advocates for freedom of expression and human rights, which are fundamental for the protection of poets and their work. In an increasingly divided world, poetry and the voices of poets create a global connection and promote peace, unity, and mutual understanding.
The World Poetry Movement aims to become a planetary organization with headquarters and coordinations in every country, bringing poetry to all corners of the Earth, nurturing the spiritual unity of individuals and peoples, in a constant effort to achieve global peace and full freedom of expression.
2. Mission
The mission of the World Poetry Movement is to promote poetry, cultural diversity, and dialogue among cultures worldwide. This international organization aims to foster the creativity and artistic expression of poets from around the world and connect them with a global audience through various poetry-related activities and events.
Furthermore, it strives to work in collaboration with other organizations and communities, promoting the value of poetry and its ability to contribute to peace, social justice, and solidarity on a regional and global scale.
3. Core Values:
The World Poetry Movement is an international organization that utilizes poetry as a means to foster dialogue, cultural diversity, peace, and respect for human rights. The core values of our Movement are:
1. Freedom of expression: The organization upholds freedom of expression and creation.
2. Cultural diversity: The organization celebrates cultural diversity and the richness of poetic expression in all languages and cultures around the world.
3. Work for world peace, creative dialogue, and the reconstruction of the human spirit: The World Poetry Movement supports the promotion of world peace, intercultural dialogue, and the healing and strengthening of the human spirit towards its highest goals, through poetry as a creative language, a source of awareness, and a transformative force in reality.
4. Defense of nature: The World Poetry Movement stands in solidarity with the struggles of indigenous peoples and organizations fighting for the conservation of biodiversity, protection of aquatic ecosystems and water reserves, reforestation of the planet, and the preservation of oxygen through the reduction of gas emissions and promotion of renewable energy sources.
4. Respect for human rights: The organization advocates for respect for human rights, especially cultural rights and the dignity of life, lifting poetry as a means for reflection, criticism, and social transformation.
5. Sustainability and social commitment: The organization promotes poetry as a means to raise awareness in society about global challenges and to foster responsible social commitment that prioritizes sustainability.
6. The World Poetry Movement is governed by internal democracy and respects plural opinions expressed within it, in the struggle against fascism and social, political, economic, and cultural exclusion. It promotes full inclusion, cultural and linguistic diversity, and fair gender policies.
3.1. Background.
On July 7, 2011, 37 directors of international poetry festivals from four continents founded the World Poetry Movement (WPM) during the 21st International Poetry Festival of Medellín, which convened the event.
Since then, the World Poetry Movement has carried out over 20 global poetic actions for causes such as world and regional peace, defense of the Earth, a world without walls, solidarity with indigenous peoples and migrants, among others.
Historically, the conditions have accumulated, in line with the world’s requirements for growth and cultural and spiritual development, to contribute to the consolidation of the foundations that firmly support the construction of a new humanism through poetry, renewed consciousness, and the capacity to act to foster individual and collective changes projected onto the world for social change.
Several meetings of the Coordinating Committee held in Medellín, Colombia; Zigong and Chengdu, China; and Istanbul, Turkey, consolidated the spirit of mutual collaboration and the determined will to build together a global process, which began with the creation of continental and national coordinations of the World Poetry Movement and converges in the first Congress of our movement, to be held in Medellín and Caracas between July 13 and 18, 2023.
4. Context.
4.1 External Context
4.1.1 Opportunities:
Global context
Just as some aspects of globalization pose threats to the World Poetry Movement, this phenomenon also presents significant opportunities for development, expansion, consolidation, and the achievement of our strategic objectives through effective and well-coordinated global interventions, facilitated by digital communication media that invigorate an organic movement of poetic actions that have a decisive influence at the local and global levels.
In this global perspective, opportunities increase for resource management and creating alliances with global organizations that are working towards the construction of a new consciousness for social and human change. Thus, the globalization of communications and diverse humanistic values act as real opportunities that expedite the attainment of the proposed results in this plan.
Social context
1. The influence of the World Poetry Movement on social groups is growing, as the nature of local projects precisely involves significant social projection. It involves addressing the world’s major problems by making real and transformative contributions through local and global poetic actions. The accumulated work and experience of each project integrated into the Movement are a wealth of experiences and tangible support for future achievements.
