In celebration of 2020 – the Year of the Vilna Gaon and the History of the Jews of Lithuania, Poet and Professor Tomas Venclova (Yale University, Emeritus) will give a poetry reading and presentation entitled “Narratives of Pluralism in Lithuania’s Past and Present”. Professor Venclova will be joined by Jonathan Brent (Executive Director of YIVO), Mindaugas Kvietkauskas (Minister of Culture of Lithuania) and Faina Kukliansky (President of Jewish Community of Lithuania) for a panel discussion on the topic of multiculturalism and Lithuanian-Jewish Relations in present-day Lithuania, and on the role of culture and literature in contributing to narratives of pluralism. Event moderator – Karen Underhill, Assistant Professor of Polish and Jewish Studies, UIC Dept. of Polish, Russian and Lithuanian Studies. Event is co-hosted by the Consulate General of the Republic of Lithuania and the UIC Department of Polish, Russian, and Lithuanian Studies.

Event is free and open to the public.
RSVP to Gabriele.Pauryte@urm.lt
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Speakers:
Tomas Venclova is a prominent Lithuanian poet, intellectual and Professor Emeritus at Yale University, US. While living in Soviet Lithuania, Venclova became a dissident. He left the Soviet Union in 1977. In the United States, Venclova formed a triumvirate with two other émigré poets from Eastern Europe, a Russian poet Joseph Brodsky and a Polish-Lithuanian poet Czesław Miłosz. Having lived in the US for decades, Venclova is still very involved in the intellectual life of Lithuania and Europe. In his writings and by his personal example, the poet encourages the cultural and historical dialogue and challenges prevailing stereotypes. Venclova’s poetry, which blends history and personal experiences, has been translated into over 20 languages.

Jonathan Brent is a historian, publisher, translator, writer and teacher. At Yale University Press (1991-2009) he established the Annals of Communism series. His books include Stalin’s Last Crime (2003); and Inside the Stalin Archives (2008). In 2009, Brent became Executive Director and CEO of The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research where he initiated The YIVO Vilna Collection Project in 2014. In 2019 Jonathan Brent received the Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania by H.E. Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania. Brent lectures and publishes widely on Jewish, Soviet and East European history.

Mindaugas Kvietkauskas is a literary scholar, writer and translator. Since beginning of 2019 Kvietkauskas serves as Lithuania’s Minister of Culture. Before becoming a minister, M. Kvietkauskas worked at the Lithuanian Literature and Folklore Institute in Vilnius for many years and managed this institution in 2008-2018. Kvietkauskas acquired Ph.D. at the Department of Lithuanian Literature, Vilnius University, and studied Yiddish language and literature at the University of Oxford, Centre for Hebrew and Judaic Studies. His main areas of research are multinational literary modernism and urban culture in Lithuania and East Central Europe. He is an author of two academic monographs, a collection of poetry and a recent book of literary essays Uosto fuga (The Port Fugue). Kvietkauskas has also translated several books from Polish and Yiddish languages, including works by Czesław Miłosz and Abraham Sutzkever.

Faina Kukliansky is a lawyer and a Chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) Community (LJC), which was established 30 years ago in Vilnius, Lithuania. From 2009 to 2013, F.Kukliansky served as the Deputy Chair of the LJC. For many years, F. Kukliansky dedicated herself to the Jewish Community of Lithuania and Jews living beyond the borders of Lithuania. She strived to ensure that Lithuanian Jews were fully integrated into the Lithuanian society, and that Lithuanians, as well as people from different backgrounds would become acquainted with the culture, religion, and way of life of the Jewish people. According to F. Kukliansky, people living in one society need to know and understand each other better in order to prevent a repeat of the tragedy that befell Jews in Lithuania, resulting in the near-total annihilation of the Lithuanian Jewry. On 5 July of 2019, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius conferred the Foreign Ministry’s award of honor – Lithuania’s Diplomacy Star – on Faina Kukliansky, Chair of the Jewish (Litvak) Community of Lithuania.

Karen Underhill is Assistant Professor of Polish Literature and Polish-Jewish Studies and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Polish, Russian and Lithuanian Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research at the intersection of Polish and Jewish cultures and literatures focuses on 20th century Polish and Yiddish literatures, and Poland as a multilingual and pluralist space of encounter. Her book, Bruno Schulz and Galician Jewish Modernity, is forthcoming from the University of Indiana Press in Fall 2020.