The Victor Hugo Centre has hosted a sold out poetry evening at the newly renovated Hayward Room at the Guille-Allès Library.
More than 50 people attended the event to hear from a range of local poets and notable figures on the island, including His Excellency Lieutenant Governor Richard Cripwell.
Students from The Ladies’ College and Elizabeth College also performed, reading their own poetry and works from Victor Hugo’s collections.
Victor Hugo Centre Chairman, Larry Malcic, said: “According to Hugo, poetry is a hunger of the soul and something that is intrinsically part of our lives. Through the evening’s poems and prose, the aim was to learn about ourselves, our heritage, our language and our history.”
Local poet, Trudie Shannon, who has been writing poetry from the age of nine, read two of her works including ‘My Darling Léopoldine’ which centres around Victor Hugo discovering his daughter had died, through a newspaper column.
Trudie added: “I wrote the poem after having a conversation with Gregory Stephen Cox. Poetry and painting, it is not something you can force – I write what is in front of me and so there’s no tempo, no metre, it is simply capturing what you experience.”
The poetry event gave insight into the type of events the Centre will organise in its performance space in the future. The Centre will showcase work from local artists, musicians and poets, creating a community space for all to enjoy.
“We want to make the Victor Hugo Centre a home for Guernsey’s creative community – a place that promotes Guernsey’s legacy of literature, poetry and art,” said Mr Malcic.
“We also want to recognise the other aspect of Hugo’s life and his lifelong commitment to the values of human rights, social justice, equality and freedom. These are a bedrock and Hugo referred to Guernsey as the rock of hospitality and freedom and so we want to celebrate both, which we believe are still alive and well today.”
