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103rd anniversary of Czesław Miłosz’s birthday

On 30th June, 103 years will pass from the birth of Czesław Miłosz, who passed away a decade ago. The portal NINATEKA (www.ninateka.pl) run by the National Audiovisual Institute invites you to celebrate the anniversary of birth of the Nobel-Prize winner. Under the theme of the week devoted to Czesław Miłosz, from 30th June to 6th July the portal will present audiovisual materials about the poet, his life and work, places connected with him and people who were close to him. The special broadcastings and recordings will also be made available courtesy the Polish Radio, Radio France Internationale and the Pogranicze Foundation.

 

In 1960, Czesław Miłosz moved from France to the US. He began to lecture Slavic literature at the University of California, Berkeley. In the Polisu Radio broadcast Miejsca Miłosza: Berkeley (Miłosz’s places: Berkeley), Adam Lizakowski – the poet living in Chicago, who studied at the University of California and sometimes visited the poet at his home – talks about his personal encounters with Czesław Miłosz. The materials also include an episode from the series Archipelag Miłosz (Archipelago: Miłosz) devoted to the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Czesławi Miłosz. Andrzej Franaszek, the author of Miłosz’s biography, talks about the importance of this award in the historical and political context, as well as a change in the perception of Miłosz poetry after the award; Miłosz prywatny (Miłosz privately) – is a broadcast in which people close to the Nobel Prize winner draw his portrait as a person curious of people and all kinds of novelty, caring, leading a busy social life and with an outstanding sense of humour. Julia Hartwig, Jerzy Illg, Andrzej Franaszek and others talk about Miłosz.

 

Radio France Internationale’s Czesław Miłosz and France was broadcasted after the death of the poet, using excerpts from Czesław Miłosz’s books and articles and comments by Polish emigré activists and people dealing with Polish arts in France: Henryk Giedroyć, Zofia Hertz of the Institute of Literature, Danuta Szumska of the Centre for Dialogue and Brigitte Gautier of the University of Lille. Anna Bernhardt and Wojciech Sikora talk about the artist’s links with Paris, his attitude to French intellectual trends in literature, his first years in exile and the popularity of his works in France. The Radio France Internationale programmes: Czesław Miłosz about his links with France and French culture, as well as other materials, e.g.: Konstanty Jeleński about Gombrowicz and Miłosz – an interview in which the essayist and literary critic Konstanty Jeleński talks with Maria Wiernikowska, sharing his admiration for Czesław Miłosz’s poetry; Czesław Miłosz o stosunkach polsko-litewskich, poezji i współczesnej Polsce, (Czesław Miłosz about Polish-Lithuanian relations, poetry and contemporary Poland) , in which one can hear the poet reading his works, will be available.

 

The recording of the meeting on 14 August 2012 in Krasnogruda, on the eighth anniversary of Czesław Miłosz’s death was made available courtesy the Pogranicze Foundation. Andrzej Franaszek talks about the poet’s closest family, his relations with his parents and his uncle, as well as about women and lie in his life.

 

The recording: Tomas Venclova o Czesławie Miłoszu, (Tomas Venclova on Czesław Miłosz) in which the Lithuanian writer talks about how he discovered Miłosz’s poetry, about his stay in Berkeley, their acquaintances – philosophers and poets, Miłosz’s interest in masonry symbols and the evenings they spent over a bottle of wine will also be available. The unique material provided by the Pogranicze Foundation is the film by Andrzej Miłosz – the poet’s brother, Czesław Miłosz. Czciciel rzek (The worshipper of rivers). It is a short film from 1999, where we see Czesław Miłosz’s visiting Šeteniai in Lithuania, where the poet was born and spent his childhood.

 

On 4th July the Polish Radio drama Dolina Issy. Czesław Miłosz. (The Valley of Issa) will be made available. Extensive excerpts of this autobiographical novel of Czesław Miłosz will be read by Andrzej Seweryn. Dolina Issy is a story about the growing up of a young man and his personality developing in the context of the multicultural tradition and complex present times.

