A "Poetic Performance" by Phoebe Giannisi at the Seeger Center.
https://hellenic.princeton.edu/news/2024/poetic-performance-phoebe-giannisi-seeger-center
Princeton university , 07-11-2024
Chimera, New Directions- tour: https://mailchi.mp/ndbooks/adania-shibli-duke-princeton-8768889?e=73e3dd3e44
In Modern Greek and English, accompanied by video of bleating goats and their goatherds, and the clang of a goat bell, poet Phoebe Giannisi wove a multi-sensory spell at Scheide Caldwell House on November 7, transfixing her audience.
A native of Athens, Greece, Giannisi visited the Seeger Center on an East Coast tour for her new poetry collection, "Chimera," translated from Modern Greek by Brian Sneeden and published by New Directions in July 2024. Cosponsored by the Seeger Center and the , this event was Giannisi's first visit to Princeton University and the latest highlight in her ongoing collaborations with the Seeger Center. Giannisi has visited the Princeton Athens Center on multiple occasions, participating in workshops led by , the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Classics and an associated faculty member of the Seeger Center, in 2018 and 2022, and meeting with Princeton undergraduates, most recently in March 2024.
Her reading at Princeton filled the seminar room. , executive director of the Humanities Council, introduced Giannisi. Associate Professor of Creative Writing served as respondent, and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature a member of the Class of 2000 and a graduate of the Program in Hellenic Studies, led the discussion.
"Chimera" was partly sparked by a desire to understand the Greek word tragedy, which means song of the he-goat. That prompted questions about the gendered aspects of goat herds, motherhood, humans and animals, and the power shepherds wield. Giannisi, who melds forms and disciplines in her creative work, spent three years researching a community of Vlachs, which has its own language and engages in an ancient practice known as transhumance, herding goats from the lowlands of Thessaly to the Pindus mountains in Northern Greece. Working in collaboration with a former student, Chara Stergiou, who is now an artist, Giannisi created the videos that accompanied the reading.
Giannisi spoke about her "chimeric identity" spanning Classics, architecture, and poetry.
"Poetry connects everything. The sense of place connects everything, poetry and architecture and my understanding of Classics and texts and archaeology. Also, the place as it is today. For me, it's Greece through Greek language," she said.
