This year’s Feira do Livro do Porto celebrates the poetry of Inês Lourenço, a wordsmith who’s inextricably linked to a city she was born in, in 1942, to a lineage of Porto natives; a city about which she has always written and on which she has always meditated.
Inês Lourenço’s extensive body of work provides the starting point and, oftentimes, the destination for a multifaceted and comprehensive programme curated by Helena Teixeira da Silva.
Over nine sessions, including an exhibition, a concert, and the dramatic reading of one of her poems, both the poet herself and a collection of guests from different artistic backgrounds and generations were challenged to reflect on and rediscover Lourenço’s literary universe.
An invitation the Feira do Livro do Porto now extends to all readers.
Viajo numa palavra simples e despida. Talvez
madeira ou erva ou barro. Mas cada uma
vai arrancar raízes muito longe
como a linhagem das árvores
ou a persistência do verde na planura
ou o barro primordial
que qualquer pequeno deus molda
numa roda de oleiro
ignorada no Génesis.
