Wrogowie: a Polish Enemies project: Year 2
March saturday 28th 2015 at the Rich Mix Arts Centre, London
Wrogowie: Celebrating the modern tradition of Polish & British experimental poetry alongside innovative collaborative practise in a unique evening of 21st century European poetry that served as an exchange between the increasingly familial nations of Poland and England. A wonderful, vibrant and dynamic evening of poetry, it featured 16 of the most dynamic poets from those nations.
With events planned in both Poland and the UK, Wrogowie remains a multinational exploration of how collaboration can explore both cutting edge poetry practise and cross language poetry practise. This 2015 event saw brand new collaborations between the pairs of poets, asked to work together for the first time, specifically for this event at the Rich Mix Arts Centre. Wrogowie year two was co-curated by Elzbieta Wójcik-Leese & generously supported by the Polish Cultural Institute.
The event featured: Wojciech Bonowicz & James Davies - Milosz Biedrzycki & SJ Fowler - Malgorzata Lebda & Tom Jenks - Elzbieta Wójcik-Leese & Scott Thurston - Marek Kazmierski & Stephen Watts - Kamila Pawluś & Lila Matsumoto - Tomasz Mielcarek & Marcus Slease & Tasimbaradzwa Kanyangarara & Nik Way
Małgorzata Lebda is a photographer, academic teacher and poet. Her most recent collection of prose poems is entitled Granica lasu (The Forest Border, 2013).
Wojciech Bonowicz (b.1967) is a journalist, children’s writer and author of six poetry volumes. Echa (Echoes, 2013) has been shortlisted for the NIKE Prize and the Wisława Szymborska Award.
Miłosz Biedrzycki (known as MLB; b.1967 in Slovenia) is a Polish poet, translator and geophysical engineer. He has six poetry volumes to his name; his bilingual English-Polish selection 69 (translated by Frank L. Vigoda) was published by Zephyr Press in 2010.
Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese (b.1965) is a writer, translator and scholar who moves between English, Polish and Danish. She has co-written Metropoetica. Poetry and Urban Space: Women Writing Cities (Seren, 2013); Nothing More (Arc, 2013) is her selection from Krystyna Miłobędzka.
Scott’s Thurston’s most recent book is Figure Detached Figure Impermanent (Oystercatcher 2014). He co-organises The Other Room, co-edits the Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry and lives in Manchester.
Tom Jenks has published seven books, the most recent being The Tome of Commencement, a spreadsheet translation of the Book of Genesis. He administers the avant objects imprint zimZalla.
James Davies' poetry includes Plants, Acronyms and A Dog. He is also the editor of if p then q and co-organises The
Other Room resources website and reading series in Manchester.For more seee http://www.jamesdaviespoetry.com
SJ Fowler is a poet, artist & curator. He has published seven collections of poetry and been commissioned by the Tate, Tate Modern and the Liverpool Biennial. He is the poetry editor of 3am magazine and founder of the Enemies project. www.stevenjfowler.com
Wrogowie: Year One at the Rich Mix Arts Centre - February 8th 2014
The first instalment, held on February Sat 8th 2014 had 6 pairs of poets from Poland & the UK premiering original collaborations. Featuring Polish poets travelling from America, Denmark and of course, Poland, this was an exciting beginning to our focus on European poetry during the second year of Enemies. Wrogowie year One was co-curated by Marcus Slease and generously supported by the Polish Cultural Institute http://www.polishculture.org.uk/ & UCL SSEES http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ssees
Marcus Slease & Grzegorz Wróblewski
Joanna Rzadowska & Francesca Lisette
Ula Chowaniec & Amy Cutler
Piotr Gwiazda & SJ Fowler
Adam Zdrodowski & Philip Terry
+ Laura Elliott & Angus Sinclair
ttp://www.richmix.org.uk/whats-on/event/wrogowie-the-enemies-project-polish-poetry/
http://www.polishculture.org.uk/literature/events/news/article/wrogowie-the-enemies-project-2244.html
& on the afternoon preceding, Friday Feb 7th, another extraordinary event took place to celebrate Wrogowie as part of the Emigrating Landscape program, curated by Ula Chowaniec. http://emigratinglandscapes.org/events/grzegorz_wroblewski
The event featured a poetry reading and discussion with Grzegorz Wróblewski, about Kopenhaga, the first comprehensive collection of prose poetry by Grzegorz, one of Poland’s leading contemporary avant garde writers, and his translators, Piotr Gwiazda and Adam Zdrodowski, in the 4th floor Masaryk Senior Common Room, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.