Spoken word LIVE performances / Video Poetry Cinema / Concert
44 artists from 14 countries
FR 3 & SAT 4 July 2026 ·
TAK Theater Aufbau
Prinzenstraße 85- entry via Oranienhof – Kreuzberg BERLIN
Open Air Venue / Bar opens 18:00 / Events from 20.00 till midnight
Tickets: 10e at Eventbrite as also at the theatre door during the event
International Poetry Festival brings together 44 artists from 14 countries in the city of Berlin, a vibrant meeting point of global voices and contemporary expression. Through spoken word, video poetry shows and live performances, the programme presents poetry as an international conversation unfolding live on stage, an act of freedom, a space of community, and a tool for individual and collective emancipation.
This year the festival carries that commitment into the present. The two nights are a benefit for Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza. The same subterranean resistance to market normalcy, dominant historical conditions and social injustice that runs through this poetry runs through this gesture. Every voice on the TAK stage stands with the people keeping that hospital alive. Solidarity is not a theme here, it is a reason to exist and fight for social justice.
Produced by +The Institute for Experimental Arts
Supported by Spoken Word Berlin | Film Poetry Digital Platform
Friday 3 July
from 20:00 till midnight
LIVE Multi Media Performances
Edie Montana (Italy)
Maria Salouvardou (Greece)
Rafaella Marques (Brazil)
Video Poetry CINEMA
23 short films from 10 countries
Programme
Free Words: A Poet from Gaza
Abdullah Harun Ilhan · Turkey · 15:00
Full-length film
The portrait of Mosab Abu Toha, a detained Palestinian poet whose words become an act of resistance and hope under oppression.
An Elephant in the Porcelain Cabinet
Bonne Steinz · Netherlands · 4:45
A stop-motion and 2D animated poem about damage, and the fragile work of opening yourself again to a clumsy new visitor.
Bike
Joseph Coëffic · Belgium · 1:33
Mechanical caresses and electric tenderness, where the contact of surfaces tips into passion.
Duties of My Heart
Judy Lieff · USA · 9:59
Poem: Barbara Barg · Performed by Terrylene
A Deaf ASL poet and dancers give body to Barbara Barg’s poem of resilience, performance as a revolutionary act.
Golden Shoes and a Blue Piano: Else Lasker-Schüler
Lucia Schmidt · Germany · 10:20
An animated short on the life and poetry of the German Expressionist poet, a life marked by war, loss, poverty and flight from rising fascism.
I Am My Own Idol
Sami Rhymes · United Kingdom · 6:34
Written, performed and produced by Sami Rhymes
A self-love poem confronting the weight of European beauty standards on women and girls with dark skin.
Kontakt
Romina Küper, Konstantin Münzel & Leon Golz · Germany · 3:18
A cinematic meditation on imperfection and beauty, shot on 12mm film.
Murphy Was An Optimist
Heiko Reimer · Germany · 3:14
A poet spirals downward, wrestling with nihilism, hope and the ambivalent nature of reality.
Purple Cat
Josua Graf · Germany · 4:46
A poet retreats behind the four walls he has built for himself, only to find he is not alone there.
What I Fear Most Is Becoming a “Poet”
Janet Lees · United Kingdom · 6:10
Poem: Katerina Gogou (Greece) · A production of the Institute for Experimental Arts
Katerina Gogou’s poem turned to film, the fear of being tamed and titled into a “poet”.
The City
Matt Mullins · USA · 6:25
Poem: C. P. Cavafy (Greece) · A production of the Institute for Experimental Arts
Cavafy’s poem of the city that travels with us wherever we go, no ship, no road can carry us away from it.
They Promised Us a Future
Laura R. Tolentino · Mexico · 9:16
A video poem that turns toward the future a generation was promised, and the silence left where it should have been.
Athina
Tasos Sagris · Greece · 5:15
Words: Sissy Doutsiou · Music: Dimitris Koufoudakis · A production of the Institute for Experimental Arts
A spoken word elegy for loneliness, love and longing in the streets of Athens.
The Life We Live Is Not Life Itself
Ian Gibbins · Australia · 8:45
Poetry / Music: Tasos Sagris & Whodoes (Greece) · A production of the Institute for Experimental Arts
An award-travelled meditation on lives lived in parallel, in and out of love, around the world. What is real, and what is illusion?
Broken Arabic
Amal Kassir · USA · 3:39
Written and performed by Amal Kassir
A poem for the diaspora child who could never grieve in the language of the homeland, but tries anyway.
Ember
Bill Psarras · Greece · 7:30
From the artist’s urban poetics, a single spark of light becomes a terrain for imagination and quiet revolt.
Black British Muslim Other
Enas Saeed · United Kingdom · 3:36
A short film on identity held at the intersection of Black, British, Muslim and “Other”.
E. E. Cummings, I Carry Your Heart With Me
Kapou Opa · Greece · 3:45
Poem: E. E. Cummings (USA)
A visual reading of Cummings’ beloved poem, a love carried in the heart, present across time and space.
Find a Way to Meet Each Other
Tasos Sagris · Greece
Poem: Tasos Sagris · Music: Whodoes · A production of the Institute for Experimental Arts
The single from “Phenomenology of the Guillotine”, a vow that across lives and illusions we will meet again.
If I Go Out Walking with My Dead Friends
Aleksandra Corovic & Alkistis Kafetzi · Germany / Greece · 5:22
Poem: Rita Boumi-Pappa (Greece) · A production of the Institute for Experimental Arts
Rita Boumi-Pappa’s poem becomes a walk among the beloved dead, memory carried through the streets of the living.
Primordial
Giorgos Zorbas & Nana Papadaki · Greece
Poem: Nana Papadaki · Music: Vasilis Tzavaras · Production: Maldoror
An inner dialogue between poetry and a timeless landscape, reflecting on nature’s abandonment and the end of times through the eyes of a woman.
If You Want to Be Called Human
SWOON · Belgium
Poem: Tasos Leivaditis · Music: Marc Neys
Leivaditis’ poems, merciless confrontations with the real yet never resignation, read as elegies for existence.
Saturday 4 July
from 20:00 till midnight
LIVE SPOKEN WORD Performances
Lloyd Forse (UK)
Arielle (USA / Berlin)
Ruby (Germany/Australia)
Sissy Doutsiou (Greece)
Tasos Sagris & Whodoes (Greece)
Rhys Anderson (Tasmania)
Cedric Till (Germany)
Nox (Germany)
Kezia Rice (UK)
Erla Gjinishi (Albania)
Lady Gaby (Australia / Germany)
Mary Katharine Tramontana (USA / Berlin)
Grace Solivag (Germany)
Orla Isis (Ireland / England)
Bernadette Geyer (Germany)
Mad Kate (UK / Berlin)
Boulos Shakkour (Palestine)
Mssissippi (France)
Hlin Leifsdóttir & Μorton (Iceland / Greece)
Visual Art by Film Poetry Archives | Soundscapes by DJ Crystal Zero
Produced by The Institute for Experimental Arts
Supported by Berlin Spoken Word and FilmPoetry.org Free Digital Platform.
A benefit for Al-Awda Hospital, Gaza
Venue: TAK Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg – village Prinzenstraße 85 F Oranienhof 10969 Berlin
Tickets: 10e at Eventbrite as also at the theatre door during the event
