Opening: Wednesday 18 April, 6.30 - 9.30pm

Join us for celebrating Romania’s presence at the London Book Fair, with a special exhibition of book illustrations created by the Romanian Illustrators’ Club, which reaches its 7-year anniversary since they started to concoct  “images that tell stories” – as was the title of their first exhibition in Bucharest in 2005.

“The Club has over 50 members, but it is not an institution; at the heart of the Club there are artists that enjoy talking, drinking tea and working together” – says Stela Lie, the coordinator of the Club.

At the beginning, the Club’s exhibitions presented mainly works of art, most of them by professionals prepared to become, occasionally, illustrators. After various collaborations with ICR, CreArt, AER- Bookfest, ARCUB and books printed and edited by themselves, like fanzines, they launched Bookataria de texte şi imagini – a book for which the artists invited 39 well-known authors to write new texts that they illustrated with an exuberant creativity.

The exhibition Fairytale Images and Books, conceived by Stela Lie and Irina Dobrescu, presents for the first time almost everything the Club has created in seven years, each artist with his/her own books, plus Bookataria 1: fantastic landscapes, out- of-this-world animals, medieval and digital fairytales characters, sumptuous ballrooms, crinolines and harlequins, delicious sweets from grandmother’s cupboard. An impressive harvest of fresh texts and images that you must not miss!

The exhibition continues until 18 May, Mon - Fri 10am - 5pm.

Free entrance.

 

Chaired by BBC journalist Rosie Goldsmith

We are delighted to present  Romanian poet Robert Şerban at the prestigious European Literature Night – an international reading marathon for all lovers of literature, held simultaneously in 20 capital cities across Europe and Asia.   

Now in its fourth year, the event at the British Library in London will play host to nine groundbreaking writers from Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Sweden. Ranging from crime writing to literary explorations of love, from historical novels to horror, from short story mazes to concise contemporary verse, the authors selected are considered extremely relevant for their national literatures and will create a pan-European dialogue on fresh writing.

Robert Şerban is a writer, journalist and tv show host. His poetry has been translated into several languages and appeared in Of Gentle Wolves: An Anthology of Romanian Poetry by Calypso (2011). He will read a selection of poems from his latest volume, Paraphine Death, and will then engage in a dialogue with the public.

Robert Şerban - Let Me Introduce Myself Briefly

I come from a country

where crosses

never

shelter

spiders

under their

armpits

European Literature Night is a UK-based initiative involving 24 European cultural institutions (EUNIC London) as well as the European Comission Representation in the UK. The event promises an astonishing insight into European literature in translation.

When: Wednesday 16 May, 6.30 - 8.30pm

Tickets £7.50 (£5 concessions), available at http://boxoffice.bl.uk or 01937 546546.

Opening: Thursday 26 April 6.30pm

Fascinated with her homeland, photographer Dana Popa returns to Romania and looks at the generation born here just before or after the fall of the Communist regime. After the New Man is an intimate portrayal of a society that is slowly healing, of  youth and fleeting memories of a bygone era that still permeates the selves and the landscapes. The exhibition is organised in association with Foto8 Gallery.

Traces of Popa’s own childhood pervade not only through the blocks of flats and through the cars from another era, but in the mindsets of old and young. This legacy of the recent past and the ubiquitous Western-inspired ideals of lifestyle and consumerism construct a portrait of a displaced generation, struggling to reconcile their place in history.

The exhibition brings together Popa’s own socially engaged work with her old family photographs and remnants from the past.

Dana Popa (b. 1977) studied a Masters degree in Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication. Her work focuses on contemporary social issues with a particular emphasis on human rights. ‘Not Natasha’ was Popa’s first major body of work, which looked at the effects of sex trafficking on girls and families in The Republic of Moldova who had firsthand experience of it. The project has been exhibited around the UK, Europe and US and was published as a book (Autograph ABP, 2009). Popa is based in London.

Related Events

Artist’s talk with Dana Popa - Tuesday 1 May, 6.30pm.

The exhibition continues until 26 May 2012. Opening hours: Mon - Fri 10am - 6pm; Sat 11am - 4pm.

