From Buenos Aires to Los Angeles
BA: Circo de Poesia is originated by the poet and legendary underground writer Jose Sbarra in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the early 1990’s. The event acts purely as an open mic that fosters the reading of one’s own or one’s favorite poetry. The monthly event became a staple in the Buenos Aires underground and continued to flourish amid full-house audiences. It is here that Federico Luduena meets Jose Sbarra and later joins him in organizing the event. After Jose’s untimely death in 1996, Federico moves to Los Angeles, California
LA: The trajectory of Circo de Poesia in Los Angeles, begins when Federico Luduena, Estela Sosa and Alicia Villa start Circo in Culver City, in October 25th, 1998. (Please see Circo #1).
A note of interest:
While researching for the purchase of the domain name for Circo de Poesia, we’ve come across an interesting fact: as it may be suspected, being somewhat generic, the name is already in use.
First, in the english language, poetrycircus.com is a very basic poetry bbs site. No group however seems associated to the name. In Brazil, there is a blogger site for a Circo do Poesia.
In Argentina, the place where Circo de Poesia was officially born, even today, the event continues to be independently organized in at least two argentinean cities: Olavarria and Parana.
The group in Olavarria, led by Alberto Graf and Guillermo del Zotto, a local writer and journalist who met Jose Sbarra and personally attended some of his writing workshops, began producing events since 1996 but, according to an interview granted to www.olavarria.com didn’t solidify their present audience and format until around 2000. From there on, their event has somewhat retained the same format.
What you read here pertains exclusively to the experience of Circo de Poesia in Los Angeles but we intend to maintain contact with these groups and keep you informed. We’ve also maintained a personal contact with Pipi Sbarra, Jose’s surviving sister and a complete interview with her will be uploaded in our pages soon.