International Literature Festival – polip
7th Edition 12–14 May 2017
https://polipfestival.wordpress.com
http://www.qendra.org
Program 2017
Friday, 12. 05. 2017
Preview
14:00 – 15:00 Reading and discussion with Gregory Pardlo (USA) North Mitrovica / American Corner
19:30 – 20:00 Official opening of the polip festival Qendra Multimedia, Prishtina
20:00–22:00 Readings
Gregory Pardlo (USA), Aïcha Arnaout (SYR/FR), Miloš Živanović (SRB), Laurence Boissier (CH), Gani Jakupi (RKS/ ESP), Nina Cara (ALB), Lura Limani (RKS), Shqiptar Oseku (RKS/SE), Nir Baram (ISR).
Moderators: Qerim Ondozi (RKS), Saša Ilić (SRB).
Live music: Ana Ćurčin (SRB)
Saturday, 13. 05. 2017
Panel discussion
16:00–17:30 Gender, Literature and Media: experiences of exile
Panelist: Aïcha Arnaout (SYR/FR), Entela Tabaku Sörman(SE), Kefah Ali Deeb (SYR/DE), Gani Jakupi (RKS/ESP), Bernhard Studlar (AT)
Moderator: Eli Krasniqi (RKS) Translation into English and Albanian will be provided.
Panel discussion
18:00–19:30 Power by Bigotry – Defying Right-Wing Fury
Panelist: Gregory Pardlo (USA), Nir Baram (ISR), Theodoros Grigoriadis (GR).
Moderator: Una Hajdari (RKS) Translation into English and Albanian will be provided.
20:00– 22:00 Readings
Intro / music and reading: Kralj Čačka (SRB)
Ghayath Almadhoun (PSE/SYR/SE), Dinko Telećan (CRO), Entela Tabaku Sorman (ALB/SE), Arben Idrizi (RKS), Theodoros Grigoriadis (GR), Bernhard Studlar (AT), Kefah Ali Deeb (SYR/DE), Bardh Frangu (RKS), Fatime Kosumi (RKS/DE).
Moderators: Jeton Neziraj (RKS), Jazra Khaleed (CHE/GR).
22:00 – 00:00 Live music: Kralj Čačka (SRB) at Hamam Bar Prishtina
Sunday, 14. 05. 2017
Panel discussion
16:00–17:30 Where I’m writing from: Literature in times of exile, diaspora, displacement
Panelists: Jazra Khaleed (CHE/GR), Ghayath Almadhoun (SYR/SE), Ekaterina Petrova (BG), Hamed Abboud (SYR/AT), Shqiptar Oseku (RKS/SE).
Moderator: Lura Limani (RKS) Translation into English and Albanian will be provided.
Panel discussion
18:00–19:30 The Balkans as the Avant-garde
Panelists: Fatos Lubonja (ALB), Lura Limani (RKS), Miloš Živanović (SRB), Dinko Telećan (CRO)
Moderator: Saša Ilić (SRB) Translation into English and Albanian will be provided.
20:00 – 00:00 Readings
Fatos Lubonja (ALB), Jazra Khaleed (CHE/GR), Naime Beqiraj (RKS), Hamed Abboud (SYR), Ekaterina Petrova (BG), Rrona Jaka (RKS), Majlinda Bregasi (ALB/IT), Shpetim Selmani (RKS).
Moderators: Saša Ilić (SRB) & Eli Krasniqi (RKS) Live music: tandem / Blerta Kosova & Oda Haliti
Monday, 15. 05.2017
18:00 – 19:30 Reading and discussion with Gregory Pardlo (USA) National Library of Kosovo, Prishtina
Panels & Debates
Saturday, 13.05.2017
PANEL 1
16:00–17:30 Gender, Literature and Media: experiences of exile
Panelist: Aïcha Arnaout (SYR/FR), Entela Tabaku Sörman (SE), Kefah Ali Deeb (SYR/DE), Gani Jakupi (RKS/ESP), Bernhard Studlar (AT)
Moderator: Eli Krasniqi (RKS) Translation into English and Albanian will be provided.
The immediacy that characterizes the way we access information today, together with many other technological advances, adds a new dimension to the issue of exile and to our experience of political unrests. In addition, media text often is used to further reinforce gender stereotypes for developing countries or countries in political crisis. Specifically in focus are women for whom the exile experience may be double burdened because of their gender identity and identity attached to them because of the country of origin. Does literature helps to break these stereotypical images? Do artists, especially women, find themselves in situation to reconcile the perceptions about them in the ‘hosting’ country with those in the country of origin? Do women writers in exile are considered as/reduced to cultural interpreters?
