During monthly meetings, visitors will have a chance to listen to remarkable poetry and discuss poems with their authors, literature experts, actors and poetry enthusiasts.
The new series will begin on 28 September 2017 and will last until 30 January 2018. As Jarosław Mikołajewski – curator of the literary programme of the Royal Łazienki – has emphasised, the idea of monthly meetings under the slogan "I – That is Who? The Poet and His Poem" was born out of the belief that especially in the present times, we are in need of poetry, its wisdom and beauty, and authentic stories about fate and words.
The main focus of the new literary series will be the poets themselves and their poetry. Participants of meetings will listen to works by poets including Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki, Zuzanna Ginczanka, Bolesław Leśmian and Adam Mickiewicz.
The poems will be presented by the readers that have the highest merits to recite poetry. They include poets, experts and researchers, who found a deep connection with someone’s poetry and turned it into their trademark. Among others, we will listen to: Jerzy Radziwiłowicz, Maria Dębska and Jerzy Bralczyk.
Entry to all meetings is free, however, the number of seats in the Royal Theatre is limited.
MEETINGS FROM THE SERIES "I – THAT IS WHO? THE POET AND HIS POEM"
28 September, 18:00 – "Życiowy debiut" ("Life Debut"). The youth’s foray into the Royal Theatre
Pre-Matura Exam youth will present their poems. In addition, poems by Ewa Adamska will be featured. She was a poet from Radom, who, in 2005 – at the age of fifteen – died in an accident in Varna.
On 24 October at 18.00 – "Oddam wiersze w dobre ręce" ("I Will Give Poems in Good Hands"). Meeting with Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki
Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki (born 1962) – not only a great poet, but one of the most distinguished ones. Winner of literary awards including Gdynia, Nike, Silesius. His poetry is the song of a homeless, orphaned, crippled person. It is written using authentic, recognizable language.
28 November at 18.00 – "Oprócz samej siebie nie znam innej dali" ("I do not Know of a Different Expanse than Myself"). Poetry, life and death of Zuzanna Ginczanka
During the meeting, Maria Dębska will read poems by Zuzanna Ginczanka.
Zuzanna Ginczanka (1917-1944) born in Kiev, lived in Rivne, Warsaw and Lviv, hid in Kraków. She was murdered in Płaszów in 1944, for her Jewish descent. Revered by Tuwim and Gombrowicz, she remained almost completely forgotten for many years after the war, until recent times.
19 December at 18.00 – "Od miłości zamieram" ("I am Dazed by Love"). The immortal Bolesław Leśmian
Discussion of the work by Bolesław Leśmian with Magda Umer. Poems by the poet will be read by Jerzy Radziwiłowicz.
This is what Julian Tuwim wrote about Bolesław Leśmian: No matter which fragment of His books one opens, and contemplates a poem, first verse, first sentence – one is overwhelmed by a shiver: "How? And THIS walks the Earth? THIS lives among people? THIS is subject to the same physical, moral and social laws that pertain to us all? Absurd! THIS cannot [...] like us, all the rest of us...".
30 January 2018 at 18.00 – "Zdarto żagle, ster prysnął, ryk wód, szum zawiei" ("Sails Torn Down, Rudder Shattered, Wind Whirring"). Bralczyk reads Mickiewicz
Professor Jerzy Bralczyk, great erudite and admirer of poetry, will talk about his fascination with Adam Mickiewicz, and read his poems.
