
Limelight Poetry
Where poetry meets in NYC
Limelight Poetry is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting world poetry, founded in 2024 in New York City by poet Wang Yin. It invites outstanding poets and artists from around the world to share their work in various forms, with the goal of showcasing poetry in underrepresented languages. Drawing on the city's rich cultural resources, Limelight Poetry connects poetry with other art forms, fostering a global exchange of poetic expression. It welcomes audiences into a vibrant and inspiring world of poetry, music, and beyond.

POET
Aleš Šteger

MUSICIAN
Jure Tori

HOST
Patricio Ferrari

Location
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library
Join The New York Public Library and Limelight Poetry at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) for our World Poetry Salon!
Join The New York Public Library and Limelight Poetry at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) for our World Poetry Salon!

Hello Friend,
Consider supporting Limelight Poetry, a poetry nonprofit rooted in the heart of New York City.
As 2025 draws to a close, we pause to look back on a year of beginnings. This past year marked the inaugural chapter of Limelight Poetry. From that first step, we were fortunate to gather remarkable voices across poetry and music from around the world. These included poets Nikola Madžirov, Victoria Chang, Colm Tóibín, and Luljeta Lleshanaku, alongside musicians Becca Stevens, yuniya edi kwon, Martin Hayes, and Nava Dunkelman, among others.
In collaboration with the New York Public Library, we presented more than four vibrant World Poetry Salons, realizing a dynamic fusion of poetry and music and fulfilling our original goals.
During this holiday season, your gift is fully tax-deductible. More importantly, your generosity allows Limelight Poetry to continue serving the community in 2026, opening room for deeper exploration, new experiments, and bolder artistic encounters. Our mission has always been to expand the possibilities of poetry.
Thank you for keeping us in motion. It is your support that makes all of this possible.
With warm wishes,

Founder of Limelight Poetry
Latest Recap
World Poetry Salon IV
Luljeta Lleshanaku, Nava Dunkelman, and Patricio Ferrari













Photo by Jonathan Blanc/The New York Public Library & Dayan
POEM OF THE DAY
The smiles of our poets
What are our poets smiling at?
There’s nothing funny in our tribe.
Many lie murdered in gullies.
Our women and children are hungry and barefoot.
Unknown illnesses are mowing us down.
No new villages built and soon it will snow.
Despite all this, the smiles don’t fade from our poets’ faces.
As if facing sorrow brings them irrational, secret joy.
When we ask them what’s funny, they silently shrug,
And do the same when we demand they cheer us up in these dark times.
They guard the reason for their smiling just for their own enjoyment.
We trust them less and less, believe their sparse words less and less.
The smiles of our poets are truly mysterious in these poor times.
Did their minds burn out? Do they mock our common misery?
Their smiling sometimes cuts more cruelly than the weapons of our enemies.
But they are wrong if they think they will deceive us.
We will kill our poets only when we squeeze their secret out of them.
We will leave alive only the biggest blatherers, somber-faced and resembling us.
Aleš Šteger
Smehljanje pesnikov
Čemu se smehljajo naši pesniki?
Ničesar smešnega ni v našem plemenu.
Mnogi ležijo umorjeni v grapah.
Naše ženske in otroci so lačni in bosi.
Med nami kosijo neznane bolezni.
Nove vasi še niso zgrajene in kmalu bo sneg.
Kljub vsemu smehljanje ne splahni z lic naših pesnikov.
Kot da jih spričo gorja obhaja nerazumna, skrivnostna radost.
Ko jih vprašamo, kaj je smešnega, se molče namuznejo,
In nič drugače, ko jim ukažemo, da v temačnih časih razvedrijo še nas.
Razlog za njihovo smehljanje varujejo izključno za lastno zabavo.
Vse manj jim zaupamo, manj verjamemo njihovim redkim besedam.
Zares skrivnostni so nasmeški naših pesnikov v teh ubožnih časih.
Se jim je pomračil um? Se posmehujejo naši skupni nesreči?
Njihovo smehljanje včasih zareže bolj okrutno od orožja naših sovražnikov.
A motijo se, če mislijo, da nas bodo ukanili.
Ubijemo jih šele tedaj, ko iz njih iztisnemo njihovo skrivnost.
Pri življenju pustimo le tiste najbolj blebetave, resnobnega lica, nam podobne.
Aleš Šteger




