Poemfest in Kaposvár
“A poem is that which must be spoken” – we chose this thought by Sándor Kányádi as our motto, and we did so with joy, courage, faith, and commitment on the last weekend of February, organized by the Kaposvár Community House of the Csányi Foundation with the cooperation of the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
4-16-53-102-10-11-21-2-1-5
And what do these numbers cover?
Four years ago, we started with 16 poetry lovers; now, 53 people applied for the Csányi Foundation’s IV. Poem and Prose Recitation Festival, where more than a hundred participants listened to poems set to music and freely chosen poems, mostly selected from Hungarian literature, which were evaluated with high professionalism by the 10-member jury. Among the judges, there were those who had served as professional evaluators multiple times, and there was someone who participated in the challenging task of evaluation as an Alumni member. Every Community House of the Foundation delegated a reciter. We made this year’s festival open to our partner institutions in Kaposvár, so poetry lovers arrived from the Munkácsy and Táncsics High Schools and the Eötvös Loránd Technical School. Our Transylvanian partners participated as returning guests again this year, from Covasna and Harghita counties. The Truba-moll band also arrived from the latter location, giving a festival-opening concert of poems set to music on Friday evening. The three-day poetry celebration consisted of 11 program elements: from competition programs to four types of creative workshops where the reciters could train themselves: in one, actors led a craft lesson; in the second, experiential painting took place using the poems; in the third, stage movement took the lead; and in the fourth, young musicians and the invited Truba-moll band played music together lightheartedly. Before the competition programs, actors and a drama teacher jointly led speech techniques, movement, and cooperation-oriented drama games in the “tuning-in” session as help before the recitations. The youth performance of Cyber Cyrano by the Csiky Gergely Theatre could not be missed either. On the old wooden bridge of Deseda, we sang our mascot song together, Radnóti’s poem Bájoló set to music by Szabó Balázs Bandája, and we enjoyed the spring sunshine and each other’s company with sometimes cheerful, sometimes deep conversations. Throughout every part of the program, a strong community was palpable, present with heart and soul from preparation through execution to post-production, with 21 people active.
At this year’s festival, we established an award: the Tulip Tree Award serves the memory of our beloved drama teacher, “Uncle” Zoli Papp, for outstandingly high-quality, unique, and special poetry recitation, and a total of only two reciters can receive it (one per age group).
The jury evaluated the performances very seriously (and strictly); in their assessment, they mentioned how joyfully they noted the perceptible development in performance style; the choice of poems this year was commendably exciting and broad, surely preceded by serious literary research. “The current evaluations reflect the momentary presence, development is continuous, and maintaining the results can also be a challenge in the future” – summarized one of our judges in the evaluation.
Thank you for being with us as jury members: Valéria Skoda, Hanga Martos, Hanna Szép, Attila Balázs, Tímea Magyar in the younger age group; Dániel Nizsai, Krisztina Nyirkó, Zoltán Elekes, László Gázsik, Levente Lassu in the older age group.
Thank you for the thunderous concert, the insightful presence, and the soul-lifting experience of making music together to the Truba-moll band: dr. Zoltán Elekes, Imre Bíró, István Kovács, Géza Majla.
Thank you to Lili Vinczéné Balhási, Orsolya Szabó, Andrea Ladányi, Melinda Csutorás, Bea Kálmán, Andrea Nagy from the Cake Club of the Kaposvár Community House; to Anett Kis-Kovács, Médea Krötzer, and the parents from Kaposvár Group 3 for the delicacies; and to Lilla Király from Kaposvár Group 1 for sweetening our days with her cakes.
We owe our gratitude for the cooperative organization to the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE), with special thanks to Tímea Gelencsér, dr. Péter Gombos and Sára Gombosné Szabó, and Sándor Szakács.
A few thoughts and sentences from participants and jury members: “It was so good to come back and see how the ‘Csányi’ kids talk to each other, how they rejoice in each other, how inclusive they are with each other and with those coming from outside. It is so good to work with so many pure-hearted, kind-souled children.” (Dániel Nizsai, actor).
“I watched the exquisitely organized event with admiration; it was a true professional recharging for me… I learned a lot this time as well.” (Rozi Farkas, accompanying teacher, Covasna County)
“Thank you very much for letting me be there in Kaposvár! Thank you for the many good experiences I could take with me, I carried only good feelings away… The whole festival was wonderful, and I loved it very much!” (Lajos Nyári, first Tulip Tree Award-winning reciter)
Here are this year’s award winners:
Receiving the Tulip Tree Award from the 11-16 age group: Bendegúz Horváth, from the Mohács Community House; and from the 17-23 age group: Lajos Nyári from the Pécs Community House.
Special Gold Rating and Audience Award was received by Lili Major, reciter from Táncsics Mihály High School, who also received an invitation to the Csányi Foundation’s Life Path Festival and All-Arts Camp.
Gold Rating was received by: Lili Fölker, Kristóf Farkas, Dóra Boróka Facskó, Fanni Sebesi, Enikő Sármány, and Szilveszter Cseke, who also won the Audience Award; Bíborka Rack, reciter from Eötvös Loránd Technical School, who received an invitation to the Csányi Foundation’s Guidance Festival and All-Arts Camp for her outstandingly high-quality performance; Kata Béni, Mária Paraditza (reciters from Transylvania), Nesztor Sábián, reciter from Munkácsy Mihály High School, who also received invitations to the Csányi Foundation’s Guidance Festival and All-Arts Camp for their outstandingly high-quality performances.
Returning home with a Silver Rating: Emese Ráczga, Boróka Süle, Barnabás Somogyi, Kevend Gabriel Czombos, Levente Orsós, Hunor Tana; Hanna Faragó, Martina Vincze, Bence Balázs, Lajos Nyári, Milán Vajda, Könyvespolc band.
Bronze Rating was awarded to: Lili Légler, Kinga Horváth, Hanna Lea Kece, Janka Bogdán, Tímea Bogdán, Réka Huszér, Olivér Kiss, Máté Mága, Bence Ruppert, Dominik Nyikos, Bence Kalocsa-Kovács, Dorián Babai; Kata Jakab, Ibolya Irén Molnár, Zalán Mácsai, Márta Jakab, Levente Sipos, Eszter Vitán, Gyula Pege, Rebeka Völfinger, Márkó Laurinyecz, Pamela Bánfi.
See you next year at the fifth Poem and Prose Recitation Festival!
Photos of the event can be found in the Gallery.