In celebration of its ten-year anniversary, Poetry Meets, a Berlin-based international, multilingual community event showcasing visual art and film, spoken words, DJs and musicians, has put together its landmark debut publication, Togetherness – A Poetry Meets Anthology, to be published by Archive Books. The anthology brings together the voices of 40 international artists, poets, dancers, musicians, and storytellers to explore themes of family, home, and (be)longing.

Compiled and edited by Poetry Meets founder Jumoke Adeyanju, with co-editors Delali Amegah and Savanna Morgan, Togetherness is a powerful literary offering that reflects the spirit of a community nurtured over the last decade across cities including Berlin, Cologne, Nairobi, Bahia, and Amman.

“What more can we say about Poetry Meets? It is one of – yes, we can be bold enough to say it – the world’s very finest poetry nights, but it is also so much more than that: it is community, it is possibility,” writes Musa Okwonga in the anthology’s “Forward.” “Here is to Togetherness, this beautiful collection of poems – filled with odes to home, to community, to resilience, and to love – that is the perfect expression of the spirit of Poetry Meets.”

Across three thematic chapters — Family, Home, and (Be)longing — contributors engage with their realities and imaginations in forms as diverse as haikus, love letters, and sign language. Their work weaves together languages including Swahili, Tamil, Korean, Yorùbá, Umbundu, Ewe, and German Sign Language (DGS), affirming Poetry Meets as a multilingual and multicultural platform. Writes editor-in-chief Jumoke Adeyanju in the preface:

Here, we witness a quiet yet powerful reckoning with what it means to belong—always shifting, always evolving: From South Korea, Senegal, Haïti, Togo, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Tamil Nadu, alongside diasporic voices tied to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Mongolia, Somalia, Vietnam, Eritrea, Venezuela, Palestine and more, where every line, every gesture, every song, every step, every frame is a declaration of existence.

Featured voices include Angolan writer and musician Kalaf Epalanga, Kenyan author Michelle Angwenyi, Senegalese dancer Khoudia Touré, Nigerian filmmaker and movement artist Yemi Osokoya, and South Korean performance artist Hyemi Jo. Many contributors are being published for the first time, transitioning from performance to print with deeply personal and poetic entries shaped in bedrooms, on dance floors, and around kitchen tables. Importantly, Togetherness also spotlights Deaf artists David Yusuf and Hyemi Jo, with their poems presented both on the page and through QR codes linking to video performances in DGS — a vital expansion of accessibility and form.

Designed by Lisanne Kuta Kampata with cover art and selected illustrations by Diana Ejaita, the 160-page anthology embodies the layered aesthetics and collaborative ethos of Poetry Meets. As described in the anthology by contributor Jess Oliveira, “Poetry Meets is more than an event: it’s a portal opener, or perhaps, a portal itself. A gateway to tenderness, a method for making and sharing beauty.”

Togetherness is available now — get your copy here! You can also support Poetry Meets’ efforts to launch an independent publishing house by donating here.