This reading is the transformation of a project that first was realized in 2014, among a group of civil rights activists from Eastern Europe. It started out from a poem by Ukrainian author Tanya-Mariya Litvinyuk. Here, Ms. Litvinyuk actually takes part at the NSU gathering, through a sound recording; her voice is heard from the laptop at the beginning. Then follows an English translation, read by Dr. Lucy Lyons; her reading proceeds with ten single words. These words were chosen from the poem — as carrying special significance — by the original group of activists. Each participant created their own sentences around their chosen words, after which their lines were brought together to form a new text; this is the last part of Dr. Lyons’ reading in English. In the 2014 project, the resulting text was translated into the different languages spoken by the participants. Here, the original project manager Helena Hildur W. reads a Swedish version, followed by a fresh translation into Belarusian by Alina Kalachova — created for this special occasion.

The day of reading poetry coincided with birthdays of Cosima and Milena. The evening got a special meaning from different perspectives. “Photos of very dear moments of our week together — sitting in our poetry cycle and our birthday cake :)”