It’s poetry day all week in Athens March 17, 2008
Posted by grhomeboy in Arts Events Greece, Arts Exhibitions Greece, Arts Museums, Books Life Greek, Music Life Greek.Tags: Arts, Athens, Books, Culture, Events, Exhibitions, Greece, Literature, Poetry
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The international celebration is marked with events, discussions, lectures, readings and more
Singer Maria Farandouri, joined by Zacharias Karounis and accompanied by an eight-piece orchestra, will sing at the Athens Concert Hall on Thursday, while actors Eva Kotamanidou and Nikos Bousdoukos will read excerpts at an evening of Greek political poetry set to music. International Poetry Day falls this Friday, March 21, but the celebrations start today.
Stoa tou Vivliou [Books Arcade] and PoeticaNet have put together a lively mix of discussion, poetry set to music and a video, curated by poet Iosif Ventouras. First up are Professors Dimitris Dimiroulos and Elisavet Arseniou, exploring the subject of poetry in the information age. Then the hip-hop group Enemy will present songs from their latest album and collide with living poems. Participants include poet and media artist Dimosthenis Agrafiotis and American poet Heather Raikes, who will talk about her work in a video made for the event. That’s at 8 p.m. today, at the Stoa tou Vivliou, 5 Pesmazoglou Street, Athens, tel 210 3253989.
The European Translation Center (EKEMEL), Ikaros Publishers and Patakis bookstore are saluting International Poetry Day with a presentation of Alexandros Issaris’s book “Kato apo tosa vlefara: Simeioseis gia ton Rilke” (Under So Many Eyelids: Notes on Rilke), published last year by Ikaros. The speakers are literary critic Vangelis Hatzivassileiou, writer Yiannis Efstathiadis and the author, who is also a poet and translator. Actress Mayia Lyberopoulou will read extracts from the book. Tomorrow, Patakis bookstore, 65 Academias Street, Athens, tel 210 3811850, at 7 p.m.
Poems will liven up time spent at bus and tram stops and metro stations and on board public transport as of Wednesday and until April 22. It’s the latest edition of a successful promotion by the National Book Center of Greece (EKEBI). Poet and academic Nasos Vagenas chose the poems and six young students and graduates of the Athens School of Fine Arts produced the colorful posters.
Verses by Nobel laureate Odysseas Elytis feature on a phone card to be issued on International Poetry Day. In a follow-up to another campaign by EKEBI and telecoms provider OTE, there will be a new phone card with different verses every month till December. This year’s selections will be from political poems.
Greek political poetry set to music is the theme of an evening at the Athens Concert Hall on Thursday. Maria Farandouri and Zacharias Karounis, accompanied by an eight-piece orchestra, will sing, and actors Eva Kotamanidou and Nikos Bousdoukos will read. Giorgos Papadakis has selected and orchestrated excerpts from Euripides, as well as pieces by Yiannis Ritsos, Odysseas Elytis, Nikos Gatsos and Iakovos Kambanellis and others, with music by composers such Eleni Karaindrou, Manos Hadjidakis, Mikis Theodorakis and Thanos Mikroutsikos. Vassilis Nikolaidis will conduct.
Poet Nikiforos Vrettakos is the subject of a tribute starting 5.30 p.m. at the Benaki Museum on International Poetry Day. Academics Eratosthennis Kapsomenou, Vincenzo Rotolo, Vangelis Athanassopoulos, poet Titos Patrikios and Vrettakos Archive director Eleni Tzinieri-Tzanetakou will speak, followed by the first public screening of Athanasia Drakopoulou’s film “Periousaka Stihiea” at 8.30 p.m. at the Benaki Museum Pireos Annex, 138 Pireos Street and Andronikou Street, Athens, tel 210 3453111.
An exhibition of first editions, and documents for the Nikiforos Vrettakos Archive opens Friday and runs to April 20 at the main branch of the Benaki Museum, 1 Koumbari Street, Kolonaki, Athens, tel 210 3671000.
Greece participates at the Frankfurt Book Fair October 11, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Books Life, Books Life Greek.Tags: Books, Greece, Literature
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Greek publishers participate at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest in the world, which opened yesterday.
Greece is present at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which started yesterday. The Panhellenic Federation of Publishers and Booksellers (POEB) is representing the Greek book trade with a collective stand, while 13 Greek publishers have their own stands. Speaking to the press last week in Athens, the new administration of POEB explained their policy for promoting Greek books more effectively at book fairs. Instead of simply asking publishers for “books for Frankfurt,” as in the past, POEB’s librarians have made a selection of books that are likely to interest foreign rights buyers. In the future, they will take only books published in the previous 12 months.
The National Book Center of Greece (EKEBI) is using part of the POEB stand at Frankfurt to promote the Thessaloniki Book Fair by actively schmoozing with makers and shakers in the book world.
One strong card that Greek publishers can now play when selling foreign rights is the news that the Culture Ministry’s long moribund program for supporting translations of Greek books has at last been reactivated.
Frankfurt Book Fair, a subsidiary of the German Publishers & Book Sellers’ Association is the world’s largest book fair, attracting more than 7,000 exhibitors from over 100 countries.
The week ahead in Athens > books October 11, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Books Life Greek.Tags: Arts, Athens, Books, Culture, Events, Greece, Literature
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Enjoy Greek fairy tales on CD at noon Saturday at Eleftheroudakis Bookstore, when Acroasis Publications presents the CD “Organa kai Toumbana” [Instruments and Percussion]. At Eleftheroudakis Bookstore, 17 Panepistimiou Street, Athens, tel 210 3258440.
Happy Village > SOS Children’s Villages Greece and Starbucks celebrate their fifth anniversaries with the launch of Eugene Trivizas’s latest book “To horio tis haras” [Happy Village], published by Papadopoulos, at Starbucks in Kolonaki on October 17 at 12.20 p.m. Starbucks Coffee, 12 Skoufa Street, Kolonaki, Athens, tel 210 2816134.
Paul Valery > The Paul Valery University of Montpellier, the French Archaeological School of Athens and the European Translation Center (EKEMEL) are holding a two-day international conference on “Paul Valery, Greece, Europe” next week, October 18-19. Valery’s work, which included philosophical dialogues based on the Platonic model, had a deep connection with Greece. Speakers from Greece and abroad will explore Valery’s connections with poetry, modern Greece and Sikelianos. Starting 9.30 a.m. Thursday, and 10 a.m. Friday. French Archaeological School, 6 Didotou Street, Athens, tel 210 3679902-2.
Adventure of writing > Writer Zefi Kolia will appear at the Nikaia Cultural Center at 8 p.m. on October 15 to talk about her books and the adventure of writing. Fellow-writer Christos Christopoulos will read extracts from Kolia’s work. At Nikaia City Hall, 10 P. Tsaldari Street, Nikaia, tel 210 4278100.
Dragon-mania > Theater games will be part of the fun at noon this Saturday at the Evripidis ston Stoa Bookstore, when popular children’s writer Philippos Mandilaras presents his book “Dracomania” (Dragonmania), published by Patakis. At the Evripidis ston Stoa Bookstore, 11 A. Papandreou Avenue, Athens, tel 210 6800647.
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