Sing Me a Poem | Special Musical Concert Led by Maya Kosover and Nir Gorali (“One Song”, KAN) bring poets back to center stage

An original production for the International Writers Festival at Mishkenot Sha’ananim

Maya Kosover and Nir Goreli, creators of the podcast “Shir Echad” (“One Song”), present a large-scale festive evening—both a tribute to the classic poet-song performances of the 1970s and a contemporary reflection on the possibility of renewing the encounter between poetry, music, and audience.

For decades, Israel nurtured a remarkable cultural phenomenon: poems by poets were set to music, performed on major stages and at festivals, and became huge hits—the soundtrack of generations. Today, such hits are rarely written. Poetry has largely receded from the popular sphere, and the collaboration between poets and musicians has become increasingly rare. “Sing Me a Poem” is an evening that seeks to restore this tradition—not out of nostalgia alone, but with a living cultural question: what have we lost as poetry disappeared from the radio and the main stage, and can this connection be renewed—and how—today?

Throughout the evening, leading artists and composers will perform beloved classics of poet-songs alongside new, original compositions created especially for this event, setting  contemporary poetry to music. Kosover and Goreli will accompany the songs with stories about how poetry became music here, about the moments when songs that entered the canon were born, and about the role of poetry in our time—and why poetics matters now.

Musical direction: Nadav Hollander.