Happy Belated World Poetry Day (March 21)

I don't know how this escaped me but yesterday was World Poetry Day (as designated by UNESCO). The fact that I only found out about this a day late proves to me that we still have a long way to go to bring poetry back into the public sphere. That and UNESCO needs to get a better ad-campaign going.

Lately, however, there have been some significant strides in getting people interested in poetry again, for example the resurgence of readings at bars & cafes, spoken word events, poetry jams, etc.

Montreal in general has also been doing a lot in the past year to promote itself as a "city of words". A good example would be the opening of La Bibliotheque Nationale - which still has long line-ups of people trying to be members. As well as the fact that the city beat out other well-deserving cities from around the world to be named the World Book Capital. Other significant literary Montreal happenings include Expozine, Festival Voix d'Ameriques, and the upcoming Blue Metropolis Festival.

That being said, I like how UNESCO is recommending even more activities to support and promote poetry in our cities. We have a long way to go but at least we're headed in the right direction.

To read more about World Poetry Day as well as to read a message by the Director-General of UNESCO go to: World Poetry Day