Other events – Helsinki Poetry Connection

Poet’s reception at Tekstin talo!

12. 01. 2025

Poet’s reception 23.1.2025 5-7 p.m. at Bar Tÿpo Tekstin talo!

Helsinki Poetry Connection’s Vinski Valos is a typewriting on-the-spot bespoke poet and listener. He receives people at his table and writes a personal takeout poem based on each encounter. Sit down and experience the process. Do you have a topic, question, passion, or experience in mind you would like to see verbalized? The finished piece, typed, signed, and recited, is yours to keep.

Valos has been gigging with his typewriter since 2016 at various events, festivals and happenings in Berlin, Helsinki and beyond, as well as put together a book of poetry from his encounters.

https://www.instagram.com/sidewalkscribe/

https://www.vinskivalos.com/

Action & Rest – Spoken Word with HPC

08. 10. 2024

As a departure from reading drama, Helsinki Poetry Connection presents an engaging serving of live stage poetry with two dazzling performers: Tania Nathan and Aika Huusko.

Tania Nathan is a post-colonial artist working in themes of identity, memory, joy and rest. She is based in Helsinki and Malaysia and through spoken word and short stories puts forward the idea of queer and BIPOC joy as the ultimate form of rebellion. Right now, she is curious about radical rest, and other forms of resistance.

Aika Huusko is a poet, an artivist and a translator, whose poetry is a mix of metaphysical and socially engaged themes. In 2012 they graduated with MA in writing poetry from Kingston University Writing School and their publications include Freshman mother (KWS, 2012), DIRT (Andel, 2015), Liike olen (Haaras, 2022) and Colombian nadaism poetry anthology Kerrostalo sateessa (Aviador, 2022). Aika has produced and performed at various spoken word events in London, Bogotá and Helsinki. They´re also a long-standing board member of Helsinki Poetry Connection.

Helsinki Poetry Connection is an award-winning association of writers, producers and cultural activists that promotes live poetry, spoken word, and open mic culture in Finland and abroad.

The festival is free of charge but requires reservation! Link!

18.10. – 20.00

Post Theatre Collective Studio

Pengerkatu 11 a 3 Helsinki

Graphic: Amirali Ghasemi

Rondo Open Mic 9.12.

24. 11. 202324. 11. 2023

9.12.2023, 19-22, Rondo Beer House, Vouti Björnramin kuja 6, 00790 Helsinki

Rondo Open Mic invites all friends of poetry to a new club in the heart of Viikki! Welcome to a club filled with lyricists, the mic is warmed up by Raakasaga and Yavis. Be your style spoken or written word, rap, street poetry or something totally else, from this club you will find a place for it and yourself.

The open mic starts after the warm-up shows. You can perform your poetry, rap, song lyrics, thoughts, a joke — the most important thing is that it is written by you. Each performer has 5 minutes on stage. It is possible to play i.e. beats on the background from phone or other device. We book a few open mic spots in advance, send email to juhokuusi@hotmail.com (put “Rondo Open Mic” in the header) and you can of course register at the spot to the hosts during the event.

The event is produced and hosted by Saartu Gada and Juho Kuusi.

Our event adheres to Safer Space Guidelines as found on HPC’s website: https://www.helsinkipoetryconnection.fi/en/about-us/safer-space-guidelines-of-hpc/ We don’t tolerate any kind of hate speech or discrimination.

The age limit is 18. Free entry.

Nordic Slam Poetry Night for Youth

27. 08. 202330. 08. 2023

Helsinki Poetry Connection offers a unique opportunity to see Poetry Slam masters from Nordic countries. As connected to Nordic Slam championships, at Friday 15th of September, there will be an event for Youth at Oranssi (Kaasutehtaankatu 1).

Champions from four countries will perform with Icelandic DJ Beatur, who will create background sound for poems. It can be anything from apocalyptic circus music to summery forest sounds.

Poetry Slam champions are Lasse Nyholm Jensen from Denmark, Marija Bliznac from Norway, Olle Sundström from Sweden and Jarkko Jokinen from Finland. There will be surprise poets performing with Poetry Slam champions. The event will be hosted by Juho Kuusi, who has won Finland’s Poetry Slam not once, but twice.

English translations of all poems will be screened to the background, so you don’t miss anything if you don’t understand the language.

