A Hand for the Poet – Romanian Poetry in Performance

On Saturday, we celebrated Romania’s National Culture Day with a bilingual poetry recital.

🎭 The live Romanian-language performances were delivered by actors Emilia Popescu and Demeter András, while English-language readings were presented, on screen, in the interpretation of Sir Michael Pennington, Anamaria Marinca and the late Ion Caramitru.

📖 Entitled “A Hand for the Poet … on Stage”, the recital featured verses by Mihai Eminescu, Tudor Arghezi, Marin Sorescu and Nichita Stănescu, some of the most important voices in Romanian poetry.

🎹 The evening was enriched by musical interludes brought on stage by pianist Cătălin Răducanu.

The event was opened by Aura Woodward, Director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, who welcomed the audience and introduced the artists. This was followed by a speech from Her Excellency Laura Popescu, Ambassador of Romania to the UK, who spoke about the significance of the occasion and the role of culture in today’s world.

The opening remarks concluded with Ovidiu Miculescu, creator of “A Hand for the Poet” — a project launched in 2021 as an online platform showcasing some of the most beautiful poems in Romanian literature, both in the original language and in translation, including English.

As always, we wish to thank the artists who accepted our invitation and the wonderful audience who once again filled our generous space beyond capacity.

🤝 The event was organised in partnership with The Culture Club and Pro Contemporania cultural associations.

📸 Photo credit: Alex Coman