March 21 marks the World Day of Poetry, established by the UNESCO General Conference in 1999.
The date, which coincides with the first day of spring, acknowledges that poetry holds a privileged place in the promotion of dialogue and intercultural understanding, of linguistic and cultural diversity, and of communication and peace.
Over the years, UNESCO has focused on the encounter between the various forms of creativity, facing the challenges that communication and culture have been going through in recent years. Among the various forms of expression, in fact, every human society looks toward the ancient statute of poetic arts as to a foundational place of human memory, the base of all the other forms of literary and artistic creativity. Not by chance, the UN has chosen the very same date to celebrate the Day devoted to the elimination of racial discrimination.