thesilkroadtoday
Medellín, Colombia | July 2026
As the 36th Medellín International Poetry Festival unfolds under the inspiring motto “Toward the Human Spring,” poet and President of the World Organization of Writers (WOW), Margarita Al, has described the festival’s theme as “a profoundly contemporary metaphor that revitalizes our thinking about the future and serves as an invitation to action.”
In her statement, Margarita Al emphasized that the Medellín Festival has once again demonstrated poetry’s unique capacity to transcend divisions and restore humanity’s essential values in a world increasingly vulnerable to conflict, polarization, and mistrust.
“The motto of the Medellín Poetry Festival, ‘Toward the Human Spring,’ is a remarkably modern metaphor—resonant and life-giving to the very nature of thought and meaning about the future. It is also an invitation to act,” she said.
According to the President of WOW, poetry remains one of humanity’s most effective means of recovering the ability to listen, discern, and consciously choose the language of reconciliation.
“In a world vulnerable to conflicts and distrust, poetry returns to us our ability to listen, to distinguish, and to choose the language of reconciliation.”
Margarita Al praised the Medellín International Poetry Festival for embracing this historic responsibility and offering the world a practical response rooted in cultural dialogue and human solidarity.
“Medellín has accepted this challenge and proposed its answer to the world: to meet, to speak, to read, to translate, to listen, and to hear one another.”
She noted that the festival’s enduring mission extends far beyond literary celebration. Through the gathering of poets, translators, and cultural voices from every continent, Medellín has become an international platform where poetry actively contributes to building a more humane and peaceful future.
“Step by step, the festival creates a space for the future of peace—a peace that stands as the antithesis of war, a peace of creation, moral elevation, and unity.”
The 36th Medellín International Poetry Festival continues its legacy as one of the world’s most influential cultural forums, bringing together poets and intellectuals from across the globe in affirmation of poetry’s role as a force for dialogue, cultural diplomacy, and human understanding.
For the World Organization of Writers (WOW), the festival’s message deeply resonates with its guiding principle:
“We Are the People of One Planet.”
In Medellín, poetry once again proves that words can become bridges across differences and that the human spring envisioned by the festival begins wherever people choose to listen to one another and imagine peace together.
Margarita Al
Poet and President
World Organization of Writers (WOW)
July 2026
Medellín, Colombia
