Versopolis – Panselinos in Cyprus 2022

Thursday and Friday, 21 and 22 July, Nicosia - Cyprus

The Versopolis – Panselinos in Cyprus event, was the third annual event within the framework of the European Project, the Versopolis Platform.

It was held over two days, one each of the two sides of the divided city –

• On Thursday, at the oldest bookshop on the island, Rüstem Kitabevi, in occupied Nicosia, and
• On Friday, at the Rood Top of ARTos House, a culture and research centre, in Nicosia

It hosted five poets
Odile Kennel from Germany
Elis Monteverde Burrau from Sweden
Alexandros Chronides and Andreas Timotheou from Cyprus (joined in 2022) and
Tuğçe Tehkanli, also from Cyprus (2023)

On Thursday, all of us living in the Republic of Cyprus met at the Ledra street crossing and from there walked to Rüstem Kitabevi, where we joined our friends that live in the occupied part of the island. It was a wonderful evening where our guests met and interacted with other poets and people of the island. Odile, Elis, Tuğçe and Constantinos Papageorgiou (a Versopolis poet since 2019) recited / read poems.

The Friday event was in three parts:

Part A consisted of readings and all the above 5 poets read in the original language, while translations in Greek and / or English were projected on a screen.

Then Constantinos Papageorgiou and Avgi Lilli (a Versopolis poet since 2020) prepared individual as well as group questions for all five poets, spanning from their writing, the languages they write in, their overall lives.

Part B was dedicated to five Ukrainian poets, showing our solidarity to the country that was still at war. Poems by Olga Povopoznyk, Halyna Kruk, Natalka Bilotserkivets, Myroslav Laiuk, Andriy Bondar, were read in Greek or English, with translations in both languages being projected on a screen.

The final part, Part C, the work of five students of the Department of the Graphic Arts of the European University Cyprus, who created videopoems on the work of five poets was presented for the first time! This is a new cooperation between Ideogramma and the University, that was initiated last year, within the framework of Versopolis, as we believe they are a perfect match, since both nurtures, encourage and promote young and emerging talent.

These are the students and the poets they have worked with:
Christalleni Iakovou - Alexandros Chronides
Eleni Kamarligkou - Andreas Timotheou
Nicoletta Christodoulou - Avgi Lilli
Polymnia Panagi - Tuğçe Tekhanli
Vasiliki Charitou - Constantinos Papageorgiou

The event was open to the public and was well and widely advertised in the local media and … very well attended!