PANEL 2
18:00–19:30 Power by Bigotry – Defying Right-Wing Fury
Panelist: Gregory Pardlo (USA), Nir Baram (ISR), Theodoros Grigoriadis (GR).
Moderator: Una Hajdari (RKS) Translation into English and Albanian will be provided.
The discussion will focus on the respective contexts in the countries that writers and intellectuals Gregory Pardlo, Nir Baram, Fatos Lubonja and Theodoros Grigoriadis live and work in. Their verse is vivid in its portrayal of the complex realities that the communities they write about have faced over time, and we will try to place these realities in the current global political and societal context. Comparisons will be drawn between the situation in Pardlo’s native U.S., which is facing one of its most turbulent presidencies to date, Greece, which is still suffering the consequences of austerity and an inadequate economic plan amidst rising right-wing movements, and Israel, where Baram writes about equal rights for Palestinians.
How does a writer react to the situation, and to what extent does it influence their contemplations on society?
Sunday, 14. 05. 2017
PANEL 3
16:00–17:30 Where I’m writing from: Literature in times of exile, diaspora, displacement
Panelists: Jazra Khaleed (CHE/GR), Ghayath Almadhoun (SYR/SE), Ekaterina Petrova (BG), Hamed Abboud (SYR/AT), Shqiptar Oseku (RKS/SE).
Moderator: Lura Limani (RKS) Translation into English and Albanian will be provided.
Human history is no stranger to migration, but it is in the age of global capital–sustained by transnational institutions, corporations and cooperation that we have witnessed the radical acceleration of all kinds of movement. In 2015, 244 million people were international migrants (living outside the country they were born in), and 20 million of these were refugees. ‘The refugee crisis’; the permanent state of war; the looming climate disaster; and the nationalist reawakening accompanying these phenomena raise questions about the role of the writer, especially the migrant writer, in what often feels like the end of time.
From Dante to Danticat, exile and heimweh, a longing for the lost home and ambiguity towards the newly found shelter and self have been at the heart of literature. This spatial and temporal experience marks the relation of the writer to their surroundings, the ties to their ‘homeland,’ the acceptance and rejection of their adopted home. What does this relation mean for contemporary writers? How can we define the tension between home and elsewhere today? How does it affect our language? How does that reflect on our imagined addresses – to whom do we write, and in what language do we address them? How does our spatial positioning force us to define ourselves and our work – who we are and what we do?
PANEL 4
18:00–19:30 The Balkans as the Avant-garde
Panelists: Fatos Lubonja (ALB), Lura Limani (RKS), Miloš Živanović (SRB), Dinko Telećan (CRO).
Moderator: Saša Ilić (SRB) Translation into English and Albanian will be provided.
Charles Simic, an American poet of Serbian descent, observed in 2012 that “widespread ignorance bordering on idiocy is our new national goal”, referring to the United States of America four years before Trump even came to power. It seems that he was right. In addition, he claimed that the educated, well informed population is the only possible foundation of a true, functioning democracy. If politicians of dubious qualities come to power through the democratic process, then it is clear that the voters’ insight, knowledge and ability to make informed decisions should be questioned.
Simic does not offer any solutions to the issues he highlights. However, like himself, we – the participants of the Polip festival – feel urged to debate these issues, as they relate not only to global politics, but to regional politics as well. Furthermore, this is not the first time that the global events have had its most pronounced form in the Balkans. Whereas the great majority of people in the Western world are stunned by the latest developments and the spirit that has prevailed – not only in the United States, but in the EU too – the people in the Balkans are well used to the complex relations between ignorance and intelect, truth and lies, democracy and dictatorship. We could say that, in fact, the Balkans appear to be the avangarde, like it has been many times in the past, even though in the Western imagination it exists as a backward place. But, who was the first to spread fake news in order to create conditions for inciting hatred? Who was the first to mobilise masses and create policies using “alternative facts“? Who was the first to use the democratic process in order to gain power, only to abolish democratic institutions immediately after being elected? Hardly anyone could deny the Balkans all the hard work and the fervour put in creating this type of politics – without doubt this region merits the avant-garde status.