Francesca Beard represented the UK this year at the Medellín Poetry Festival, Colombia, from 14-21 June 2003. In previous years, UK poets attending the Festival have included Tony Harrison, Ken Smith, Adrian Mitchell, John Hegley and John Hartley-Williams. The Festival is directed by Fernando Rendon and this year featured 60 poets from 50 countries under the title 'Summit of World Poetry for Peace in Colombia'. Since the festival was founded in 1991 by the Latin American Poetry Magazine Prometeo, over 632 performances have been programmed in 35 Colombian cities, and more than 550 poets representing 102 countries from the five continents have come to the festival. The Medellín Poetry Festival is the largest of its kind in the world, with all events free to attend and audiences that are famed for their size and enthusiasm. Francesca Beard attended with Hannah Henderson, Literature Programme manager from Film and Literature Department of the British Council who was undertaking a literature consultancy visit at the same time and interpreting for the poets and festival organisers.

Francesca Beard’s first performance was at the Cerro Nutibara, an open air theatre called Carlos Vieco overlooking the city, and was attended by approximately 1,000 people of all ages. The reading featured six other poets from Colombia, Switzerland, the Mayan Nation (Mexico) and Spain. On the following day Francesca and Hannah Henderson attended the Carcel Bellavista (Bellavista Prison) where Francesca read in a sports hall/church with poets from Costa Rica and the United States. Afterwards, the pair were enthusiastically greeted by hundreds of prisoners who were deeply moved and showed that their visit was greatly appreciated. 55 poets participated in the magical closing ceremony, which took place on the summer solstice in the open air in front of an audience of 5,000 people. Reading in many languages, each poet was accompanied by a Spanish language performer who also read the work, making poetry from all over the world accessible to a Colombian audience. Amongst a plethora of outstanding poets, some of the highlights were poetry and music from Michael Bailey, ‘Mbala’ from Jamaica, the powerful prison poetry of Malawi’s Jack Mapanje, the beautiful birdsong of Humberto Ak’Abal from the Mayan Nation, Guatemala and an incredibly rousing performance of ‘Who’ by Amiri Baraka of the USA.

Francesca also read at Cerro del Angel Open venue, Casa de la Cultura del Municipio de Bello Calle 53 A No. 52-23 on Wednesday, 18 June; the Universidad San Buenaventura Plazoleta (Open space) Sede Bello on Thursday 19 June and Ciudad de Cali Open Space Centro Cultural Cidad de Cali on Friday 20 June. She was also present at the Closing Ceremony at Plazoleta de los Pies Descalzos Empresas Públicas de Medellín Carrera 58 No. 42-115 on Saturday, 21 June.
For more information about the festival please see the Medellín Poetry Festival website

Francesca Beard

Francesca Beard was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and spent the first 12 years of her life growing up in Penang, an idyllic island paradise. Since then, quite frankly, life has been downhill all the way, but with occasional slow climbs... a bit like mowing a sloping lawn. After a spell in real jobs, she gave it all up to become a fictional character and now exists as a London-based poet, performing “spine-tingling” and “brilliant” spoken word to lucky audiences all over world. She is currently working on a one-woman show, 'Chinese Whispers'. She works as a writer-in-residence and workshop leader at many schools and institutions across London. Her work has featured in anthologies such as Gargoyle, Oral, Saltpetre and the Dazed & Confused anthology, Annual. Her chapbook, 'Cheap', is now in its fifth imprint. She also performs “utterly magical” music with her folk-hop group, 'Charley Marlowe'.