We adhere to safer space guidelines, and we expect our audience to do same. Please note that the event is alcohol-free. Read more about safer space guidelines at our website: https://www.helsinkipoetryconnection.fi/en/about-us/safer-space-guidelines-of-hpc/

Oranssi is accessible except some doors with 3 cm doorsteps, but there is step-free access to the venue. One of the toilets is accessible and all are gender-neutral. Don’t hesitate to contact us for further info.

Producers: Juho Kuusi, Samppa Varis ja Elina Ortamo
Visual layout: Anna Nuutinen
Helsinki Poetry Connection with Finnish Cultural Foundation

The event is free, you are warmly welcome!

Nordic Slam Championships

03. 08. 202316. 09. 2023

Helsinki Poetry Connection hosts The Nordic Slam Championships in Helsinki, at Tiivistämö on Saturday 16th of September at 7 p.m. – welcome! Event is free.

First time in Finland, there will be an international Poetry Slam Championship. Champions from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland will challenge each other!

Nordic Slam has been organized since 2016, most recently 2022 at Lillehammer, Norway. In 2019, Grumpy Bitch (Nihkee Akka) aka Jonna Nummela won first place. Now it is Finland’s turn to host the event. Come to observe the versatility of the Nordic poetry scene and see who will win the championship this time! A rare opportunity indeed!

There are some differences in rules as opposed to other international championships. There are three rounds during which every participant will perform. At the end all the points from the 3 rounds will be added together. The winner will be the one with the highest score. All poems will be translated into English and screened to the background.

At the moment we are looking for five judges. You don’t need to understand the Nordic languages – you just need to be a friend of poetry! Sign up to Juho Kuusi via email: juhokuusi@hotmail.com

There will be competitors from all the Nordic countries except Iceland, as there is currently no active Icelandic Poetry Slam culture. Icelandic beatboxer and DJ Beatur will kick off the evening. Our hosts are poets Harri Hertell and Rosanna Fellman.

The event will be streamed and photographed. We adhere to safer space guidelines which can be read at our website: https://www.helsinkipoetryconnection.fi/en/about-us/safer-space-guidelines-of-hpc/

You can watch livestream here or at Youtube.

Day before the event, on Friday 15th of September there will be an event for Youth at Oranssi (Kaasutehtaankatu 1).

Producers: Juho Kuusi, Samppa Varis ja Elina Ortamo

Visual layout: Anna Nuutinen

Helsinki Poetry Connection with Finnish Cultural Foundation

Almost all of the spaces in Tiivistämö are accessible, with the exception of the downstairs. The event will be upstairs, where there is an accessible toilet. Read more at Tiivistämö’s site:

https://tiivistamo.fi/en/what-is-tiivistamo/accessibility

HPC Empty space writing workshop – Nadaism and the…

01. 11. 202202. 11. 2022

HPC Empty space writing workshop – Nadaism and the creative power of inactivity

When? Tuesday 15.11. at 6 – 8 pm

Where? Mielenlento, Otavantie 5 (Lauttasaari)

Welcome to getting familiarized with emptiness; your personal space of play and imagination, where lyrical revenue is derived from stopping by your inner space and stillness. Workshop is meant for the members of Helsinki Poetry Connection. It starts with short presentation about Colombian nadaism poetry. Nadaism is philosophical and artistic movement from the 1950s-60s characterized by counterculture, the everyday and existential nothingness (nada = nothing) that revolutionised Colombian art scene – especially that of poetry – to this date. After the presentation new texts from the void will be created with the help of writing tasks. Texts written in the workshop will be presented and commented on together in a supportive manner adhering to HPC’s safer space principles.

The workshop will be conducted multilingually by nadaism poetry translator and poet Ainokaisa ”Aika” Huusko and poet-producer Tania Nathan. There are 30 workshop places available and please, sing up by sending e-mail to ainokaisa.huusko@gmail.com or nathan.tania@gmail.com along with your preferred workshop language (fin/eng) by 14.11.2022. Free entrance for HPC members and there will also be snacks & drinks available. If you are not a member of HPC and would like to join, you can do so during your workshop registration (15 eur / year).

