The Poetic Consultations, Small Gestures in Public Space, take place outdoors in Largo Trindade Coelho, in the city centre near Chiado, and are open to everyone. In these consultations, seven actors prescribe poetry to those who need it in their lives. As in other countries, they are done in and for the community.
The doctors on duty are Cátia Nunes, Diogo Fernandes, Tobias Monteiro, Isabél Zuaa, Zia Soares and two other international ‘specialists’, who advise young people and adults with a prescription made up of poems that heal, comfort and open up perspectives for those who listen.
Founded by Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, director of the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris, and playwright Fabrice Melquiot, the Poetic Consultations were born around ten years ago and were reinvented over the phone during the lockdown in March 2020. It’s a 20-minute meeting between an actor and a person around poetry.
To mark International Women’s Day, all the recipes prescribed in this session are by women poets.

To quote Fernando Pessoa, ‘Poetry can cure all ills’.

The Poetic Consultations and the Poetic Pharmacy are parallel programmes to Pessoa – Since I’ve been me.