The magic Klangfarbentext (www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/klangfarbentext )festival in Munich that I was part of and helped create earlier this year continues to get good coverage and have a lasting impact. It was, already at a six month remove, an important happening for us to recount what concrete poetry is in the 21st century. The paper deutschland funk has this slightly funny article up https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/erstes-festival-fuer-visuelle-poesie-worte-wie-gemaelde.691.de.html?dram:article_id=471898 It contains audio toooo

“Participation was the focus of the first British-German festival for visual poetry, which was jointly organized by the British Council and the Lyrik-Kabinett. One of the moderators was Steven J. Fowler, who carried colorful letters with him in a fanny pack. He laboriously unpacked it on stage, then washed it in a bowl with gurgling mineral water to finally form the word “troublemaker”, troublemaker - an allusion to Brexit?

“Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Steven Fowler and after having been mentioned so many times I am sure to be a disappointment to you. We are now experiencing twelve very short performances by the aforementioned poet teams who will be here for the next three days and create “sound colors text”. If I weren't one of them myself, I would be sorry for them because they now have to follow up on Eugen's incredible twenty-minute performance. We're all ruined now because you were so good. "

A few days in Munich thanks to the hospitality of Elke Ritt and the British Council in Germany, this was a chance to develop a project that I hope will become a significant moment in contemporary British innovative poetry in Europe. Proposed by myself and Chris McCabe, it centres around an exhibition of English Concrete poetry in Munich, that will trace the visual poetry revolution of the 50s through to those making the work on the island now, whom are not greatly well known beyond the UK. It will connect to German vispo too, but vitally, it will show the range of poetic practise that has emanated from visual innovation. From performance, to conceptual work, from kinetic poetry to installation. These few days were spent discussing the idea, touring the beautiful city and meeting some brilliant folk. Discovering the Lyrik Kabinett was a revelation, a library gallery event space, with a really progressive understanding of poetry and art together, and visiting the grand Literaturhaus once again reminded me of what we’re missing, not having these institutions, in the UK. Once again, I’m lucky to be working with the British Council and after this beginning, hopefully this ambitious idea comes to fruition next year.