Café Europa

forthcoming

Cafe Europa is a publishing program combining promotion of unknown literary masterpieces with creating a multidimensional space to engage with diverse groups of readers (with special focus on students and youngsters). Its main idea revolves around the concept of a literary cafe - European tradition which largely contributed to development of the cultural life in the 19th and the early 20th century and still embodies to some extent European spirit and culture. As a concept Cafe Europa is not linked to a particular geographical location. It moves and travels, extending our understanding of what Europe is and what it could be. In our program Cafe Europa focuses on three regions perceived as edges of Europe: East-Central Europe, the Balkans and the Caucasus. Translating books from Serbian, Armenian, Georgian, Ukrainian and Lithuanian and making them a part of Cafe Europa we wish to extend the canon of European literature and contribute to the discussion on Europe as a cultural project. How will this access to Cafe Europa look like in practice? Five contemporary authors from above mentioned countries were asked to choose the unknown or forgotten masterpiece of literature in their language to be translated and published in Poland. As curators they will be responsible for writing introductions and participating in promotional and educational activities (podcast series, literary events, debates, workshops). In five different universities in Poland Cafe Europa initiative groups will be created to engage with promoting and debating books and themes evoked by them. On high school level five Cafe Europa Clubs will be created with cooperation of teachers and students resulting in organization of literary events and creating educational materials. In different cities Cafe Europa Tours will be organized in cooperation with bookstores and libraries to reach a wider and diverse audience. Online platform will be used to promote digital content on the national and European level.