Deco Heart, the musical pairing featuring Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri, will perform three exclusive UK shows ahead of the autumn release of their self-titled album. Working at the edge of jazz, contemporary classical and downtown NY improve, the duo present a set of jazz musings and downtown skronk, a joyously upbeat affair.

For their show at London’s Vortex, the first of their three-night UK run, one of the giants of improvised music, special guest saxophonist Evan Parker, will join Deco Heart.  In Derby, the show will feature the ever-inventive vibraphone player Corey Mwamba.

Born in Transylvania, Lucian Ban now resides in New York, and is a fully fledged member of the downtown scene and at the forefront of contemporary modern jazz.  Described as "one of the most gifted pianists to move to New York in the past decade" and cited as “playing with a sensibility and fluency that recalls Vladimir Horowitz as much as McCoy Tyner”, Ban has twice been nominated as Best European Jazz Musician in the prestigious Hans Koller Awards. 

Yet it is through his Enescu Re-Imagined project that Ban made his mark in the UK, and first collaborated with Mat Maneri uncovering a unique musical rapport.  The show was performed at London Jazz Festival, with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute in London. It was, suggested the Guardian, “a rare combination of uninhibited but coherent solo and collective improv, shrewd arrangement and dazzling thematic writing”.  

Classically trained, Mat Maneri has been charged with the accolade of “changing the way the jazz world listens to violin and viola”.  The freewheeling scope of his musical imagination has led Maneri to become the go-to guy from artists such as paul Bley, Cecil Taylor and Matthew Shipp, John Medeski, Michael Formanek, Tim Berne as well as  leading several of his own critically acclaimed ensembles.

Programme:

Thu May 17, Vortex Jazz Club, 8.30pm
11 Gillett Street, London, N16. 
Tickets:  £12  |  020 7254 4097  |  www.vortexjazz.co.uk | Book online 
Photo of Evan Parker by Benjamin Amure

Presented in partnership with Jazz North East

Fri May 18, Literary & Philosophical Library, 8pm
23 Westgate Road, Newcastle NE1 1SE 
Tickets:  £ 10 ( £ 8 concessions)   |  0191 232 0192 | Book online

Presented in partnership with Derby Jazz
Sat May 19^th, Voicebox Arts Centre, 6:30pm
Forman Street, Derby DE1 1JQ
Tickets: www.voiceboxuk.com

Dragi prieteni,

Am deosebita bucurie de a va invita sa participati, in zilele de 19 si 20 Mai, la un eveniment special in viata parohiei romanesti din Cambridge.

Pe 20 Mai sarbatorim hramul parohiei romanesti, al carei ocrotitor este Sfantul Apostol si Evanghelist Ioan. Aceasta zi va fi marcata de prezenta Prea Sfintiei Sale, Marc, Episcop Vicar al Arhiepiscopiei Ortodoxe Romane a Europei Occidentale.

Sarbatoarea va incepe de Sambata, 19 Mai, cu slujba Vecerniei Mari (5.00pm), la biserica St Giles, din Cambridge (Castle Street, Cambridge, CB3 0AQ), si va continua a doua zi, Duminica, 20 Mai, cu slujba Utreniei si a Sfintei Liturghii, de la ora 8.30am, respectiv 10am. Slujba va fi urmata de o masa de pranz, la care va asteptam de asemenea, cu drag.

Bucuria zilei este intregita de faptul ca Sfanta Liturghie va include si slujba horotoniei in treapta diaconatului a domnului Dragos Herescu, pe care multi dintre voi il cunoasteti personal, si alaturi de care credem veti dori sa fiti in acea zi.

Suntem adanc recunoscatori multora dintre voi, si acest eveniment este in acelasi timp o ocazie de a recunoaste si afirma ajutorul generos pe care l-am primit in activitatea pastorala, in ultimii doi ani, de la clerici, parohii surori, sau credinciosi din Cambridge si de departe. Prezenta voastra la aceasta sarbatoare ar reprezenta o bucurie extraordinara si o profunda onoare pentru mine, Dragos cat si pentru intreaga comunitate romaneasca din Cambridge. Speram ca veti fi partasi ai bucuriei noastre pe 20 Mai.

Al vostru in slujirea lui Hristos si in dragoste crestina,

pr. Aurel Dumitru Radulet