São Luiz Theater pays tribute to poet Luis Miguel Nava

"On the 30th anniversary of the death of Luís Miguel Nava" is the title of this recital coordinated by Miguel Loureiro, assisted by Tiza Gonçalves, which pays homage to "one of the most intense voices of contemporary Portuguese poetry", according to information from the São Luiz Municipal Theater.

The reading of Luis Miguel Nava's poems explores a "writing marked by strong and unexpected images", which "makes the body the center of the poetic experience, a place of desire, pain and metamorphosis".

"Between childhood memories and existential reflection, his poems reveal a radical and profoundly visual language that transforms the intimate into universal matter," describe the organizers.

The recital features performances by Ana Videira, Artur Costa, Carolina Amarais, Joana Pialgata, Joana Resende, Pedro Moldão, Peter Michael and Tiago da Câmara Pereira.

The sessions will take place in the Luís Miguel Cintra Room, at 8:00 pm on Friday and Saturday, and at 5:30 pm on Sunday.

Free entry is subject to room capacity, with tickets available from one hour before the event at the theater box office.

Born in Viseu on September 29, 1957, Luis Miguel Nave studied Romance Philology at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon and, after completing the course, he completed a master's degree and worked as an assistant at that faculty between 1981 and 1983, the year in which he left for Oxford, where he worked as a reader of Portuguese.

It was in this decade that he was considered one of the most important revelations in Portuguese poetry, although his first book, 'O Perdão da Puberdade', was published in 1974.

Four years later, he received the Revelation Award from the Portuguese Writers Association with the work 'Películas', published in 1979.

After three years as a reader of Portuguese at Oxford, Luis Miguel Nava applied for a position as a translator for the then EEC (European Economic Community), won the competition and settled in Brussels in 1986.

Influenced by the imagination and biographical mythology of homosexual writers such as Arthur Rimbaud, André Gide, William Burroughs, Paul Bowles, Pier Paolo Pasolini or the Portuguese Manuel Teixeira-Gomes, Luis Miguel Nava, like many of them, chose Morocco and Mexico as places of inner search and erotic adventure.

In May 1995, he was found dead in his apartment, the victim of homicide, and it was later discovered that he had been murdered by a young Moroccan man with whom he had a relationship, according to the victim's diaries.

Among his works are the titles 'Inertia of Desertion', 'As Someone Said', 'Resurfacing', 'The Sky Beneath the Bowels' and 'Volcano'.

In 2002, Dom Quixote published 'Complete Poetry 1979-1994', organized and with an afterword by Gastão Cruz and a preface by Fernando Pinto do Amaral.

More recently, in 2020, Assírio & Alvim published his entire work, including the previously unpublished 'O Livro de Samuel' and 'Romance', gathered in a single volume with the generic title 'Poesia' and with editing, preface and notes by Ricardo Vasconcelos.

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