Elena Mpei: Das Grillenzirpen zwischen den Rippen

In the organizer's words:

3 p.m.
Pub

Free admission
Free admission, donations welcome

Elena Mpei comes from Cologne and Greece, she has spent a lot of time on theater stages and in South Africa. Her poems are departures, relocations, movements. They travel by train, by bicycle and on board a ship, or they join a caravan: "Oh, but darling, you say, / before we set off for new latitudes, / let's quickly draw a line in the sand."
There are atmospheric snapshots from Greece: a village square, a bakery, a neighborhood store that can no longer be saved. The thematic heart of this work of art is the art of letting things grow and "flourish", to borrow another poem title. This creativity proliferates, glows, shines and burns. It dares new beginnings and rebirth, with Lazarus and Phoenix: "My heart flutters against the dungeon window / pumping red defiance / through my bloodstream / I am flooded with hunger for life..."

The heraldic animal of such poetry is the chirping cicadas, which no longer eat or drink, only sing. Mpei pays homage to them in an ode to the "time of the cicadas".

- Michael Pfister, Calligramme (Zurich)-