Tsigan. The Gypsy Poem

Tsigan. The Gypsy Poem

As part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27th we invite you to a performance based on Cecilia Woloch's book Tsigan. The Gypsy Poem.

Cecilia Woloch is an acclaimed American writer and poet, lecturer at the University of Southern California, author of the volumes Carpathia (2009), Late (2003), and Sacrifice (1997), whose poetry is full of references to the history of her own family – Romani from the Carpathians.

The performance is a personal, lyrical story about searching for one's identity, of the memories of ancestors intertwined with the history of wartime trauma. A story filled with music, uncovering the painful history of Romani stigmatization. A moving testimony of the Romani's cultural and historical heritage.

Tsigan. The Gypsy Poem also involves elements of Cecilia Woloch's research work, enriched with music for an excellent music and drama performance.

Cecilia Woloch is the author of six collections of poems, most recently Carpathia (BOA Editions 2009), which was a finalist for the Milton Kessler Award, and Tzigane, le poème Gitan (Scribe-l’Harmattan 2014), the French translation of her second book, Tsigan: The Gypsy Poem. The text of Tsigan has also been adapted for multi-media performances in the U.S. and Europe, and is currently being translated into Polish for presentation at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Her novella, Sur la Route, a finalist for the Colony Collapse Prize, is forthcoming from Quale Press in 2015, along with a new collection of poems, Earth, recently awarded the Two Sylvias Press Prize for the chapbook. Other honors include The Indiana Review Prize for Poetry, The New Ohio Review Prize for Poetry, the Scott Russell Sanders Prize for Creative Nonfiction, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, CEC/ArtsLink International, Chateau de la Napoule Foundation, the Center for International Theatre Development and others. Her work has been translated and published in French, German, Polish and Ukrainian. She collaborates regularly with musicians, dancers, visual artists, theatre artists and filmmakers. The founding director of Summer Poetry in Idyllwild and The Paris Poetry Workshop, she has also served on the faculties of a number of creative writing programs and teaches independently throughout the U.S. and around the world. 

Language: English with translation into Polish.

January 25, 2015, POLIN Museum auditorium, 7pm, free admission