Books and votes: celebrating Sant Jordi around the world

  • New Yorkers, Australians, Londoners and many other citizens of the world celebrated Catalonia's popular Books and Roses festival this weekend.

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28.04.2014 - 08:34

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In New York, the Catalan Institute of America organized a “literary crawl” which visited four bookstore in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, with readings in Polish, Czech, Armenian, Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan and roses for sale. There was also a retelling of the legend of Sant Jordi in Fulton Ferry State Park for children.

In London, Clara Sanabras performed on Wednesday and Valencian singer-songwriter Pau Alabajos began his European tour on April 24 at the University of Cambridge. His concerts focus on ‘La Nova Cançó” period, explaining the relationship between the songwriters and the anti-fascist movement. London’s main Sant Jordi event took place Sunday at the Borough Market with food, arts, roses and books and another performance by Alabajos.

Many Sant Jordi events abroad were accompanied by activists from the Catalan National Assembly asking people to “Sign a vote for independence”. In London alone, volunteers collected 200 signatures.

In Turin, Italy, the Generalitat’s delegation in Italy joined with the city’s Independent Bookseller’s Guild and the city government to convert the central Palazzo di Città into a ‘rambla’. Jon Landa, from the Università degli Studi di Torino explains that “The idea was to show that Catalan is a language (in Italy they still haven’t realized that), that is also important from a literary perspective, that works are translated into Catalan, that Catalan is learned and taught, and that in Turin it can also be studied. How? With classics, new works, translations, and some lovely, rather special flyers…, and with the help of my students, some passersby learned a few words of Catalan. It was really a pleasure. All in all, a pleasure.”



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