 

For more visit: www.nina.gov.pl

Lavon Barshcheuski, whose name appears on several hundred publications, a writer, poet, translator and human rights activist politically persecuted in Belarus, became this year’s fellow of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN). The author of translations from Latin, ancient Greek, German, English, French, and Polish is the fourth ICORN fellow in Krakow. Villa Decius, for years an important residential centre for writers and a place of reflection about human rights and the freedom of speech, implements the scholarship programme and provides the fellows with a place for creative work in cooperation with the Krakow Festival Office and the Municipality of Krakow. Krakow’s role in the international ICORN’s strategy is emphasized by the fact that the Head of the Villa Decius Association, Danuta Glondys, was elected a new member of the network’s board. This prestigious body is also composed of representatives of other cities belonging to the ICORN: Peter Ripken (Frankfurt), Leikny Haga Indergaard (Bergen), Jasmina Arambasic (Ljubljana), Annika Strömberg (Uppsala) and Chris Gribble (Norwich). International cooperation within the ICORN has a strategic position in the Krakow UNESCO’s City of Literature, in view of the development strategy comprising 10 crucial thematic areas, including the development of the connections between literature with human rights.

We are happy to introduce the next literary personality who found himself under the wing of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) – says Izabela Helbin, Director of the Krakow Festival Office. The issue of fighting for the freedom of speech and of artistic work is very much a current problem and there is still a need to defend both the literary independence and the writers. This time, the ICORN has offered a refuge to an outstanding Belarusan humanist and activist, Lavon Barshcheuski.

The International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN), which was set up in 2005, offers asylum to writers and human rights defenders, who because of persecutions may not live and create freely in their own countries. One of the network’s originators was Salman Rushdie, whose novel, The Satanic Verses, raised violent protests throughout the Islamic world and resulted in a fatwa being put on the author by Ayatollah Khomeini. This sentence meant that each faifhful Muslim was obliged to kill the writer.

Krakow joined the ICORN in 2011. The moment of the City’s accession to the Network coincided with the solemn celebrations of the Czesław Miłosz Year in Poland. Krakow received the invitation as the first member city from Central and Eastern Europe. In the address to the City Council of Krakow, the ICORN’s executive authorities indicated that Krakow was an important and most justified candidate, which would set up an excellent model for other cities of that part of Europe. Helge Lunde, the Director of the ICORN, pointed out that thanks to its cultural traditions and rich artistic and literary life, Krakow would be a perfect place of refuge and creative inspiration for persecuted authors. He also indicated that the geopolitical situation of the city was equally significant and he called Krakow the Gate to the East, especially that numerous writers persecuted in Eastern countries neighbouring Poland are in the focus of ICORN’s interest. Since then Krakow has hosted three writers staying here under the residencyl programme: Maria Amelie (real name Madina Salamova (North Ossetia / now in Norway), Kareem Amer (Egypt / now in Sweden), and Mostafa Zamaninija (Iran).

In 2014, ICORN’s residence was granted to a Belarusan writer, poet, translator and human rights activist, Lavon Barshcheuski. As a result of the protests against the pro-Russian policy, in which he participated, in the years 1996-1999 he was excluded from the parliament, where since 1990 he had served as a member of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus of the 12th term of office. In spite of the political discrimination he continued to be involved in politics and to appear on the international arena in connection with the issues concerning Belarus. Among others, he translated the works of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Bertold Brecht, Franz Kafka, Stanisław Wyspiański, Bruno Schulz, Czesław Miłosz, and Sławomir Mrożek. In the years 2003-2005, he was the President of the Belarusan PEN Club.