2. The strengthening of social organizations and progressive non-governmental organizations that fight for the deepening of democracy, peace, cultural and environmental rights, and develop alternative pedagogical projects, allows for establishing processes of mutual cooperation to work towards shared objectives.
3. International monitoring of care and respect for Human Rights at a global level.
Political context
1. Depending on the political situation in each country, without sacrificing the independence of each project, favorable political conditions must be created for the survival and sustainability of poetry projects and for the action of the World Poetry Movement, where there are no clearly reactionary governments in the political and cultural fields.
2. Presenting a bill to the Congress of each country to protect national poetry projects and improve the situation of the cultural sector in respective countries, and therefore, of our Movement.
3. The importance placed on culture in countries that are breaking free from political dependency, with a significant budget allocated to cultural processes, including book publishing and poetry publications, and the wider dissemination of poetry through TV, radio, and the press.
Cultural context
1. Linguistic diversity: International poetry festivals, pillars of the World Poetry Movement, have developed capacities to bring contemporary poetry from around the world to all countries through qualified written and oral translation projects, turning linguistic diversity from an obstacle into an opportunity, which can also be supported by academic institutions.
2. Poetry books and digital publications: The increasing number of editions, proper distribution, and exchange are an opportunity to reach sectors interested in promoting reading.
3. Film, TV, and radio are mass media platforms relevant in cultural dissemination processes, which should be utilized in favor of the Movement and the Festivals.
4. Poetry schools and workshops are valuable because they foster creative strength, improve writing and reading skills, create connections with the community, and allow for deep reflection on essential themes of existence.
Technological context:
1. Internet: The speed of multimedia communication (audio, video, texts, AI) on a global scale, and the decreasing prices of computer equipment and tablets.
2. Multimedia: The possibility of reaching different audiences, not only readers of written words but also viewers of concrete images, such as television, videos, etc.
3. The development of communication media (radio, film, television, internet) must and can be maximized.
4. The optimization of editorial processes through new applications.
4.1.2 Threats:
Global
As paradigms of modernity are shattered and the reconfiguration of capitalism through economic globalization accompanied by new expressions of political and military domination emerges, it is pertinent to observe the diversity and richness of poetry worldwide and reflect on strategies for globalizing poetic actions as a way to counter the devastating effects of economic globalization and cultural hegemony of capitalism through various means of proliferation and global control.
Nation-states serve the interests of transnational markets and military-industrial complexes, with devastating consequences such as the brutal increase in vast areas of poverty, hunger, and death, and the escalation of internal conflicts and nuclear war.
The continuous development of techno-scientific means, potentially capable of solving ecological problems and rebalancing socially useful activities on the planet, goes against the inability of organized social forces to leverage these means and make them effective in achieving objectives.
There is increasing immigration associated with progressive racism, and we see a new map of human conditions inscribed in a globalized economy, in a complex world panorama regarding the survival of the human species on the planet, on a large scale as immigrants.
Social
1. The growth of poverty and the decrease in purchasing power of the population influence the inability of sectors of the population residing far from scheduled poetic events to attend and limit the purchase of books.
2. The harmful influence of the media with their perverse programming of cinema and television, and the ideological or frivolous manipulation of youth and children, hinder access to our proposal by diverting their attention.
3. Countries experiencing acute political or military conflicts that create unrest in communities.
Political
1. The state prefers to grant subsidies to “profitable” arts such as cinema, visual arts, music, and even literature, but not to poetry. Often, the state subjects poetic projects to constant financial constraints and sometimes other repressive measures.
2. Poetry projects are victims of indifference from entrepreneurs.
3. The open tendency of some states to reduce resources allocated to culture by appropriating funds that cooperation agencies could directly allocate to culture.
Economic
1. The effects of the revaluation of national currencies against the dollar result in constant decreases in income for cultural projects.
2. Tax reforms in some countries in the region aim to gradually eliminate tax exemptions for nonprofit organizations.
3. Taxes that festivals must pay on their income or the sale of services (fees for poetry readings at universities or other entities subject to VAT charges in some countries) represent a financial risk.
