from 14 March 2026 to 1 January 1970 at 19:00
“Kalamata Within Me – Poet Giannis Tzanetakos and His Kalamata”
Description :
The Messinian Writers’ Association is organizing an event on the occasion of World Poetry Day 2026, dedicated to the Messinian poet Giannis Tzanetakos and to his profound poetic relationship with the city of Kalamata.
The event, titled “Kalamata Within Me – The Poet Giannis Tzanetakos and His Kalamata”, will take place on Saturday, March 14, 2026, at 19:00, at the Rex Hotel, with free admission for the public.
The program includes a welcome address and greetings, a presentation of the work and poetic journey of Giannis Tzanetakos accompanied by visual material, as well as a talk by the philologist and writer Antonia Pavlakou titled “Time, Nostalgia and Image in the Poetry of Giannis Tzanetakos”, and a talk by the philologist and writer Konstantinos Kostea titled “As if it were Sunday on Aristomenous Street” – A Poetic Representation of a City.
The poet himself will speak about the relationship between Kalamata and his poetry and will read selected poems.
The event will be accompanied musically by the ensemble “Kallitechniko Steki”, presenting the “Main Theme” and “Love Theme” from the film Cinema Paradiso, with Petros Katsoulis as the responsible musician.
The event is organized in cooperation with the Municipality of Kalamata, while the coordination of the event will be undertaken by the president of the Messinian Writers’ Association, Nikolina Lekka.
Organizers :
The Union of Messinian Writers is a cultural association which was founded in 2000 and whose objective is “the promotion and development of intellectual creation of Messinian member writers”. Furthermore, it supports any effort targetting the development of all forms of artistic discourse, the preservation of folk traditions and that of Hellenic cultural heritage, especially the one deriving from Messinia and the general cultural development of Messinia. It takes part in any effort to create active citizenship at all levels, with an emphasis on the need for everyone, especially young people, to participate in local or wider social and cultural events.
The Union undertakes initiatives for the organization and realization of cultural events in collaboration with all local authorities but also with other associations, contributing into improving the quality of life of all Messinians. Among others, it invites annually prominent personalities of culture and literature, whose work is being hosted and presented in Kalamata. Through its active participation in artistic and overall cultural life, the Union supports art and culture in the region.
Finally, by means of its events and actions and also by published printed or electronic literary works, it contributes to the creation of motives and favourable conditions for the contact with books as educational means and for consolidating their role in the acquisition of education by promoting love for reading.
Until today it has realized dozens of complex speech manifestations, in combination with other forms of Arts, in Messinia, in Kalamata and in Athens. It has also published the series Messinian Creations with nine collective volumes, the anniversary collective volumes From ’21 to 2021 and Memory and Recreation (1922-2022), all with a variety of textual genres of its member-writers.
