The participants of the meeting were addressed with words of support by County Prefect Danijel Marušić, Croatian Writer’s Society member Đuro Vidmarović, poet Ljerka Totch Naumova on behalf of the Republic of Macedonia, Katarina Hinić on behalf of the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Office for Croatians Abroad and by Croatian Heritage Foundation director Marin Knezović who also declared the event officially open.
Thanks to the tireless efforts and enthusiasm of fans of verse and painting—members of the Rešetari Literary & Art Society—this gentle Slavonian town has become a cradle of spiritual and moral values. A testament to this fact is the staging of the fifteenth, jubilee Rešetari Meeting of Poets this weekend in Rešetari.
From the original idea that meetings in this place celebrate verse, the beauty of words, friendship and good spirits—last night’s meeting held at Ante Starčević Elementary School in Rešetari bears witness to the fact that the organisers have succeeded entirely in their intentions. A cornucopia of diverse content of this year’s 15th Rešetari Meeting of Poets was staged throughout the day—the promotion of the IV Collection of Young Poets, the XV Collection of Poets of the Rešetari Meeting of Poets and of Kaskade života (Cascades of Life), a book of poems by Slavica Božičević of Sweden. The crown of it all was the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Municipality of Rešetari and the City of Ilinden in Macedonia by the head of the Municipality of Rešetari Zlatko Aga and the Mayor of Ilinden Žika Stojanovski.
From the first book Šapat srca (Whisper of the Heart), published in 1998, all of the collections published by the Rešetari Literary & Art Society have pooled numerous associates and have presented the diversity of their writing and the aesthetic values of their poetry, the creative links between poets from the homeland and Croatian writers abroad. What is, however, most significant is that these meetings, by the enthusiasm and dedication of the members of this society, led by its president Ivan De Villa, have achieved a long and fruitful cooperation with Croatians in the emigrant communities who renew their emotional and lyrical contact with the homeland through verse and thereby preserve and nurture the Croatian national and cultural identity.
The jubilee 15th Rešetari Meeting of Poets have gathered established poets from all parts of Croatia and Croatian poets from the Diaspora: Austria, Germany, Sweden, America, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungary and Macedonia. Joining the event organisers from the Rešetari Literary & Art Society was the Croatian Heritage Foundation of Zagreb with the wholehearted support of the Municipality of Rešetari. The event was sponsored by the Croatian Culture Ministry and Brod-Posavina County, and co-sponsored by the Municipality of Rešetari.
On hand for the Meetings were numerous guests and dignitaries—Croatian Heritage Foundation director Marin Knezović, Katarina Hinić representing the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Office for Croatians Abroad, Brod-Posavina County Prefect Danijel Marušić, Ilinden Mayor Žika Stojanovski, the head of the Municipality of Rešetari Zlatko Aga, the president of the municipal council Milka Perković, Rešetari municipal councillors, one of the selectors for the collection of poems professor Đuro Vidmarović, the president of the Croatian National Self-Government in Hungary Stjepan Blažetin and many other friends of this event.
The participants of the meeting were addressed with words of support by County Prefect Danijel Marušić, Croatian Writer’s Society member Đuro Vidmarović, poet Ljerka Totch Naumova on behalf of the Republic of Macedonia, Katarina Hinić on behalf of the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Office for Croatians Abroad and by Croatian Heritage Foundation director Marin Knezović who also declared the event officially open.
The excellently prepared music and stage programme featured a succession of the many poets who made the trip to Rešetari to grace this festivity of song and verse, with the Slavča Croatian Vocal Ensemble featured in the musical segment of the programme.
Text by: Sanja Bukvić