Lavon Barshcheuski, whose name appears on several hundred publications, a writer, poet, translator and human rights activist politically persecuted in Belarus, became this year’s fellow of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN). The author of translations from Latin, ancient Greek, German, English, French, and Polish is the fourth ICORN fellow in Krakow. Villa Decius, for years an important residential centre for writers and a place of reflection about human rights and the freedom of speech, implements the scholarship programme and provides the fellows with a place for creative work in cooperation with the Krakow Festival Office and the Municipality of Krakow. Krakow’s role in the international ICORN’s strategy is emphasized by the fact that the Head of the Villa Decius Association, Danuta Glondys, was elected a new member of the network’s board. This prestigious body is also composed of representatives of other cities belonging to the ICORN: Peter Ripken (Frankfurt), Leikny Haga Indergaard (Bergen), Jasmina Arambasic (Ljubljana), Annika Strömberg (Uppsala) and Chris Gribble (Norwich). International cooperation within the ICORN has a strategic position in the Krakow UNESCO’s City of Literature, in view of the development strategy comprising 10 crucial thematic areas, including the development of the connections between literature with human rights.

We are happy to introduce the next literary personality who found himself under the wing of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) – says Izabela Helbin, Director of the Krakow Festival Office. The issue of fighting for the freedom of speech and of artistic work is very much a current problem and there is still a need to defend both the literary independence and the writers. This time, the ICORN has offered a refuge to an outstanding Belarusan humanist and activist, Lavon Barshcheuski.

The International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN), which was set up in 2005, offers asylum to writers and human rights defenders, who because of persecutions may not live and create freely in their own countries. One of the network’s originators was Salman Rushdie, whose novel, The Satanic Verses, raised violent protests throughout the Islamic world and resulted in a fatwa being put on the author by Ayatollah Khomeini. This sentence meant that each faifhful Muslim was obliged to kill the writer.

Krakow joined the ICORN in 2011. The moment of the City’s accession to the Network coincided with the solemn celebrations of the Czesław Miłosz Year in Poland. Krakow received the invitation as the first member city from Central and Eastern Europe. In the address to the City Council of Krakow, the ICORN’s executive authorities indicated that Krakow was an important and most justified candidate, which would set up an excellent model for other cities of that part of Europe. Helge Lunde, the Director of the ICORN, pointed out that thanks to its cultural traditions and rich artistic and literary life, Krakow would be a perfect place of refuge and creative inspiration for persecuted authors. He also indicated that the geopolitical situation of the city was equally significant and he called Krakow the Gate to the East, especially that numerous writers persecuted in Eastern countries neighbouring Poland are in the focus of ICORN’s interest. Since then Krakow has hosted three writers staying here under the residencyl programme: Maria Amelie (real name Madina Salamova (North Ossetia / now in Norway), Kareem Amer (Egypt / now in Sweden), and Mostafa Zamaninija (Iran).

In 2014, ICORN’s residence was granted to a Belarusan writer, poet, translator and human rights activist, Lavon Barshcheuski. As a result of the protests against the pro-Russian policy, in which he participated, in the years 1996-1999 he was excluded from the parliament, where since 1990 he had served as a member of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus of the 12th term of office. In spite of the political discrimination he continued to be involved in politics and to appear on the international arena in connection with the issues concerning Belarus. Among others, he translated the works of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Bertold Brecht, Franz Kafka, Stanisław Wyspiański, Bruno Schulz, Czesław Miłosz, and Sławomir Mrożek. In the years 2003-2005, he was the President of the Belarusan PEN Club.

It has been 75 years since the world’s most complicated book was published. Finnegans Wake is an esoteric construction, an oneiric travel to the sources of experience, and a radical breakthrough in the history of literature. For the anniversary of the novel, each of the seven UNESCO Cities of Literature has turned a short excerpt into film. The Krakow episode is based on the translation by Krzysztof Bartnicki (Finneganów tren) published in 2012. Jan Bińczycki interviews Michał Buszewicz, the director of the Polish film.

Reading Malopolska: You are an artist standing at the threshold of your career. Yet you have selected the most difficult text in the history of world literature for your début in directing.

Michał Buszewicz: I am a dramatist by education. Moreover I have never worked with film. I don’t believe I would dare to dream out such an idea myself, yet I was given a challenge, so I accepted it. You either enter such a project head, heart and all, or you flee from it. I know I’m fond of risk, and I will jump into the centre of this labyrinth. When my friends learnt about the proposal, they found it impossible. This got me even more enthusiastic. Just to tease. (Laughs.)

RM: Were there any moments of doubt?

