#TiranaReads with Leke Tasi
On occasion of the new European Parliament Resolution on the importance of a common European memory, which was voted on 19 September 2019, the Institute for Democracy, Media and Culture (IDMC) organized "Literature as a Place of Memory" event with the support of Konrad Adenauer Foundation on 18 October 2019, 11:00–12:30 at Library Room of Tirana National History Museum.
There can be no reconciliation and peace without historical memory, so the European Parliament suggests deepening the work in education and raising awareness of the younger generation, among others honoring victims of the dictatorial systems. Therefore, in this edition Tirana read with our special guest, Mr. Leke Tasi, an artist and former persecuted of the dictatorship from 1975–1990 in the village of Grabjan in Lushnja.
The event was opened by IDMC Director, Dr. Jonila Godole and was greeted by the Director of Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Tirana (KAS), Dr. Tobias Rüttershoff.
Dr. Godole shared with the participants the aims of the event. She told that the event was initiated on 2015 when there were no memorials, real site of memories and museums to commemorate the victims of the communism. Literature was a Place where many testimonies of communism could be found and serve as a site of memory for the former persecuted added further Dr. Godole.
Meanwhile Dr. Rüttershoff talked on behalf of KAS about the similar experience of the past in which Germany has gone through. He said that for him is also very important to address this important issue, in particular in a country like Albania where the experience was very tough with people who were executed or spent 30–40 years in prison. He highlighted the importance of not only saving the voices of former persecuted and transmitting them to the public, but the most important according to him is to get this stories to young people.
Mr. Tasi shared with the participants his family persecution experience under the moderation of the literary critic Agim Baçi and the journalist Fatmira Nikolli. Mr. Tasi read and discussed his book "Grabjani rrëzë kodrave" ("Grabjan by the Hills") with stories from the internment village. The discussion on the book offered to the readers a psychological, political, philosophical analysis of the stories that happened in the internment camp in Grabjan.
Organizer
Contact
Matilda Karçanaj, IDMC Program Coordinator | E-mail
Partner
