Events Calendar – British School at Athens

BSA Friends Greece event

“BYRON @200: Poets, Patriots & Philhellenes”

A collective reading curated by poet, playwright and literary translator, Ginger F. Zaimis, in conjunction with the British School Athens and BSA Friends that presents a selection of poets, writers & history keepers in celebration of Lord Byron and the 200th anniversary of his death. The series of short talks,
readings and poetry are narrated through historical perspectives, comparative literature and contemporary modernisms in the English and Greek languages. They delineate Byron through his travels from Italy to Greece on the cusp of Greek Revolution seen through his contemporaries, patriots, statesmen and philhellenes thereof.

The talk/reading will be accompanied by traditional costume, dress & dance courtesy the Λύκειο Ελληνίδων, including Messolonghi and other
regions).

The poets and authors presented are: Orfeas Apergis, poet is reading his poem, “Πας ρομαντικός φιλέλλην”; Dr Konstantinos Bouras, poet, playwright & literary translator is reading a dedicated poem entitled, “Lord Byron”; Anna Griva, poet & literary translator, is presenting her poem on Byron’s death entitled, “A Silent Revolution” from her collection Demons; Rana Haddad, novelist and poet is reading a selection of her poetic prose in dedication to Byron entitled, “Machines writing poetry: A Letter to Lord Byron from 2024”; and the curator of BRYON @200: Poets, Patriots & Philhellenes, Ginger F. Zaimis is presenting highlights from, “Byron & Shelley: the Italian & Greek Years” inclusive of a dedicated trilogy of sonnets to Byron.

Likewise the writers, authors and historians presenting their short talks include: Dr Dimitrios Stathakopoulos, Ottomanologist & historian, presenting “Byron’s View of the Ottoman Empire”; Dr Ioannis Petropoulos, Director Emeritus, Centre for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University is reading excerpts and perspectives from “Childe Harold”; Dr. Sofka Zinovieff, writer & author, is reading an excerpt from Trelawny’s “Records of Shelley and Byron and the Author”; H.E.M. Fokion Zaimis, Deputy Governor & statesman, is reading excerpts entitled, “Financing a Revolution: Bryon, Zaimis and other Statesmen”; and Dr Meletis Meletopoulos, historian & author is presenting concurrent histories of Greek forefathers and Byron who liberated Greece from the Ottoman Empire. Penny Saccopoulou / Πέννυ Σακκοπούλου, Philologist and Member of the Lykeion ton Ellinidon / Φιλόλογος, Μέλος του Λυκείου των Ελληνίδων, will introduce the traditional costumes, dancers and dances.

Bios:

Anna Griva / Άννα Γρήβα (b. in Athens) she studied Philology in Athens and Rome. She holds a PhD in Italian Renaissance Literature and has published six poetry collections; the most recent, “The Lost Goddess” (2023) and the collection “Demons” (2020) which is honored with the Award by the Academy of Athens. Her poems and short stories have been translated into many languages. Likewise, she translates Italian literature, with an emphasis on female Renaissance Poetry. Her translation of the poems of Laura Battiferra was honored in 2020 by the Italian Institute of Athens. She has also published a study (with Markos Dendrinos) on the Platonic Parmenides (Plato’s Parmenides, Ontology of one in the Platonic theory of ideas, 2021) and a monograph on the Sapphic poetry, Aphrodites (2022). She teaches Italian Literature and Creative Writing at the Hellenic Open University and the University of Athens.

Ginger F. Zaimis an American poet, playwright, polymath and literary translator. She is the author of seven monographs, the architect of the two new poetry forms (the Portico & Triptych), PEN America’s Finalist for Best First Poetry Collection, Excavated Athens to Alexandria (2015), a Keats-Shelley Rome Fellow and Poetry Judge (2017). Her work is translated in multiple languages and her keynote talks/readings presented at world libraries, museums, institutes and universities including the Freud Museum London, the Research Centre for Greek Philosophy, the Athens Academy, Bibliotheca Alexandria and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens to name a few. Her Ancient Greek to English verse translations include, the Stoics Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus and Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations (work-in-progress). She is an educator and Board Member at Fordham University London. Her newest collection is a progressed mythology of Sophocles’ Antigone written as a book-length poem in the Renaissance form, the Heroic crown of sonnets entitled, Antigone the Heroic Crown (2023).

