Chimeras at the Museum.

Columbia University
Phoebe Giannisi & John Campbell
Thursday, November 14th, 4 pm

The poet and architect Phoebe Giannisi re-examines her research on the goat-herding practices of the Vlachs, a nomadic people of the southern Balkans, which served as a source of information for her groundbreaking poetry collection Chimera. By reading excerpts from Chimera, she will explore how her practice based on field recordings, state archives, and ancient texts could be presented within the framework of an upcoming exhibition of public humanities actions in Greece.

In colaboration with Πρόγραμμα Ελληνικών Σπουδών.

The poetic performance Transhumance is based on the book Chimera (New Directions, 2024, translated by Brian Sneeden). In her third collection in English, Phoebe Giannisi lays out her vision for a chimeric poetics that blends field recordings, state archives, and ancient texts. The center of Chimera engages with a three-year field research project on the goat-herding practices of a community of Vlachs, a people of Northern Greece and the Southern Balkans who speak their own language and practice transhumance. In these poems, day-to-day activities such as shearing and shepherding mix with snippets of conversations, oral tradition, and song—locating a larger story in this ancient marriage between humans and animals. Through her poetry and fieldwork, this mytho-historical connection between metamorphosis and utterance takes form.

https://ideasimagination.columbia.edu/events/chimeras-in-the-museum/

https://snfphi.columbia.edu/el/events/chimeras-in-the-museum/