A documentary about Ilona Ferková, a successful Romani writer in Czechia is being shown in Prague. It is called “Ilona Ferková: I like to laugh, I like to make things up”
A new Roma glossary by Dr. Vesna Delić was published by the Public Institution Centre for the Preservation and Development of the Culture of Minorities of Montenegro. As far as is known, it is a unique publication that allows the interested public to get to know and get more information about Roma.
An interview with Ilona Ferková who recently published her first novel, AMEN, which tells about a great girl friendship on the threshold of adulthood. The book is not a social drama about an excluded ethnic minority, but a colourful portrait of Czechoslovak youth in the relaxed sixties.
On January 10th, at 7 p.m. in the Booksa literary club (Martićeva 14D, Zagreb), Barbara Vicković and Mirta Zečević, members of the acting ensemble of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, will read narrative-journalistic stories from the collection “Romanipe – From Shadow to Light”.
A new book intended for Roma pre-schoolers will be published by the Kher publishing house with the support of the Open Society Found Foundation and Albatros. According to its authors, the book contains information for Roma children of pre-school age so that they know what the basic education system will demand of them. The book is also for parents, introducing them to the requirements of schools and the Czech environment, which is partially or completely different from their home.
The Association of Roma Writers and the Association of Writers of Serbia organised a poetry New Year and presented the book “December Meetings” – a collection of poetry for children and adults, prose and aphorisms, as part of the traditional Poetry New Year.
The world’s first complete Bible in the Romani Carpathian dialect was presented on Sunday in Sabinov, Slovakia. Dozens of people worked on the translation for a total of 15 years. TASR was informed about this by Patrik Sýkora from The Word For The World organization.
In the novel Kamav tu [I love you], Rudi Mlinar opens up a problematic topic. Namely, “Shakespearean” love finding itself in the grip of ethnic stereotypes. The feelings that develop between the Roma boy Zoran and the girl of Slovenian roots, Milena, regardless of society’s prejudices, become not only forbidden, but even persecuted. Milena’s parents move to Australia with their daughter, but their escape does not erase the mutual affection between the two young people. This blossoms again when Milena returns to Slovenia to study and meets Zoran again completely by chance. With this, the young couple become unwanted again.
The writer Rudi Mlinar, born in Dolgi Brdy nad Prevalje, was educated in Carinthia, and later worked at the Ravne Ironworks and at the railway station in Ljubljana. He was also culturally involved all the time. For his literary work, he was chosen among the best beginner writers in Slovenia for prose (1981) and drama (1998), and later received several other awards.
The portraits of ten Slovak Roma writers, as part of the exhibit “Portraits Between the Lines” from the artist Šarlota Bottová opened on Tuesday (November 7) in the Ethnographic Museum in Martin. It was prepared by the Museum of Roma Culture in Slovakia on the occasion of the World Day of the Roma Language (November 5).
A review of Klaus Michael Bogdal’s Book “Europa erfindet die Zigeuner– ‘Europe Invents the Gypsies’ which has just been published in English.
An interview with the Roma writer Michal Šamko. He published his first Roma-Czech poem at the end of the nineties in the magazine Mladý svět. He returned to it fully only after meeting the Romani writer Milena Hübschmannová, who made him write in Romanes as well. Since then, Michal Šamko (56) has published not only in the journal of Romani studies Romano džaniben, but also in the monthly magazine for world literature PLAV.
He says “They yelled ‘gypsy filth’ at me at school. What’s worse is that they scold my granddaughter in the same way.”
Sad.
An interview with Patrik Banga, writer and journalist and recent laureate of the Magnesia Litera competition.Patrik Banga became famous as a military correspondent in the former Yugoslavia, but also as the leader of the hip hop band Gipsy.cz. He grew up in Prague’s Žižkov, which he decided to address in his book. According to him, it was a beautiful but harsh place known for its crime and excluded communities.
Maja Jovanović is a poet and ambassador of Roma culture and literature: “I find inspiration in children”
She says that it sometimes is very difficult to bare your soul through a song. Sometimes it’s easy to write a poem, but it’s a shame if it doesn’t get into the hands of readers, especially the youngest generations.
An interview with Radka Patočková who is the director of the KHER publishing house. The publisher supports the development of Roma literature in the Czech Republic. In the interview, she that young Roma authors are at a great disadvantage, and bemoans also the downward trend in the use of the Romanes.
Another discussion / interview with Patrick Banga, the young Romano author who got a coveted Czch literary prize for his first novel.
An interview of the author of a book, the anthropologist Lise Foisneau, who recently published a powerful book on the result of four years of investigation in the company of Roma from Provence.
A one-of-a-kind library in the Balkans opened in 2020 in Zagreb. Entirely dedicated to the Roma, their history, their literature and their culture, this space is open to everyone.
Being a Rom in the Czech Republic is really difficult. Parick Banga was beaten by the police in his youth. He comes from Žižkov in Prague and is 41 years old. He is in charge of blogs at iDNES.cz, at the same time runs an IT business and plays in a swing band in his spare time. Banga received the Magnesia Litera literary award for his coming-of-age story.
Another article in the press about the Romano journalist Patrick Banga whose first book won the prestigious Czech Magnesia Litera award in the new author category.
It does not please certain people. According to the article, Patrik Banga now reads almost every day that he bribed the entire jury of the Magnesia Litera award. Many people cannot accept the fact that the book award went to Rom.
Bad
“I am sincere and not politically correct,” says Patrik Banga, author of the autobiographical novel titled Skutečná cesta ven – The real way out. This book, which traces the eventful life of a Roma child and adolescent in the effervescence of the 1990s, won its author the Magnesia litera prize for the first novel.
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