- This event has passed.
Identity puzzles by Igor Pomerantzev
January 10, 2018 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Free
WHEN:
10 January, 7pm
WHERE:
Ukrainian Institute, 79, Holland Park, W11 3SW London, United Kingdom
Admission:
FREE but registration is required. Please register here
LANGUAGE:
The talk will be in English.
Igor Pomerantzev, a well-known poet, journalist and a former Soviet dissident, will offer his interpretation of post-Maidan transformation of Ukraine’s identity. Originally from the westerm Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi, on the border with Romania, Igor is very susceptible to the multi-cultural dimension of the identity as it is being moulded in recent years. The talk will touch upon the issues of recovering lost memories, re-discover lost cultural and physical spaces of complex multi-enthnic cities like his native Chernivtsi, the intersection of different cultures, the role of language in the identity-building.
He will be joined by his son Peter Pomerantsev, a well-known writer, an author of the prize-winning “Nothing is True and Everything is Possible” and currently a Senior Fellow at the LSE’s Institute for Global Affairs. Peter will offer his view on the cultural transformation inside Ukraine, informed by his London background.
Moderated by Marina Pesenti, Director of Ukrainian Institute London.
Speaker’s bio:
Igor Pomerantzev was born in Saratov, USSR, in 1948. He studied English philology and pedagogy at the University of Chernivtsi (Czernowitz). His poetry was first published in 1972 in the Moscow magazine “Smena”. At this time he also became involved with the Ukrainian civil right movement.
In 1976 Pomerantzev was arrested by KGB, accused of distributing anti-Soviet literature and listening to foreign, “enemy”, radio stations. In 1977, he was officially encouraged to emigrate, and the next year he left with his wife and ten-month-old son for Germany. In 1979, he moved to London to work for BBC the Russian Service. He later lived in Munich and produced the Russian-language culture program “Over the Barriers” for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Since 1995, he is in Prague. He contributes towards “Zeitzug” online literary magazine and is one of the founding members of the Meridian Czernowitz International Poetry Festival.