Poetry Pop-up: Evening of Ukrainan Poetry

22. 10. 202222. 10. 2022

Warmly welcome to poetry night on 28.10. at 18-20 in Encanto Art Cafe.

There will be three great performers on stage! Rarely heard Ukrainan poetry will be read by:

Anna Telnova
Anna Zaluzhna
Nadiia Fedorova

Poems will be performed mainly in English.

After that, there will be Open mic session, everyone is welcomed! Open mic performers have 5 min slots. Just talk to the host of the evening if you wish to perform.

Event is hosted by Helsinki Poetry Connection, Ukrainian Association in Finland and Henri Hirvenoja, who will perform a poem for Ukraine.

Location is atmospheric Cafe Encanto at Maneesikatu 3, Helsinki.

Please read our safer space guidelines and come only if you are healthy.

Poster: Sirja Moberg

K1-club: QuePoc Club (April 28th 2022)

21. 04. 2022

Together with Helsinki Poetry Connection ry, K1 presents QuePoc Club, a poetry event influenced by Zanele Muholin’s ZAZISE exhibition showcasing themes of antiracism and LGBTQIA + perspectives. HPC is a poetry association that was founded in 2013 with the intent to promote stage poetry scene in Finland. QuePoc Club will feature two performances by poets Kihwa-Endale and Haliz Yosef and the rest of the evening will be for open mic performances. The club will be produced together with writer and spoken word artist Tania Nathan, and hosted by Saban Ramadani, actor and artist who is a familiar face from the ballroom scene in Helsinki.

Kihwa-Endale performs poetry to share stories that break apart as easily as they are built. Her works are structured like the internet, Nature, and Love, where time is not linear. In addition to performing and publishing some of her pieces, she has established Kairos, a spoken word collective in Helsinki that re-imagines the culture of creativity. In addition to spoken word, Kihwa-Endale paints, mainly using mirrors as her canvas. More can be found on her IG @akea_laniakea, and @kairos.helsinki

Haliz Yosef, b.1990, frequently works with memories, cultural-identity and language which mediates through moving image and sound art installations where they all interplay site-specifically.

We abide by the Safer Space Principles in all our events.

K1 Clubs Spring 2022

31.3. 19.30-21.30 F5.6 X K1 Club: The Photographs of Leo Montonen (in Finnish)
14.4. 19.30-21.30 F5.6 X K1 Club: Kuvajournalismi 2021 (Photojournalism 2021) -panel (in Finnish)
28.4. 19.30-21.30 K1-klubi: QuePoc Club (in Finnish, English, Kurdish, Arabic)
12.5. 19.30-21.30 F5.6 X K1 Club: Short Cut (in English)

Free entry. The events are organised following the current Covid-19 guidelines.

Poetry Pop-Up: Kannustusklubi

05. 04. 202205. 04. 2022

After the corona gloominess, Helsinki Poetry Connection awakens into spring and sunlight bringing up a new club concept! Poetry Pop-up is a club of changing ideas, where we set up poetry into new locations and surprising concepts!

First Poetry Pop-Up: Kannustusklubi (Cheer-up club) will be held Wednesday 13.4. at Espoo, Kannusali’s Cafe bar Luola, Kannusillankatu 4. Club will start at 19, but you can come to the chat with us from 17.00 and join to a writing workshop beginning at 17.45. Workshop will be held by charming Aika Huusko. We will have three different and amazing performers: Rae Aiemaa, Jarkko Jokinen and Kuopus!

Between the warm-up performers we have open mic, when the stage is free to everyone to read their own poetry. You will have 5 minutes to read your poems or other texts. First timers will get a double applause! If your poetry contains heavy issues, please warn beforehand – but remember that all poems are welcome!

Helsinki Poetry Connection adheres into safer space guidelines. We don’t accept discrimination or harassment in our events. You can read more here!

Please don’t hesitate to talk to us about anything!

The venue has a bit over 2 cm high doorstep at front door and at cafe door.There is a slope leading into cafe.The corridor is well lit and route into cafe is easy to find.There is an accessible toilet at the venue floor.

The entrance is free and there is no age limit. Welcome, see you!

Host and producers: Elina Ortamo and Tiina Jokelainen
Poster: Sirja Moberg
Partner: Kannusali

Night of confessional lyricism

09. 12. 201916. 02. 2020