Did you notice the hiatus? Did you miss me? I was travelling. I'm back now full of caffeine.
Tomorrow Wednesday 21 November is the nine month anniversary since Pussy Riot, the punky protest group of Russian women
performed in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow
and were locked up for denouncing the Russian Orthodox Church’s support for President Vladimir Putin.
Three members of the collective, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina
and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were arrested and held in custody until
August when they were each sentenced to two years in prison on charges
of ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’. At their appeal hearing
in October, the two-year jail term of Samutsevich was suspended, but the
sentences against Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were upheld. They have
since been separated and transferred to notorious prison colonies, far
from Moscow and their young children.
In order to raise and maintain awareness of their case,
English PEN launched Poems for Pussy Riot,
inviting poets from all over the world to write creative responses to
the case. A collection of the contributions, Catechism: Poems for Pussy
Riot, was published as a pay-by-donation e-book on 1 October 2012 to
coincide with their first appeal hearing. A print-on-demand version is
now also available, with all proceeds going to the Pussy Riot Legal Fund
and English PEN’s Writers at Risk Programme.
The Poetry Divas are among a good number of poets reading at an event in Dublin, supported by Irish PEN, on Wednesday
21 November at The Grand Social (35 Lower Liffey Street, Dublin 1).
Start time is 6.30pm and admission is free.
Participating Poets
include: Kimberly Campanello, Sophie Collins, Sue Cosgrave, Anatoly
Kudryavitsky, Christodoulos Makris, Máighréad Medbh, Paula Meehan, Alan
Jude Moore, Christine Murray, Sam Riviere and The Poetry Divas.
Link here
