Worldwide reading for the dead of the pandemic

The Goethe-Institut Cyprus in collaboration with Atlantis Culture are participating at the worldwide reading for the dead of the pandemic. The worldwide readings are initiated by the international literature festival berlin [ilb].
 
For more than a year, the world has been in the grip of the pandemic. Nearly four and a half million people worldwide have died from Covid-19. Not a day goes by when we are not confronted with statistics and curves on current deaths and illnesses. Yet, it often remains abstract numbers. The individual person and the individual stories behind them are hardly present in the public perception. Illness, death and grief have become largely invisible due to precautionary measures. Many people die alone, behind closed doors, and are buried in small circles. In many cases, there is no way for relatives and friends to say goodbye - and if they do, it is at a distance or in a digital setting.
 
Literature has the potential to give expression to this situation, to counter isolation at least through reception. It finds narratives away from the everyday images of horror, tells of loss from different perspectives, and helps to make the incomprehensible tangible, the intangible comprehensible.
 
Following poets and writers will take part at the reading in Nicosia: Nora Nadjarian, Alexandros Chronides, Eleni Artemiou – Photiadou, Erato Ioannou, Manuella Mavromichalis, Paula Savvides, Neshe Yashin, Annetta Benzar, Ruta Dzikaraite, Alev Adil, Angela Kosti