Public Readings by Young European and African Writers

On 21 December 2022, the National Kaunas Drama Theatre organised an online public reading session, including a panel discussion with four writers of the younger generation from Lithuania, Burundi, and Burkina Faso.

Young authors Kibsa Anthony Ouedraogo, Laura Sheilla Inangoma, Greta Ambrazaitė, and Teodora Grigaitė read excerpts (and discussed them with the audience) of their works, which they wrote in an attempt to describe the actual experience of deconfinement, and of the pandemic and post-pandemic restrictions in their respective countries, as well as describing the external and internal constraints and utopias of liberation in the contemporary world.

For three months, they engaged in debates and worked through mind maps, lectures, and workshops, searching for common images, keywords, and narratives about the shared dreams of their generation, spanning both the European and African continents.

Although they describe different journeys of very personal experiences of the pandemic from different parts of the world, their literary testimonies are interconnected and correlated in many shared emotions and values.

The literary texts will be transformed into physical live performances and theatre productions in a later phase of the DECONFINING project.

Participating writers:

Laura Sheilla Inangoma is a Kirundi, Swahili, and French playwright from Burundi whose plays have been produced in theatres and festivals in various African countries. She presented her work at the Avignon Festival in 2022, and her work seeks to make connections between her ancestral cultural heritage and global contemporary processes and experiences.

Kibsa Anthony Ouedraogo is a Burkina Faso-based writer, screenwriter, actor, and mime artist from Ouagadougou, who writes in Mori and French, and is active in African and European theatre events and projects (including the well-known pan-African festival Récréatrales). His political works deal with contemporary life and society.

Teodora Marija Grigaitė is a PhD student at the Lithuanian Institute for Cultural Research, a philosopher, translator, publisher, and educator. At ‘Phi Knygos’, she worked on texts ranging from ancient philosophy to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. She also writes philosophical books for children. Her international publication on the role of laughter and humour in the feminist movement is forthcoming.

Greta Ambrazaitė-Norkūnė is a Lithuanian poet, musician, and translator from Spanish, who has recently published her second book of poems. She publishes her work in the country’s most important cultural publications and actively participates in literary events. Her work combines anthropological and feminist themes.