MB: Of course! They arrived when I first sat down to read the text. It is a universe with a logic that is difficult to discover early on. The longer I study it, the more evident the internal system becomes. You begin to notice the repetitions, variant repetitions, references to other languages, associations spanning certain gaps, mathematical constructs, and exceedingly precise composition. The more you read, the more logical that universe becomes. The melody of the text comes on top of that, and a certain interesting structure begins to emerge.

We encourage you to read the entire interview.

The Urban Culture Institute from Gdańsk and the Krakow Festival Office invites us to the Under the Globe Bookstore (ul. Długa 1), on 13th June, at 7.00 pm, to a meeting with the Croatian poet Dorta Jagić and with her translator, Małgorzata Wierzbicka. The meeting will be moderated by Szymon Kloska. On 21th March 2014, Jagić received the Literary Award of the City of Gdańsk, the European Poet of Freedom, for her volume entitled A Couch in the Market (2011). This award promotes and distinguishes the valuable poetic phenomena referring to the issue of freedom. “Dorta Jagić’s poems are the affirmation of freedom of a woman – of her unrelenting attitude towards the pressures of corporality and emotions and the social or historical determinations” – wrote the jury, presided over by Professor Krzysztof Pomian, while justifying the decision. The organisers of the meeting are: the Urban Culture Institute, the Krakow Festival Office and Krakow the UNESCO City of Literature UNESCO.

Dorta Jagić is a poet, an author of short prose and dramas, a translator, a philosopher and a religious scientist, as well as this year’s winner of the European Poet of Freedom Literary Award for the volume A Couch in the Market (2011), which tells us about a woman in different aspects and at different stages of her life. At present she is working on the dictionary of biblical women. She likes to travel. For her debut volume of poetry (Plahta preko glave, 1999) she received a prestigious Croatian prize for poetry – Goran za mlade pjesnike. In 2007, at the international poetic festival in Romania she was awarded the Balkan Grand Prize for Poetry. She cooperates with students’ amateur experimental theatres.
The International European Poet of Freedom Literature Festival is held every two years by the Urban Culture Institute in Gdańsk. In 2014, the city of Gdańsk, already for the third time, honoured an European author from Europe with the European Poet of Freedom Literary Award. This time it was Dorta Jagić from Croatia together with her translator, Małgorzata Wierzbicka. The laureates of the former editions were: Durs Grünbein (2012, Germany) for the volume Misanthrope on Capri and Uładzimier Arłou (2010, Belarus) for the volume An English Channel Ferry. The jury is composed of Krzysztof Czyżewski, Agnieszka Holland, Paweł Huelle, Andrzej Jagodziński (the secretary), Zbigniew Mikołejko, Stanisław Rosiek, Anda Rottenberg and Professor Krzysztof Pomian (the chairman).
The volumes of poetry by all nominees are published by the city of Gdańsk and by the Urban Culture Institute. The volumes from this year’s edition may be ordered online at www.ikm.gda.pl
More information about the European Poet of Freedom Literary Award can be found on the website and on theFacebook.

At 7.00 pm on Thursday (12th June) you are invited to the sixth meeting under the Reading Series. This year the reading will take place at Bomba club (2/1 Szczepański Square). Marcin Bobula will read his prose – peasant memoirs with a thriller air, i.e. his short story Mutant. Adam Miklasz will present an excerpt from his yet unpublished novel Reaktywacja (Reactivation), Katarzyna Gondek will read excerpts from her novel Otolit and a text from the volume Splątania (Entanglements) whilst Joanna Bednarczyk will read an excerpt from her novel Deleżaki. Sławomir Shuty will be the moderator of the sixth meeting under the Reading Series. The Krakow Festival office is the project partner.
Reading series is a form of presenting literature and at the same time bringing the writers’ community together. The Krakow Reading Series consists of regular meetings at which writers, essayists and translators read excerpts from their works. One can also familiarise oneself with works on which the authors are still working, the newest works by well-known authors and by newcomers selected by the project curators.

The initiative has been launched by journalists and activists associated with the publishing house, foundation, magazine and portal Ha!art.

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