Poetry: What’s the Point?

“What Is Poetry For?” is an interactive lecture-performance by Eleonora Fisco that invites participants to reconsider the nature of poetry and its relevance today. Rather than providing a definitive answer, Fisco sparks a continuous dialogue with the audience, transforming each session into a small community that discovers how poetry is personally significant. Participants are encouraged to debate what qualifies as poetry and to question why—exploring how literary possibilities shift across eras: while free verse was unattainable during the Renaissance, meter-heavy epic poems sound out of place today.

Literature’s greatest innovations have come from championing what was once on the margins; today, performative poetry forms like spoken word, spoken music, and slam poetry are carving out new space in the literary landscape. Fisco intersperses her theoretical presentation with original performances, showcasing poetry as a vibrant, physical, and vocal art.