In collaboration with the Groupe d’information sur les ghettos (g.i.g.) and upon the invitation of Sonia Chiambretto and Yoann Thommerel, the EISPI team (International School of Inter-contemporary Poetry) will be coming to Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers to write, thrash out and bounce ideas about the “Questionnaire n°1”.

Literary wrestling involves boxing with words, using striking exclamation marks and smashing syntax.

Competing in improvisation matches written on computer, the sharp-minded, sharply costumed wrestlers wield the mask and the keyboard with humour and poetry.

Ce vendredi 9 décembre aux Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, quatre catcheurs viendront combattre en public. À l’issue de 3 matchs (2 demi-finales et 1 finale), les spectateurs seront invités à voter à poing levé pour leur texte/catcheur préféré.

This coming Friday, 9 December, four wrestlers will be battling it out in public at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers. At the end of the three matches (2 semi-finals and 1 final), spectators will be invited to vote with raised fists for their favourite text/wrestler.

Each match will be divided into 4 rounds: free-form writing for the first and constrained writing for the following three rounds; the constraints will be selected at random by the audience. The wrestlers’ texts will be written and simultaneously diffused on a big screen.

When the final bell rings, each wrestler will be invited to read aloud their opponent’s text. The winners of the first two matches will battle it out in the final to compete for the most coveted FFCL (French Federation of Literary Wrestling) belt

Umberto KO, Mohammed Alu, Sandy Georges, Nihilitzsche, Marguerite Tarace, Mother Faulkner…the number of FFCL members ready battle it out with words and woes just keeps growing. Each wrestler has their own literary and sartorial style. Behind the mask lies a figure of speech. They also boast special powers that can be used at any point in a match by shouting out “Zeugma” or “Chaismus”. A special power acts as an additional constraint for the opponent.

But an evening of literary wrestling would be nothing without the other usual suspects: a mustachioed referee acting as game master, a judge to make sure the constraints have been honored, and a technical team to control the sound and lighting.

Started in Peru around ten years ago, la Lucha Libro (“Free Fighting”) was brought to France by the EISPI (International School of Inter-contemporary Poetry). The EISPI has been organising literary wrestling events in France for over four years now. The school also offers writing game workshops, Blind Text evenings, and publishes a poetry fanzine, Cactus Calamité.