Salisbury City Council is calling on poets in the community to participate in a poetry competition to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. The event, which was first led by the council in 2023, saw great engagement from the people of Salisbury as they opened a Book of Remembrance. This book will now be an annual tradition, accessible on January 27 each year.
In the upcoming 2024 event, the council seeks to involve the community in responding to this year’s theme, “The Fragility of Freedom”. Submissions for the poetry competition must align with this theme and encapsulate the vision of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which aims for “Learning from genocide – for a better future”.
The competition is divided into two age categories: 11 to 17 and 18 and over, with a maximum word limit of 250. Entries will be accepted from Salisbury residents and workers either at the Salisbury Info Centre or via email to [email protected] between December 1 to January 8. Submissions should include the entrant’s name, age, and contact information if delivered by hand.
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A shortlist of entries will be curated by the communities manager, and two poems from each age category will be selected by the Holocaust Memorial Day working group to be recited at the memorial event on Saturday, January 27 at 10:30 am.
The Holocaust Memorial Trust offers a variety of resources and materials on their website - hmd.org.uk, emphasizing the importance of coming together to learn from the past and take action for a safer future.
The public will have the opportunity to attend the Salisbury event, details of which will be announced, and the Book of Remembrance will be available for signing from 1 pm to 5 pm. The council aims to place the voices of the local community at the heart of the city’s response to the event.
Councillor Ian Tomes of the City Council Leadership Group emphasized the significance of understanding past mistakes and expressed the poetry competition as an opportunity for the next generation to grasp the fragility of freedom and articulate their hopes for the future through poetry.