Konstantinos Bouras / Κωσταντίνος Μπούρας (b. Kalamata, Greece) is a poet, playwright and novelist. A graduate of Mechanical Engineering from the National Metsovio Institute of Technology in Athens, as well as, Theatrical Studies from the School of Philosophy at Athens University and a post graduate in Theater (D.E.A.) from Paris III (La nouvelle Sorbonne). His plays are influenced by Greek mythology and poetry marked by the search for the sublime, lyricism and sensuality in the Cavafian genre and true to the Classical Greek ideal of beauty. He is a distinguished member of the International Society of Poets, a active member of the International Theatrical Institute, the International Writers and Artists Association, the European Institute of Theatrical Research, and the Centre for Research and Studies in Modern Greek Theatre.

Orfeas Apergis / Ορφέας Απέρης (b. Athens, 1974) is a Greek poet and has published six collections of poetry. Recent publications include “Tyfland” (poetry, Nefeli eds, 2023); and “Crow, by Ted Hughes” (an annotated Greek translation, Gutenberg eds, 2024, forthcoming).

Rana Haddad is a writer, translator (Arabic to English) and a former TV journalist who read English Literature at Cambridge University. She has worked as an Associate Producer for the BBC, Channel 4 and other broadcasters. Born in Syria, she lived in the UK for thirty years. Her first novel, the acclaimed Unexpected Love Objects of Dunya Noor was short-listed for the UK Polari First Book Prize and is now part of a post-colonial and diaspora literary
curricula at universities including Cambridge, SOAS, Vassar College and more. Her writing includes a collection of essays, poetry and her forthcoming second novel which is set in the late 20th Century London where Romanticism and scientific invention are dominant themes.

Meletis Meletopoulos / Μελέτης Η. Μελετόπουλος is a historian and author. He has a PhD in Economics and Social Sciences from the University of Geneva. His books include “Ο άρχοντας με τα πολλά πρόσωπα: Xρονικό μιας οικογένειας 1685-1920”, “Ιδεολογία του δεξιού κράτους 1949-1967” and “Παναγιώτης Κανελλόπουλος: Ο πολιτικός, ο διανοούμενος και η εποχή του” to name a few. He is also a keeper of history and patriot whose forefathers assisted in liberating Greece from the Ottomans in 1821.

Ioannis (John) Petropoulos is a distinguished scholar who read Classics at Harvard with a PhD in Philosophy from Oxford University. He is a Professor of Ancient Greek Literature & Classics, Director Emeritus at the Centre for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University and a Gulbenkian Fellow and Professor of Humanities at the University of Lisbon.

Dimitrios Stathakopoulos / Δημήτρης Σταθακόπουλος is an Ottomanologist, historian and author. He has a PhD from Panteion University in LLM International Maritime Law, a lawyer of the Supreme Court of Greece (Areios Pagos) and Member of BOD of the Hellenic Public Procurement Authority. Likewise a maestro, musician, patriot and keeper of history whose forefathers assisted in liberating Greece from the Ottomans in 1821.

H.E.M. Fokion A. Zaimis / Φωκίων A. Ζαϊμης a born Athenian and Deputy Governor of Achaia & Western Greece (2019-present), a statesman, patriot, keeper of history and political heir to a legacy whose forefathers assisted in liberating Greece from the Ottomans in 1821.

Sofka Zinovieff (b. in London) has Russian ancestry and lives in Athens. She has written about Greece as an anthropologist (with a PhD from Cambridge), a journalist and an author. Her books include Putney ( a novel), Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens and The House on Paradise Street. Her next novel, Stealing Dad is forthcoming in May 2025. Her Podcast documentary series is: Athens Unpacked.

Penny Saccopoulou / Πέννυ Σακκοπούλου, Philologist and Member of the Lykeion ton Ellinidon / Φιλόλογος, Μέλος του Λυκείου των Ελληνίδων.

Hybrid event

To attend in-person in Athens, please register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/byron-200-poets-patriots-philhellenes-tickets-1074159884129?aff=oddtdtcreator

To attend online via webinar, please register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zNLrKP0kSgO9yOdVeyK0MQ

image: portrait of Lord Byron frocked in Northern Epirus dress by Thomas Phillip 1813, Collection: British Embassy Athens