Interview: José García Reyes of the Círculo del Liceo

Following their fantastic talk with American Poet Karen Swenson, we spoke to the Vice Chairman of Barcelona’s historic Círculo del Liceo to learn more about the talk, the author and some reflections of art in general.

The history of Barcelona Metropolitan is an example of how the city’s expat community has integrated so well into various spaces within Catalan society. The English-speaking community of Barcelona has not only created its own associations, but it has also been welcomed into a number of established entities.

One of the organizations with open arms is the Círculo del Liceo, one of Barcelona’s oldest and foremost clubs that resides in the same beautiful building as the Gran Teatre del Liceo on Les Rambles. The club hosts a great number of activities and events in English, showing an affection for and connection to Barcelona’s English-speaking expat community.

At the end of October, the Círculo del Liceo and Peña Pickwickians convened just such an event, a conference in English titled A Poet's Life with Karen Swenson, an American poet whose work has appeared in a great number of prestigious international publications. During her talk at the Círculo, Swenson shared her fascinating experiences and knowledge of Southeast Asia, discussing colonization, dictatorships and the impact they have had on people from that part of the world. But this wasn’t a night of dry academia, as she told her stories through poetry filled with humor and hope. It presented a reflection on the remoteness of these far-flung cultures, unknown to many of us, but united and made relatable through Swenson’s work.

To find out some more about the talk, we spoke with José García Reyes, Vice Chairman of the Círculo del Liceo and a well known patron of the arts in Barcelona.

Hi, José, thanks for speaking with us. Karen Swenson’s talk sounded like a fascinating evening of culture, but what did it mean for the Círculo?

For us it was something different, as it marks our first event held entirely in English. Is it a sign of our global times, where English is the most powerful “lingua franca.” Definitely. But it was also a way to welcome the international community to the Círculo—already more than 50 members of our club are part of this community.

How would you describe Karen Swenson?

Karen Swenson is a woman of letters, a world traveler, a journalist for The New York Times and a humanitarian who spent a month working with Mother Teresa in Kolkata. She has also written poetry for The New Yorker, Saturday Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Leader, as well as many anthologies both in the US, and the United Kingdom. She has been poet-in-residence at the Universities of Idaho, Denver, Skidmore College, among others. Her body of work includes: An Attic of Ideals, East-West, A Sense of Direction, The Landlady in Bangkok; A Daughter's Latitude and A Pilgrim into Silence. Karen was rewarded for her achievements with the Ann Stanford Poetry Prize and the prestigious National Poetry Series in 1993.

Poetry is a form of communication and Karen makes a powerful statement in conveying biographical patches, inward searching and a desire to know other cultures, condemning dictatorship and colonialism without forgetting a strong cry for what is owed to women.

On a more personal note, Karen is definitely an East Coast American, by her own admission. She has now lived in Barcelona for the past 10 years, as she put it, fleeing from George W. Bush's policies and the high cost of living in New York City. She had visited Spain in the 1960's and remembered Barcelona as an attractive and cultured place by the sea.

Her subject matter is poetry, that non-utilitarian art, written or recited, that alters our inner self with joy, sorrow or any other emotion.

Why did you want to do a session on poetry at the Círculo? And what does poetry mean to you?

Poetry is a difficult literary genre, the composition of which requires a quiet setting for soul searching, pursuing the precise word, without letting the word itself become eroded by sheer use, all to achieve poetic impact. The “Best word in the best order,” as Coleridge put it. Figures of speech—irony, metaphors, allegories, paradoxes, oxymorons—do embellish poetry, however, meaning is hard to weave for the reader, as there are few references in the text. Grammar and syntax are reduced to a minimum. Indeed, one has to find their own meaning; the poet did too in the making of his or her verse. 

Ah, but there is a splendid reward when the reader comprehends the poem, for he or she in the act of enlightenment approaches the act of creation, just as the poet did in his or her labor of composition.

Words are powerful, we know this. So to end, here is a timeless definition of poetry by Wordsworth: “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”

We’ll leave this profound reflection on art to end the interview, with many thanks to José for this time. We also invite you to continue exploring the work that the Círculo does, both to do with poetry and beyond, and we encourage our readers to follow all the activities of this historic club.

You can read more about Karen Swenson in our interview with her.

Learn more about the Círculo del Liceo on the website at circulodelliceo.es and follow in social media on Facebook at @circuloliceo and Instagram at @circuloliceo.