II International Poetry Festival MERIDIAN CZERNOWITZ will be held in Chernivtsi, Ukraine from the 2d till the 4th of September 2011. The main aim and purpose of the Festival is bringing back Czernowitz onto the cultural map of Europe and the developing a dialogue between modern Ukrainian poets and their colleagues abroad.
The program includes poetry readings, discussions, lectures, photopoetry and sculpture exhibitions connected to poetry, theatrical and musical performances, book presentations, videopoetry, poetry in multiplication, ska-punk poetry, jazz-rock poetry, electropoetry (drum and bass poetry) parties, video installations on the outer walls of buildings and many other diverse poetical events.
The participants of the Festival are the most interesting and most famous poets, musicians, producers and artists from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Romania, France, Israel, Moldova, Great Britain, USA and Ukraine. Many of the participants and special guests have already confirmed their coming to Chernivtsi in September 2011. Among them from Germany: Michael Augustin, Hans-Michael Speier - the publisher of "Celan-Jahrbuch", Uljana Wolf; from Austria: Robert Schindel, Milena Findeis; from Switzerland: Ilma Rakuza, Raphael Urweider, Erwin Messmer and Hans Ruprecht; from France: Emmanuel Moses and Bruno Geneste; from Israel: Hagit Grossman; from Poland: Bogdan Zadura; from Moldova: Grigore Chiper; from Ukraine: Yurii Andruchowytsch, Serhij Zhadan, Igor Pomerantsev, Andrij Bondar, Oleksandr Irvnets, Ostap Slyvynski, Bogdana Matiash, Kateryna Babkina and others.
Selected works of the authors participating in the Festival are going to be included in the collected volume. Mark Bielorusets (Ukraine), Claudia Dathe (Germany), Stefania Ptashnyk (Germany), Petro Ryhlo (Ukraine) and others will do the translation of the poetry.
City authorities, Chernivtsi National University, Embassies of participating countries, German Cultural Centre ‘Goethe – Institute’, Austrian Cultural Forum, Pro Helvetia, Erste Stiftung and other cultural funds are partners of the event.
The Festival is organized by the regional public organization “Cultural Capital”.
The events of the Festival will be performed in mass media of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, France and USA.
I International Poetry Festival MERIDIAN CZERNOWITZ 2010 was held during the first weekend in September last year and it was a success. Among the participants from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ukraine were the most famous modern poets (Julian Schutting, Andreas Saurer, Milena Findeis, Brigitte Oleschinski, Ingeborg Kaiser, Elke Erb, Hendrik Jackson, Gerhard Falkner, Igor Pomerantsev, Natalka Bilotserkivets, Serhii Zhadan, Yuri Andruchowytsch), translators (Mark Bielorusets, Claudia Dathe, Stefania Ptashnyk, Petro Ryhlo), musicians and photographers. Also, a special guest, the publisher of Paul Celan’s heritage, Barbara Wiedemann came to Chernivtsi.
The events of the Festival echoed in several biggest European newspapers: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Salzburger Nachrichten, Berner Zeitung, Neue Welt, World Service Radio “Liberty” and others.