The first event of the series, featuring Portuguese poet Ana Luísa Amaral and Yao Feng, her Chinese translator and a poet himself, will take place on 20 November 2021 at 8:00pm via Ifeng, Facebook and YouTube.

Curated by Professor Max Xiaobing Tang of the Faculty of Arts, the second season of Break Out will present contemporary poets from Portugal, Greece, Russia, the US and Mainland China along with their translators. Two of the seven sessions will pay tribute to important poets of the past. To further enrich online participants’ appreciation of poetry and art, each session will be accompanied by a dance film, a musical performance, or a presentation of visual arts.

The Break Out series is a virtual extension of International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong (IPNHK), a biennial programme organised by the Hong Kong Poetry Festival Foundation until 2019. IPNHK, founded by Chinese poet Bei Dao in 2009 when he was a distinguished professor in the Faculty of Arts, is one of the most influential international poetry festivals in Asia. The Faculty of Arts has long been a sponsor of IPNHK and its programming.

Developed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Break Out brings world-renowned poets and their Chinese (or, in some cases, English) translators together. Poets and translators read poetry in different languages and discuss topics of common interest to them. Livestreamed in seven sessions from May to August in 2021, the first season of Break Out featured 12 international poets, drawing over 3.3 million viewers in the process.

“We will introduce some new elements and format in the new season,” said Professor Tang. “Our goal is to make the online poetry events a rich and multi-faceted experience for our audiences, taking the platform, which emerged from the pandemic, beyond the pandemic. We wish to make poems and voices from all over the world part of our inner life.”

The second season of Break Out will run from November until February 2022.