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Poetry Therapy, the International Festival returns to Brianza

From 20 to 30 November the event organised by Mille Gru Aps and PoesiaPresente in collaboration with Asst

19 November 2025

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The International Festival of poetry kicks off in Brianza, from 20 to 30 November 2025. The title of this second edition is 'Through. Words of well-being for all ages', with a special focus on the theme of poesis therapy in the age of development.

The kermesse, organised by Mille Gru Aps and PoesiaPresente - Scuola di Poesia di Monza, is held in collaboration with Asst Brianza, with the contribution of Fondazione della Comunità di Monza e Brianza and Fondazione Cariplo.

The Festival is structured around an international in-person conference (at the Vimercate Hospital Auditorium), four online and zoom roundtables with Italian and foreign poetry experts, three exhibitions, a poetry performance followed by a reading, and two training workshops.

The event will be preceded by two previews on 20 and 21 November, designed to introduce the works: on Thursday 20 November, at 7 p.m. at the Virginia e Co Bookshop in Monza, the book Vivere la paura e Stranamore (Edizioni San Paolo) by Elisa Veronesi and Paolo Maria Manzalini will be presented, while on Friday 21 at Spazio Heart in Vimercate the talk Attraverso l'Arte: cura e relazione (Through Art: care and relationship will be held at 9 p.m.. The programme includes a talk by Valentina Selini, an art therapist from the former Paolo Pini Psychiatric Hospital, a talk by educator Laura Fontana, followed by a talk by psychologist Valeria Bianchi Mian. On the same evening, the three exhibitions organised for the Festival will be presented.

The first, hosted by the Vimercate Hospital, Riflessi. In viaggio tra ombre penombre e luci nuove (Travelling through shadows and new lights) is a photographic exhibition realised by the Gruppo foto Cps Vimercate - Asst Brianza; the second, which can be visited on 29 November on the occasion of the conference at the Auditorium of the Hospital of Vimercate, is an exhibition of the artefacts of the ateliers Giochi di lana and Il Pennello di carta organised by the Cps - Asst Brianza, while the third Alberi in cammino by Dome Bulfaro, after the extraordinary success at the Pasquinelli Foundation in Milan, will be on show at Spazio Heart in Vimercate until January 2026.

On Thursday 27 November, the Festival officially starts with four online and zoom roundtables with Italian and international speakers. From 8.30 a.m. until 9.30 p.m. there will be talks dedicated to different periods of life. It starts with a focus on adolescence to which the first two talks are dedicated (8.30 a.m.-12.30 the first, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. the second) with world Poetry Slam 2024 champion Lady La Profeta, writer, poet and dancer Valentina Giordano, children's author Azzurra D'Agostino, and the coordinator and pedagogical manager of Anno Unico, school for teenagers who do not go to school, Davide Fant, the South African Slammer poet Xabiso Vili, world champion of Poetry Slam 2022, the author Alessandra Racca, the psychologist and poet-performer Viola Margaglio, the Sicilian poet-performer Eleonora Fisco. The third talk (3-5 p.m.) is dedicated to childhood.

Speakers include Spanish poet-therapist and transdisciplinary educator María Ortega García, teacher and poet Giacomo Nucci, bookseller Chiara Basile, and children's author Giusi Quarenghi, while the last meeting (18.30-21.30) turns its gaze to adulthood, which will be investigated thanks to English psychodynamic coach and expressive writing facilitator Jon Sayers, Mexican International Academy for Poetry Therapy co-president Alejandra Monroy Sauri, International Barcelona Journaling Festival founder Marusha Mozolevskaya, psychophysiologist Sara Della Giovampaola and Gestalt psychotherapist Leonora Cupane.

On Friday 28 November, at 8.30 p.m., at the PoesiaPresente space in via Donatello 12 in Monza, there will be a poetry performance with texts and poems by Silvia Vecchini, dramaturgy by Dome Bulfaro and the DiVerso Choir from the PoesiaPresente poetry school. This will be followed at 9.30 p.m. by a meeting between Silvia Vecchini and the publisher Giovanna Zoboli based on the author's latest book C'è una poesia che ti aspetta (Topipittori).

On Saturday 29 November, morning and afternoon, there will be an international conference with live national and foreign guests at the Vimercate Hospital Auditorium. While the morning will be devoted to talks on General knowledge in relation to poetry as a cure thanks to the reflections of epistemologist Barbara Sangiovanni, poet Silvia Vecchini, Sigmund Freud University professor Tamara Trebes, University of Turin professor Vincenzo Alastra, and poet, poetry and Alzheimer's expert Franca Grisoni, the afternoon, on the other hand, is aimed at exploring specific practical interventions in poesis therapy: Paola Perfetti will illustrate the experience in the first Alzheimer's village in Italy, Il Paese Ritrovato in Monza, while the American poet Gary Glazner will review the practices of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project he directed and which has become the most applied project with Alzheimer's patients in the world.

The role of Bibliotherapy in mourning is expressed by Ghent University professor Dimitra Didangelou, while oriental poetry - in particular haiku and renku - considered a valuable therapeutic resource will be recalled by Padua University lecturer Ines Testoni, director of the Cat (Creative Arts Therapies) Master's course together with writer and Thanatologist Laura Liberale, coordinator of the master's course.

Theatrical and narrative medicine workshops for the humanisation of care and for the support of the adolescent population will be explored in depth by professional educator and biosystemic counsellor at the Cona Hospital in Ferrara Alberto Urro and by the Project Manager for training at the Ausl Companies and the Ferrara University Hospital Michele Dalpozzo. Lastly, Dome Bulfaro, lecturer at the University of Verona and founder with Simona Cesana of PoesiaPresente - Scuola di Poesiaterapia di Monza, will conclude the proceedings with a speech devoted to caring for one's inner garden.

On Sunday 30 November, at the Poesia Presente venue, the Festival ends with two training workshops in Poetry Therapy led by Dimitra Didangelou and Dome Bulfaro and by Tamara Trebes and Luca Buonaguidi respectively.