The Marrying of Greek Roots with the Intimate Physicality of Daily/Sacred Life

THE CITIZEN TALES COMMONS VIRTUAL POETRY READING SERIES IN COLLABORATION WITH THE INSTITUTE OF EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN STUDIES AT EMMANUEL COLLEGE AND THE HELLENIC AMERICAN PROJECT AT QUEENS COLLEGE, WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE 2022 MGSA INNOVATION FUND (MODERN GREEK STUDIES ASSOCIATION)

PRESENT

Poet/Editor/Teacher/Poet Laureate Taos, NM 2020-2021

Catherine Strisik

“The Marrying of Greek Roots with the Intimate Physicality of Daily/Sacred Life”

Moderators: Vassiliki Rapti & Peter Bottéas

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2022, 2:00 PM EASTERN TIME (US & CANADA)

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https://emerson.zoom.us/j/96040037828?pwd=VVBhd3U0MjhWTFJKdTUvc3JFbjY2UT09

Meeting ID: 960 4003 7828 | Passcode: 405005

The theme for the reading, voiced by a second-generation Greek-American woman, Catherine Strisik, seeks, through the medium of poetry, to combine an experience of sacred space in alternation with secular space. It also attempts to experience Greek woman-ness and the female body as sacred in the here and now, while revisiting villages, foods, water, earth, birds, and ancestors, through shared events from the past, and explores how those events perhaps usher into transcendence any woman or anyone at all of Greek origin and, in the end, foster ownership of our own hearts and our own spirits’ recovery over and over again.

The reading will be an amalgamation of two manuscripts: Aikaterina and Dear Unholy.

Catherine Strisik—poet, teacher, and editor—is Taos, New Mexico’s second Poet Laureate, 2020-2021, and a recipient of the 2020 Taoseña Award as a Woman of Impact, based on literary contribution. She is the author of Insectum Gravitis (finalist New Mexico/AZ Book Award in Poetry, 2020); The Mistress (awarded New Mexico/AZ Book Award for Poetry, 2017); Thousand-Cricket Song; and recently completed manuscript Aikaterina (semi-finalist, Philip Levine Prize in Poetry, 2020). Her numerous publications span over 30 years, having garnered awards and Pushcart nominations. Her poetry has been translated into Greek, Persian, and Bulgarian. She currently divides her time between Taos, NM, and Cape Ann, MA.

For more information, please email Dr. Vassiliki Rapti at citizentalescommons@gmail.com