COVENTRY Poet Laureate Emilie Lauren Jones has undertaken a special exchange visit to Dresden.
The two cities were twinned in 1956 after both being heavily impacted on during bombing in the Second World War.
Emilie ran a workshop session with a local writers’ group as well as visiting a school.
She also gave several talks and performances at venues including an international friendship group and the German-British Society.
Emilie met with many artists, attended the annual multicultural Gastmahl Festival and headlined Dresden’s bi-monthly Story Slam.
Year 12 students from local school Hans-Erlwein-Gymnasium gave Emilie a 5ft copy of a poem they had written in response to Emilie’s poetic film ‘On These Streets We Shine’.
And the students wrote and performed poems celebrating their individuality during Emilie’s visit.
The trip aimed to cement the friendship between Dresden and Coventry and to create connections between organisations and people from the two cities.
Emilie is taking part in an exchange of letters with Dresden’s ‘City Writer’ Katharina Bendixen in October, which will be published online, as well as writing poems about her time in the city.
On November 10, Coventry’s open mic night ‘Fire and Dust’ will hold a special virtual event celebrating Dresden poets.
Visit [email protected] for more information or to book a place on the open mic night.