4. The impact of economic crises in the private sector that hinder financial collaboration towards culture and poetry.
5. The high costs of acquiring imported poetry books, as well as the cost of paper for printing books or the extreme difficulty of acquiring them.
Cultural
1. Poor or non-existent reading habits in our countries.
2. The unbearable trivialization of culture and life on television and other media has a harmful effect on culture and peoples.
3. Deficient education in universities, pragmatic and distant from integral and humanistic formation, distant from the poetic spirit.
4. Retrogressive spirit, misinformation, and prejudices against progressive culture and poetry fueled by the media.
Technological
1. High costs of printing and distributing books and magazines hinder broader access to these publications.
2. High costs of spaces and television production hinder the possibility of greater dissemination of poetry through this medium.
5.2 Internal Context
5.2.1 Strengths
1. Given that the scope of the World Poetry Movement is global, this aspect characterizes it as one of its strengths. This planetary nature is strengthened by having continental and national coordinations and organizations in two-thirds of the world, ensuring a strong ability to act and quickly achieve proposed results.
2. The structure of the Movement is already established and operational, providing institutional strength because it is not a dream to assemble but an active reality on all continents.
3. Its power of mobilization, based on the historical prestige of poetry, is the heritage and spiritual reserve of humanity.
4. The team of individuals constituting this Movement has extensive experience and a strong commitment to carrying out poetic actions globally.
5. The reputation and organizational capacity at the international level, supported by the reputation of its members and the constant exchange of information and experiences.
6. The positive influence on socially active cultural groups worldwide.
7. The ability to influence local cultural processes that, when intertwined, form a strong global force.
5.2.2 Weaknesses
1. Poetry is subject to discrimination in many countries around the world.
2. The World Poetry Movement has not yet achieved a sustainable structure.
3. We still lack resources to provide autonomous operational infrastructure.
4. We have not yet achieved complete global coverage, although we are on track to do so.
6. Organization
Movement Structure
World WPM Congress
Discusses and endorses continental reports. Discusses and endorses the General Coordinator’s report on behalf of the International Coordinating Committee (ICC). Discusses and endorses WPM’s five-year Strategic Plan, highlighting priorities and central axes of WPM’s work. Elects a General Coordinator and an International Coordinating Committee (ICC). Meets every two years (virtually and/or physically).
International Coordinating Committee (ICC)
Serves as the executive body to make decisions on policy and other management aspects between Congresses and establishes the most important tasks of WPM on a week-to-week basis. Implements the approved Strategic Plan through consensus decisions, which must be followed by the entire WPM. Meets at least every two months. The International Coordinating Committee consists of 22 members elected by Congress through consensus or a slate system, as decided: The International Coordinating Committee must develop an annual implementation schedule, including the thematic focus of poetic actions.
One general coordinator, appointed by Congress through majority or consensus, one member (continental coordinator for Africa), one member (continental coordinator for Asia), one member (continental coordinator for Europe), one member (continental coordinator for America), one member (continental coordinator for Oceania), and 16 additional members (progressively move towards equal participation of women and mens, with continental and linguistic diversity).
Operational Committee (OC)
The Operational Committee is a committee consisting of eight members, acting as a Secretariat, to decide and execute WPM’s daily tasks. It is composed of one general coordinator, five continental coordinators, and two members nominated by the World Poetry Movement Coordinating Committee. Each member of the Operational Committee is responsible for one of the strategic lines of the Work Plan: Poetic actions, pedagogical project, publishing project, communications, organization and management, and human rights.
The Operational Committee decides on the day-to-day affairs of the World Poetry Movement, sets the agenda for the ICC meeting, maintains a constant process of communication and mutual cooperation with the continental chapters and their regional and national coordinators. It meets at least every two weeks. The continental chapters must listen to the guidelines and suggestions of the Coordinating Committee and the Operational Committee in the implementation of the Strategic Plan.
7. Growth Strategies
1. Number of members within each country (more poets connected with us through national chapters).
2. Organizations and festivals (more poetry organizations and poetry festivals will connect with us to build links for greater collaboration).
