Three-day Moroccan Poets Festival begins in Tetouan

The seventh edition of the Moroccan Poets Festival opened on Friday in the Moroccan city of Tetouan under the patronage of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, and King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

Organised by the Sharjah Department of Culture in cooperation with the Moroccan Ministry of Youth, Culture, and Communication, the three-day festival features the participation of more than 50 Moroccan poets, intellectuals, artists, and critics.

The opening ceremony took place at Teatro Español in central Tetouan and was attended by Mohammed Ibrahim Al Qasir, Director of Cultural Affairs at the Sharjah Department of Culture; Zahour Amhaouch, Regional Director of Culture, representing Mohammed El Mahdi Bensaid, Moroccan Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication; Abdelrazak El Mansouri, Governor of Tetouan Province; alongside writers, intellectuals, university students, and poetry enthusiasts.

The festival opened with the screening of a documentary titled “Ten Unforgettable Years,” highlighting the cultural and literary achievements of the House of Poetry in Tetouan since its establishment.

Poet Mukhlis Al Saghir said the Houses of Poetry initiative, thanks to the support of the Ruler of Sharjah, had become an influential cultural platform across the Arab world, helping promote poetry and support creative expression.

He noted that the Tetouan festival had hosted hundreds of poets over its previous editions and continued to showcase leading Moroccan poetic voices.

Al Qasir said the festival reflected the strong cultural and historical ties between the UAE and Morocco and underscored the role of culture in strengthening dialogue and communication between people.

He added that poetry houses across the Arab world had become centres for nurturing literary talent, supporting creative exchange and preserving the role of Arabic poetry in contemporary cultural life.

He said the House of Poetry in Tetouan represented a successful model of this initiative through its active literary and cultural programmes, which had helped create a vibrant cultural scene bringing together poets, writers and critics.

“The seventh edition of the Tetouan Festival of Moroccan Poets confirms the continuity of this creative project in celebrating poetic expression and opening its spaces to diverse poetic experiences that represent the variety of generations and experiences, reflecting the richness and constant renewal of the Moroccan poetic scene,” he added.

On behalf of the Moroccan Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication, Amhaouch described the festival as one of the country’s leading poetry events and said it reflected a decade of cooperation between Morocco’s cultural institutions and the Sharjah Department of Culture.

She said the annual gathering had become an established platform bringing together Moroccan poets from different generations and artistic backgrounds.

During the ceremony, the House of Poetry in Tetouan honoured poet and academic Allal El Hajjam and academic Fatima Tahtah for their contributions to Moroccan and Arab cultural life.

The event also included poetry readings by three Moroccan poets presenting works focused on identity, human experience and social themes.

The House of Poetry also announced the winners of the seventh edition of the First Collection Award for Young Poets, aimed at supporting emerging literary voices, with the winning collections set to be published by the House.

In addition, winners of the “Regional Competition for Pioneers of the Arabic Language” were honoured as part of efforts to encourage Arabic language skills and creative writing among children and young people.

WAM