Polyglots, part of Pako Festa

from w
Last night the Geelong Writers and Diversitat (Geelong Migrant Resource Centre's business name) staged a good night at the Wholefoods Cafe - theme Greek writers and Alexandria - poetry by Cavafy, info about Durrell, a beautiful Greek singer, an enthusiastic belly dancer, and local poets and readers. It was an enjoyable night climaxed by several people from the audience joining in the dance including Peceli! On Saturday the Pako Festa in Pakington Street, Geelong West will be in full swing - usually with about 100,000 people enjoying one of Australia's best multicultural festivals.

A string quartet steals the show

from w
Perhaps I wasn't quite in the mood for Greek poetry and translation but at the Geelong Writers' recent gig for Pako Festa I enjoyed the music by Ad Astra, the Geelong College String Quartet and I drew one of the violinists as they played Ravel's Pavane.

One of the readers, Richard Kakol, who is blind and used a machine with earphones as his prompt, read some evocative poems he had written about Greenland. His poems are always thoughtful, and visual which is unexpected. Other readings were from Maria Takolander, with references to Finland, and Ouyang Yu who migrated to Australia from China who read some of his personal poems about the transition. When Elias Maniatakis and Andrew Fraser played some boussouki music I wanted to dance but everyone sat stolidly in their seats! Readings of poetry by Sappho and Kavafis and Kolosiatou were read in Greek with some English translation and it was good to hear the different language and guess at the meaning. Polyglots at Pako is an annual event and the theme is always about the celebration of different languages and cultures.