During the next weeks, we would like to introduce a few videos from the online platform MIXTAPE. This project is a collaboration of the “SARDAM interdisciplinary literature festival” and the Cultural Section of the Cyprus High Commission in the UK and is aiming at showcasing the work of Cypriot and international writers-performers. MIXTAPE offers a taste of several trends related to literature and literary performance, including videos of spoken word (slamming), sound poetry, visual poetry, literature in relation to video art, literature in relation to sound/music, as well as conversations about writing and literary performance and an online creative writing workshop.
The text of the first performance that we want to introduce to you was written by Maria A. Ioannou. She is an artist – some of you may already know her from our reading series “con_text” – and also the curator of the online platform. Her performance “Minimarket” presents the stream of consciousness of a 50-year-old woman who works at a kiosk, through the combination of live reading and live sound/music. The text is also part of a series of monologues written in the Cypriot dialect, which investigate the position of women in the Cypriot society. You can take a look at the video of her performance via this link.