3. Organization: (create national chapters in countries where they do not exist).
4. Poetry Schools (establishment of the World Poetry School – virtual – and national poetry schools in all countries to train new poets with great artistic sensibility).
5. Activities (organize activities, poetic actions, and effective publications to make WPM more visible).
6. Finance and sustainability: There are several ways in which WPM could be financed in each country and globally:
Donations: Establish an online fundraising campaign for poetry readers to make donations.
Income from sales: Design and sell books, magazines, t-shirts, posters, and poetic objects to gather resources for the Movement in each country.
WPM could seek sponsors, such as advertising companies, publishers, or cultural enterprises that share its goals, values, and vision. These sponsorships could be in exchange for advertising and promotion on the website and WPM events.
Grants: The Movement could apply for grants from government agencies and foundations dedicated to promoting the arts and culture.
Communication: Preserve, strengthen, and create all possible means of communication within the World Poetry Movement. Build relationships with news agencies, print and digital media, radio, and television worldwide.
8. Action Lines of the World Poetry Movement
Suggested by virtual congresses from four continents
Line 1: Poetic Actions
Establish as a practice for poetry to reach out to the common people by conducting poetry readings in public and indoor spaces, in subways, buses, neighborhoods, parks, and marketplaces.
Global poetic action, both in-person and virtual, with the motto “Migration from death to life,” as a route of continental, national, and local festivals that will begin in southern Africa and culminate in southern America during the second half of 2025, creating alliances with artists, thinkers, academics, ecologists, and indigenous peoples, spreading a central manifesto about the purposes and tasks of the World Poetry Movement country by country.
Strengthen festivals, encounters, and continental, national, and regional poetry congresses, promoting the exchange of experiences and knowledge about organizational processes. Create an intercontinental platform of poetry festivals and showcase festivals that are part of the Movement to have a broader view of the activities taking place around the world.
Establish a continental coordinating entity for poetry festivals that generates a common agenda to replicate worldwide, clarifying the best use of resources. Organize meetings of directors and founders of international poetry festivals.
Found continental and international poetry festivals and encounters in countries where they do not exist. Create regional encounters from pole to pole. These encounters would include multinational public readings. Conduct an annual poetry tour in each country called the Poetry and Friendship Caravan. Celebrate yaga poetry (continuous poetry reading for 24 hours), starting from a specific country at 6 a.m. and moving from east to west across a continent, with one hour of meditation in each country and in each language, celebrating the most important poetic dates and/or anniversaries of renowned poets worldwide.
Put into practice the proposal “Poem without borders” to build a multilingual collective poem in which all members of the Movement can contribute. Revive the experience of France around a poetic campaign on the theme “We are the people of the world,” featuring poems by European poets and from the four cardinal points.
Line 2: Pedagogical Project
Implementation of the World Poetry School, critical, dialogical, based on humanistic values, committed to peace and the life of the planet. This World Poetry School would be both in-person and virtual, with an innovative methodology, reaching children, youth, women, teachers, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, migrants, victims of armed conflicts, persons with disabilities, and groups with diverse gender and sexual identities. Each local, regional, or national experience will enrich the greater purpose of the World Poetry School as a strategic project of the Movement. Creation and development of virtual poetry libraries that enrich the bibliography of participants in the World Poetry School.
Creation and institutionalization of national poetry schools that promote reading and creative writing at all levels, harmonizing efforts of ministries, organizations, and entities with similar objectives. Creation of an international network of poetry schools.
Promote poetry in education by advocating for the inclusion of poetry in school and university curricula, supporting efforts to develop study plans in all levels of society. Organize a congress of specialists and experts in poetic pedagogy and the stimulation of creative language.
Line 3: Editorial Project
Creation of a printed editorial collection by WPM with periodic book publications. Publishing magazines to disseminate the poetic work of members of the World Poetry Movement network and other national and international poets.
Publication of translations of poetic works, embracing territorial proposals in various languages with the support of different publishers in each country. Promote intercultural translation projects in collaboration with publishers.
Publishing alternative formats to books that showcase poetic production, such as e-books, fanzines, magazines, and online publications.
