A poetry and spoken word performance by Vanessa Kisuule and Pavlina Marvin
On the occasion of the British Council’s 80th anniversary celebrations in Greece and of the UK being selected as Country of Honour at the Public Book Awards, Vanessa Kisuule and Pavlina Marvin join forces for an evening at the Penrose Library at the British School at Athens. The award-winning poet and performer from Bristol and one of the most intriguing next generation voices in Athens will explore their private and public visions of 80 years ago and 80 years from now, and perform a sample of their existing poetry and spoken word work.
What does a female poet-performer see in Greece, the UK and the world of 80 years ago? And what can the findings of a ‘poetic archaeology’ of the future reveal about life, nature and culture 80 years from now? The two poets will create a performative piece on this theme, enriched and informed by their in-situ meeting in Athens.
The event will be moderated by poet, editor and critic, Panayotis Ioannidis.
Following the performance, the audience will have the opportunity to meet the writers and share a glass of wine.
Admission is free: www.facebook.com/events/2537922726491969
Vanessa Kisuule
Vanessa Kisuule is a writer and performer based in Bristol, UK. She has won over ten slam titles including The Roundhouse Slam 2014, Hammer and Tongue National Slam 2014 and the Nuoryican Poetry Slam. She has been featured on BBC iPlayer, Radio 1, Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, The Guardian, Blue Peter, Sky TV, Don’t Flop and TEDx. She has performed nationally and internationally in Vienna, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Bangladesh, Barcelona, Oslo, Finland, Romania, New York and Brazil. She has two poetry collections published by Burning Eye Books, Joyriding The Storm (2014) and A Recipe For Sorcery (2017), and her work was Highly Commended in the Forward Poetry Prize Anthology 2019. She was the recipient of The Jerwood Micro Arts Bursary and The Leverhulme Arts Scholarship in 2017, and her one woman show SEXY toured with the support of the Arts Council England in 2017–18. She is currently the Bristol City Poet for 2018–20.
Pavlina Marvin
Pavlina Marvin was born in Athens in 1987 but grew up in Ermoupolis on the island of Syros. She studied history at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and is currently writing her PhD thesis on Greek national book policy. She was a co-publisher and co-editor of Teflon poetry magazine (2008–11). She studied poetry at the Takis Sinopoulos Foundation’s biennial workshop (2007–09). Her first book, Histories from all around my world, was published by Kichli Publishing (2017) and won the Hellenic Authors’ Association’s Yannis Varveris prize. As a writer and performer, she has been invited to participate in a range of interdisciplinary arts projects and festivals in Greece and abroad. Her work has been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Bengali and Serbo-Croatian.
Panayotis Ioannidis
Panayotis Ioannidis was born in 1967 in Athens, where he now lives. He has published three poetry books (all by Kastaniotis Editions), The Lifesaver (2008), Uncovered (2013) and Poland (2016), while a fourth, Rhinoceros, is forthcoming. He is also a co-author of a collection of essays, A conversation on poetry now (FRMK, 2018). His poems have appeared in two English-language anthologies, T. Chiotis’ Futures (Penned in the margins, 2015) and K. Van Dyck’s Austerity Measures (Penguin, 2016, NYRB Books, 2017), two German anthologies, as well as in Greek, English, Polish, Swedish and Turkish journals. He translates English-language poetry (S. Heaney, R. Creeley, T. Gunn, D. Harsent), is poetry editor for the monthly The Books’ Journal and for the English language website Und.Athens, on the editorial board of the biannual journal for poetry, theory and the visual arts FRMK, and curates the monthly poetry readings Words (can) do it.
The event is taking place in collaboration with Public Bookstores and the British School at Athens.
Information
For further information, please contact Katerina Galani:
| Katerina.Galani@britishcouncil.gr | |
| Telephone | 210 369 2386 |
