The international literary festival "Vilniaus lapai", which will be held in the capital from November 8-11, intends to testify once again that great writers are just as bright stars for the reading public as they are for music lovers - luminaries of the music world. The organizers promise meetings with some of the most outstanding literary authors of the country and the world during the days of the festival held for the third autumn in a row, there will be no shortage of exciting topics, open conversations, great music, visual performance and dramaturgical elements.
During the four days of the festival, 20 events are planned, most of them will take place this year at the Art Printing House (Šiltadaržio St. 6) - Vilnius in the old town located in the center of contemporary performing arts. As in previous years, when most of the event's meetings took place at the National Drama Theater (currently closed for reconstruction), we want to emphasize that the writer is an artist with something to say and an authority from whom public and vivid resonance is expected.
According to the organizers of the festival, already in the first year of the festival, it became clear that readers miss a live conversation with writers, and the latter miss communication with readers. It turned out that such meetings are interesting and beneficial for both parties - this was confirmed by tickets sold out in a few days, and even sold out, which forced the organizers to quickly replace smaller halls with larger ones.
Highlights of this year's festival events – meetings with two Lithuanian and three foreign authors, two of the latter will come from Great Britain (in cooperation with the British Council). The main themes of the festival promise to be the attitude of a modern person in a rapidly changing, global, turbulent world, which remains completely unknown.
In addition to the main events, for which it is suggested to purchase tickets in advance, as many as 13 free meetings of different genres with poets, prose writers, storytellers, actors and musicians are scheduled in various spaces of the Arts Press. Theatrical readings of literature for children will take place in the State Knowledge Center, in the premises of the Meno fortas Theater and the Arts Printing House.
Thursday, November 8 in the bar "Peronas", which is located by the railway at the station, "Literarium" will be held "warming up" the festival - conceived by actress Aldona Vilutytė event. In it, poets join forces together with actors and present the work of poets together.
Friday, November 9, the opening event of the festival, during which two exhibitions will be presented - the exhibition of book dedications "Išlīsk iš laphiu" prepared by second-hand writer Jonas Valonis and the photography exhibition "Photographic Vilnius leaves" by three authors - Dainius Dirgėla, Benediktos Januševičius and Vytautas Suslavičius - reminiscent of 2016 and 2017 "Vilnius leaves" moments of the year.
The star of Friday's literature festival will be the extremely talented Lithuanian poet, prose writer, playwright, translator and publicist Sigitas Parulskis, who will be interviewed by his colleague Mindaugas Nastaravičius. The evening will end with a poetry and music fiesta by the poets Greta Ambrazaitė, Gintaras Bleizgis, Marius Buroks, Kornelijas Platelis and the group "CinAmon".
Saturday, November 10 even several day and evening events are planned. In the theater "Meno fortas" there will be a performance for the whole family by the writer Daiva Čepauskaitė and "Vejju teatro" "Baisiai beljasvi šviliantys vėjai" by writer Daiva Čepauskaitė. In the "State Knowledge Center" it will be possible to go on an unexpected adventure with the creators of "Children's Land". Milda Varnauskaitė, a representative of the genre of storytelling that is still unusual for the Lithuanian stage, will appear in the Arts Printing House, having prepared a storytelling performance for adults "I emigrated by accident".
An important event on Saturday is a meeting with Alan Lightman, the author of the world-famous bestselling novel "Einstein's Dreams" (JAV), the host of the event is cultural historian Aurimas Švedas. The star from abroad will be replaced by the poetic-percussion event no. 1 "From the Secret Notes of a Gardener," promising a burst of poetry that's awkward and irritating, and powerful in many ways.
Saturday night's star is the British writer Joanne Harris, also known as the author of the world famous novel "Chocolate". Literary researcher Eglė Kačkutė-Hagan will talk with the author about her extremely rich content and versatile work, and actress Aldona Vilutytė will read excerpts. After the meeting, there will be a screening of the movie "Chocolate" based on the writer's novel. Film critic Lolita Bytautaitė will present the film.
Sunday, November 11 the program will begin with creative readings of children's literature "Children's Land" together with actress Judita Zareckaite and illustrator Greta Alice.
Later, the duet of writer Sara Poisson and percussionist Gediminas Laurinavičius will appear on the stage of "Menų späustuvės" "Šlamesiai. Blues for two", promising to reveal more than one secret, inviting you to travel through unexplored territories.
In the "New Names" category this year, there is a meeting with Helen Oyeyemi, a rapidly rising British literary star, who will raise fundamental questions about evil or beauty, and global migration. She will be interviewed by literary critic and columnist Jūratė Čerškutė.
Sunday's meeting with Palestinian poet Ghayat Almadhoun (Palestine/Syria/Sweden), who was born in a Damascus refugee camp and lives in Sweden, promises intriguing moments. Ghayathu's poetry talks about the experiences of people seeking refuge, the longing for home and the guilt that haunts a young intellectual for the homeland he left behind. Journalist Donatas Puslys will talk about this and not only with the poet. The event will be held in English.
At the end of the festival - an evening with a song of love and autumn, poet of urban culture, winner of the Lithuanian National Culture and Art Prize Antans A. Jonynus. The poet will be interviewed by his artistic colleague, writer Rolandas Rastauskas, laureate of the Lithuanian National Literature and Art Prize.
The event, which will be held for the third year in a row, is organized together with partners by the Reading and Cultural Literacy Association of the country. The event is sponsored by the Lithuanian Council of Culture.
You can find the full program of the festival on the website: http://www.vilniauslapai.lt/
Follow the festival news on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vilniauslapai
You can buy tickets at Tiketa: https://goo.gl/cJJJag
