The project in summary

Artistic and poetry activities for children and teenagers from socio-economic marginalized areas of Medellin, Colombia.

The project in detail

The project promotes the participation of Projecto Gulliver children and youths, who live in violent and degraded areas of Medellin (Colombia), in the city’s International Poetry Festival.
  • Approximately 300 children between the ages of 9 and 12 who live in shelters or come from socio-economic marginalized areas of Medellin, and are enrolled in public schools.
  • Approximately 5’000 people attending the readings.
The poets’ collective Prometeo has been organizing the International Festival of Poetry in Medellin for 26 years, turning it into one of the most renowned festival of its kind worldwide and in a symbol of civil resistance to conflict through poetry and art. More than 100 poets, coming from all over the world, read their poems throughout the city.

For 18 years Prometeo has organized and coordinated Proyecto Gulliver (supported by Alta Mane since 2011). The project uses poetry as a stimulus for children and adolescents living in the violent and degraded outskirts of Medellin.

In 2015 and 2016, crucial years for the peace process in Colombia, following a surge in international interest for the Gulliver Project, the children and adolescents involved in the program, living in violent and marginalized neighbourhoods of Medellin, were invited to participate in the Festival. The Festival included artistic and poetry activities entirely dedicated to the children: poets from around the world traveled to the outskirts of Medellin, where Proyecto Gulliver takes place, to read their own poems and offer creative writing workshops to the children. The latter had the opportunity to accompany poets of international renown on the stage and read the poems written during Gulliver workshops.

Corporación de Arte y Poesía Prometeo

Non-profit Colombian organization founded in 1993 to produce and promote poetry that could contribute to societal and conscience transformation. Prometeo organizes poetry workshops for at-risk children and an International Poetry Festival. The latter is an annual meeting of poets from all over the world. During the festival, they read their work in parks, theatres and poor neighbourhoods of Medellin and are joined by the young beneficiaries of Projecto Gulliver.

Fondation Alta Mane has supported the International Poetry Festival in Medellin since 2014 in partnership with Fondazione Alta Mane Italia. In addition, Fondation Alta Mane has supported Proyecto Gulliver since 2011 and from 2012 in partnership with Fondazione Alta Mane Italia.

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