An Extraordinary Artistic Fiesta “Loud Words!” Will Take Place at VMU
On Saturday, January 22, 4 p.m., an extraordinary artistic fiesta “Loud Words!” will take place at Vytautas Magnus University’s Great Hall. This unique event of the opening weekend of Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022 will allow its participants to immerse themselves in the magic of word and sound: the performances of Lithuanian and foreign artists will convince that the combination of poetry and music are much more than just sung poetry or hip-hop.
The fiesta of the festival Kaunas Literature Week organized by Vytautas Magnus University promises a big surprise: the evening will feature a special guest – a Cuban poet Omar Pérez. Accompanied by his shamanic drum, he has already performed in New York, Berlin, São Paulo and other American, European and Asian cities, and now he is coming to Lithuania for a one-time-only performance. Pérez combines salsa rhythms, word consonances and paradoxes into a unique mesmerizing fusion. According to the poet from the exotic Caribbean, “poetry and music are the same fruit, the bones and blood of the same animal.”
Omar Perez (Photo by Nestor Marti Delgado)
We will also have an opportunity to see the most prominent Lithuanian artist working in this direction – the National Prize winner Rolandas Rastauskas, who, for the first time, will perform his poetry together with guitar virtuoso Juozas Milašius. “Our performance at the VMU Great Hall will be a conversation between voice and instrument, which has little to do with conventional melodic recitation. Here the poem or a fragment of it is not the text we are listening to, but the effort of the voice to both converse with and at the same time clash with the sound of a completely different nature. That attempt at dialogue is most likely a longing for music. Maybe even a longing for the passing era. A greeting to Atlantis by two wanderers who unexpectedly met in the desert (the stage is also a desert),” Rolandas Rastauskas describes his premiere performance.
Rolandas Rastauskas (Photo by Agnė Racevičiūtė)
Not surprisingly, the festival of writers and books organized by the university pays a lot of attention to young creators. Therefore, the event will be opened by a poet of the younger generation Greta Ambrazaitė (known as kog leval). She was awarded the prestigious Young Yotvingian Prize for her debut book Fragile Things (2018), and the book was also announced the Poetry Book of the Year 2018. Moreover, the author has received a Young Creator Award from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania. In addition to writing, Ambrazaitė creates music that she describes as outsider art – her soundtracks combine lo-fi and lyrical elements. Although she usually appears in public as a poet or translator, we will see her perform as kog leval at the VMU Great Hall and will enjoy music filled with trip-hop atmosphere. The artistic event will be supervised by Andrius Kurienius, who will also take care of the visuals on the stage.
Greta Ambrazaitė (Photo by Laurynas Jurevičius)
“Loud Words!” is not only a special VMU gift to lovers of literature on the occasion of the opening of Kaunas 2022, but also a hint of the international festival Kaunas Literature Week, which will be held for the second time this spring. “We have invited a number of prominent poets and prose writers to our festival which will take place in May. But for the opening ceremony of Kaunas 2022 we wanted something extraordinary that went beyond the usual boundaries of genres and even arts. I am very much looking forward to the 22nd of January, which I believe will remain in the minds of the visitors for a long time,” says Laurynas Katkus, writer and artistic director of the festival.
The event is free of charge. Prior registration is required
The artistic fiesta “Loud Words!” is part of the Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022 program. Learn more about Kaunas Literature Week at https://literaturossavaite.lt/ and https://www.facebook.com/literaturossavaite
You can find the program of Kaunas 2022 here.
