Start at 11.00 a. m
The Baltic Sea Cultural Centre has a pleasure to invite you to the World Poetry Day in BSCC.
The meeting with our Extraordinary Guest – Tomas Venclova – is going to take place within the Extraordinary Cracow Poetry Salon. The discussion will be led by Krystyna and Stefan Chwin.
The World Poetry day, established on the initiative of UNESCO in year 1999, falls on the 21st of March. It is celebrated mainly in Paris, where the tradition of poetry festivals has been alive for many years. The Poetry Day is uproariously celebrated also in Greece (in Delphi and Athens) and Spain.
On that day Gdansk will host a distinguished poet – Tomas Venclova - who one day earlier will be awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa degree by the University of Gdansk on the occasion of the University’s fortieth anniversary. The poet is also going to participate in the International Festival of Literature– the European Poet of Freedom, organised by the City of Gdansk.
Tomas Venclova was born on 11th of September 1937 in Klaipeda. He studied literature at the Vilnius University and at the University of Tartu. The poet spent his youth in Vilnius. In 1970’s he participated in the Lithuanian movement for defense of human rights. Endangered by victimization, in 1977 he emigrated to the USA, which resulted in his being devoid of citizenship by the Soviet Union authorities.
Venclova is strongly connected with the Polish culture and literature. Since 1983 he has been a member of an editorial team in the quarterly journal Zeszyty Literackie [Literary Notebooks]. He translated Polish poetry into Lithuanian (e.g. poems by Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Czesław Miłosz, Zbigniew Herbert, and Wisława Szymborska) and is also an author of the Aleksander Wat’s biography.
He was a friend of Miłosz and also of Josif Brodski – a Russian poet and nobelist who once called Venclova the son of three literatures. Venclova regards three languages – Lithuanian, Russian and Polish - to be his native tongues. At American universities he lectured on both Russian and Polish literature.
His scientific work as a historian and a literature researcher is devoted to the analysis of works by Polish and Russian writers – Aleksander Wat, Maryna Cwietajewa and others. He is an author of many excellent translations into Lithuanian language.
Exactly three years ago the writer was our guest on the occasion of the promotion of his book about Vilnius – his family city. According to the author, he found the inspiration to write the book in conversations with Czesław Miłosz. Also one more book by Venclova is going to be published soon - an essayistic book about the author’s travels. He has traveled to South America, Africa, India, Nepal and Japan. During those expeditions he was interested mainly in cultures and history; he observed and noted down various customs, traditions and behaviour. Venclova’s essays, which he has written for 40 years, frequently present the world which no longer exists – it has changed under the influence of globalization. Therefore, his notes are of documentary value.
Tomas Venclova is known as a poet due to translations by a brilliant translator Stanisław Barańczak.
21st of March – the poetry day, the first day of spring, Sunday.
Once a month, always on Sunday, the Cracow Poetry Salon takes place in BSCC. This time, on Sunday on 21st of March, the Extraordinary Poetry Salon will be held. It will take form of a meeting with a poet and is going to concern poetry and translation as well as essays and travels.
