Poetry Mass

The great tradition of our festival sees fresh Estonian poetry being performed on Sunday under the vaults of the St Nicholas’ Church. Many in the lineup made an important contribution to Estonian poetry last year. Kai Aareleid, previously known as a prose writer, published two collections of poems in 2015: Naised teel and Vihm ja vein, which ponder the meanings of the greatest intimacy. Doris Kareva was nominated for the Estonian Cultural Endowment poetry prize for her polished collection of pensive and figurative poetry Perekonnaalbum and Triin Soomets was nominated for the same prize for her collection Hulgakesed, which is a compact example of the author’s characteristic style that combines the personal and the philosophical. In early 2016, the continuously prolific Peep Ilmet published his collection Ykskõikvus, which has its origins in the poems he performed at the 2015 Poetry Mass. The lineup also includes Indrek Koff, whose by now classic tract On The Vitality of Estonianness (2010) was produced as a radio play this year; Eda Ahi, one of the most esteemed poets of the younger generation, who is extremely skilled at rhymed poetry, and Eeva Park, who has gained recognition as an idea generator as well as a poet; two Estonian-Finnish joint collections of poems titled 8+8 were published under her supervision. Robert Jürjendal will provide music. The museum ticket applies.

The event is in Estonian.