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Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín

The Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín is an annual event in Colombia that attracts artists from New Zealand and around the world.

Colombia & Aotearoa New Zealand

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28th Medellin International Poetry Festival 2018

The Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín (Medellin International Poetry Festival) is an annual festival held in Colombia’s second largest city – Medellín. The festival was started in 1991 to show how creativity and free expression can flourish, even when a country’s people experience fear and violence. Recognising the festival’s role in providing answers to today’s urgent challenges, in 2006 it received the Right Livelihood Award.

Since the festival was launched, 1700 poets from 193 countries have taken part, including at least 12 New Zealand artists. As a result, the festival’s website hosts the largest selection of video-poems on the internet. It contains about 860 videos, in 85 languages, including poems from more than 810 poets from 161 countries and 33 indigenous nations.

In 2018, Warren Warbrick – one of New Zealand's leading artists - was invited to participate in the 28th festival. One of only two artists from Oceania, Warren joined 45 other poets and artists from around the world. The theme of that edition of the festival was Poetry, Shamanism and Original Songs. The festival attracts huge audiences – 20,000 people attended in 2018.

Warren discussed the cultural importance of Māori instruments and music, and the multicultural relationship between New Zealand and Latin America. His contribution focused on his research into the double pūtōrino (New Zealand flute). During the festival, Warren gave several performances around Medellín with other musicians.

Warren is Tohunga Whakairo Rangitāne ki Manawatū. He is a freelance Māori musician, artist and oral artist who specialises in researching and making musical instruments. Warren is a lifetime member of Toi Iho (an organisation that promotes Māori arts) and was the inaugural recipient of the Rangitāne Arts Award. His musical instruments are found in national and private collections around the world. Warren has performed with the New Zealand song quartet, the Aroha song quartet and with Māori writers Apirana Taylor and Patricia Grace. He also performs bicultural works as Toi Warbrick, alongside soprano Virginia Warbrick, and has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Adelaide Fringe.

Other New Zealand artists who have taken part in the festival include Alan Brunton (2000), Katarina Kawana (2001), Hone Tuwhare (2003), Michael Harlow (2006), C K Stead (2008), Te Kupu (2008), Ron Riddell (2009), James Norcliffe (2010), Apirana Taylor (2012), David Eggleton (2020), Vaughan Rapatahana (2021) and Kiri Piahana-Wong (2022).

Published 02 November 2023