The Call to Poetry was a one-night performance art / international poetry gathering event held April 5, 2012 in Istanbul, near Taksim Square, widely promoted and heavily attended by international poets to celebrate the history of poetry with a dramatic reading of the world’s oldest love poem, which is housed in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums. The Call to Poetry garnered significant interest in Istanbul, the greater Middle East and the US, as did a portion of the evening dedicated to poetry of the Arab Spring.