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| Odysseas Elytis |
West Nyack, New York-based poet and essayist Nick Samaras is the featured reader in a presentation including Faith Vicinanza, Pramila Venkateswaran (2011 Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Long Island Poet of the Year), George Wallace ( the first poet laureate of Suffolk County), and poet, painter/multimedia artist Mar Walker. (www.madmarwalker.com). PoemAlley facilitator Ralph Nazareth, Eleni Begetis Anastos, co-owner of Curley's Diner (weekly venue for the PA group), as well as Nick Miele, Rona Schenkerman, Eddie Wright, Eva-Maria Palevich, Carly Pierre and other PA members will also take part.
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| Nick Samaras |
Son of prominent Greek Orthodox clergyman and theologian Bishop Kallisto Samara, Nick Samaras was born in Patmos, Greece and has built a body of work enriched by stays in seven countries and thirteen states, first reflected in Hands of the Saddlemaker. The collection earned him the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for 1991. His poems have also appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, Poetry and other major publications. Read PA Advisory Committee Chair Bill Buschel's in-depth discussion with Nick from earlier this month here.
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| Elytis' The Monogram (1972) |
Noteworthy milestones in Odysseas Elytis's own oeuvre include the early collections Orientations (1939) and Sun the First (1943), which unabashedly indulge in an open, free verse extollation of the warm sensuality of the sea,skies, white cottages and ruin-dotted landscape of the Aegean islands. Holding rhyme and other popularly favored verse conventions as restrictive "vessels for the containment of the most heterogeneous material," Elytis prided himself on using French surrealism's emphasis on the subconscious and feeling to suit his own needs (namely, the promotion of human promise and renewal) and not the other way around.
"Axion Esti", an expansive patriotic counterpoint from 1959, was borne of intervening service on the Armenian front, a more grounded acknowledgment of contemporary Greek consciousness and a desire to address simultaneously where the world stood in the late 20th century and what it could become. Here's Mikis Theodorakis' musical interpretation of Elytis' three-part epic, which will be part of the program:
Speaking to the creative spirit of the event, program organizer Bill Buschel, who also hosts "Graffiti" on Hellenic Public Radio (91.5 COSMOS FM) observes, “I’m excited to hear how some of today’s finest poets, including: George Wallace, (past PA guest reader) Duane Esposito, Faith Vicinanza, Janet Krauss, and others, will approach the theme of 'The Mysteries of Light'. These are enormous talents whose skills have been honed through years of writing. I expect something magical to happen.”
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| George Wallace |
Bill interviews Janet, Faith, Duane and Kathryn Fazio here on his blog, Just My Eyes. Duane gives two readings, both recorded by George Wallace, here and here, while Faith delivers a demonstrative performance of "Two Poems For My Grandson" below:
"I consider poetry a source of innocence full of revolutionary forces. It is my mission to direct these forces against a world my conscience cannot accept, precisely so as to bring that world through continual metamorphoses into greater harmony with my dreams. I am referring to a contemporary kind of magic which leads to the discovery of our true reality."--Odysseas Elytis
When:
3-5pm, Saturday, April 28, 2012
Where:
Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford
20 Forest Street
Stamford, CT
For further information contact:
Bill Buschel
Phone: 914-835-3092
Email: bill@billbuschel.com
Thanks to Christie Fountain of the UUSIS, The Mysteries of Light is listed at FCBuzz:
http://www.fcbuzz.org/events/literature/4985/