Publication of global and continental anthologies, in print and virtual formats, at a low cost and with impeccable layout. Publish an annual anthology of poems from each continent.
Creation of a large digital library of WPM.
Strengthening Poetry Planetariat, WPM magazine.
Line 4: Organizational and Management Processes
Hold an annual (virtual) World Poetry Movement congress on each continent to deepen the commitment to coordination in each country and national movements. Develop Continental Letters to guide the movement in different continents. Sub-regional meetings with delegates to share projects in different lines. Expand WPM chapters in all countries. Prepare a membership directory (in terms of country, prepared by the national coordinator; in terms of continent, compiled by the continental coordinator; global directory coordinated by the general coordinator of CCI).
Establish links with the academic and governmental sectors of our countries, connections with public and private universities. Establish scholarship programs, grants, and exchanges to support poets and promote poetry and literature.
Institutionalize poetry through policies that make poetry and literature part of the curriculum in early education and secondary schools.
Create groups of friends of the World Poetry Movement with the participation of statesmen, diplomats, businessmen, philanthropists, and public figures. Actively seek funding agencies to manage a budget for the World Poetry Movement on a global and continental scale. Submit Movement projects in each country to seek funding from festivals, schools, and cultural events from official authorities to be included in the annual budget of the ministries of culture.
Collaborate with other creative areas such as artists, composers, musicians, theater figures, designers, audiovisual professionals, etc., and actively involve them in the activities of the Movement.
Line 5: Communications
1. Strengthening the World Poetry Movement’s website (www.worldpoetrymovement.org) and creating a collective voice for the Movement through actions such as periodic publication of verses or poems on social media. Establishing an internet radio and an IP TV channel. Strengthening the Movement’s Facebook and Instagram pages in each country and creating new pages in countries where they don’t exist. Creating a World Poetry Movement channel on YouTube in each country, uploading poetic material such as poems, translations, videos, events, and publications.
2. Organizing work on the development of new information technologies in the poetic space.
3. Developing multiple contacts with news agencies and official and alternative media in each country to support the Movement and disseminate news through their known channels.
Line 6: Defense of human rights and all forms of life.
Highlighting the importance and defense of indigenous cultures and languages, and the role that poetry plays in social cohesion and conflict resolution, for complete decolonization and against moral decay. Using poetic platforms to emphasize our determination against neocolonization and imperialism that continue to exploit the masses politically and economically. Undertaking poetic actions to address relevant issues related to social justice, human dignity, freedom of expression, awareness of defending life on Earth and climate change, migrants, communities, and minority rights.
Urging the United Nations and all other intergovernmental agencies to recognize the movements of dignity of people worldwide and to act more preparedly in facing wars and the environmental crisis affecting people’s lives. Continuing and expanding our action called the World Chain of Poems for Peace and addressing governments and the media in pursuit of world peace.
Establishing an international fund for the awarding of a global poetry prize, which could be named the Jack Hirschman Prize.
Calling on states to recognize the fundamental human rights and freedom of expression of poets and writers, to refrain from violating freedom of expression, and to take all necessary measures to safeguard it, maintaining transparency in governmental actions. Bringing attention to the situation of imprisoned poets who are denied the right to express themselves, translate their work, and disseminate their poems. Sending poem letters to imprisoned poets who are denied the right to express themselves.
Promoting poetic creation from all communities, valuing diversity with an anti-patriarchal and decolonizing vision, especially among indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, migrants, and LGBTIQ+ groups. Establishing a fund to support migrant poets located at all borders. Taking into account ethnic minorities, the Afro-descendant population, and victims of armed conflicts through healing projects (individual-community) through creative writing.
Expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people and other peoples affected by conflicts in their pursuit of peace and comprehensive justice through poetic actions. Organizing an international congress on Palestine to demand freedom and an end to the occupation of that nation. Recognizing the voices of the Hazara people of Hazaristan, the Kurdish people, and other stateless nations through poetic actions. Holding a European congress of writers and poets for peace in Paris, as part of the action for peace in Europe and against the risk of a third world war.
Planting trees worldwide through a planetary action to express our commitment to the planet and the preservation of life on Earth, highlighting that poets are there to sow seeds.
