World Poetry Day on Monday will be marked with a tribute to Greece’s Nobel Literature Prize laureate Odysseas Elytis (1979). 2011 has been declared the “Elytis Year” by Greece’s Culture and Tourism Ministry.
March 21st was declared World Poetry Day by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) in 1999, for the purpose of promoting the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world, and to “give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements”.
Poetry nights with readings of works by Elytis are being organised on Monday by the National Center for Books (EKEBI), in collaboration with the Society of Writers, at several bookshops in Athens and Thessaloniki.
The Megaron-Athens Concert Hall will mark the day with readings of ancient Greek poetry dedicated to love by Sappho, Archilochos, Meleagros, Krinagoras and others, and a concert of love poetry set to music by celebrated Greek composers such as Manos Hatzidakis, Yannis Spanos, Eleni Karaindrou and more.
Caption: A restorer at the National Library in Athens brushes off specks of dust from a rare 15th century copy of the first edition of Homer’s epic poems, the first Greek book to be published, which was printed in Florence in January 1489.
(source: ana-mpa)
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