Join us for EMBCA’s “1821 : Revolution and Poetry in Motion” Panel Discussion Webinar Sunday, June 27 at 2 P.M. EST (11 A.M. PST/ 9 P.M. Athens EEST). The panel discussion will be in Association with AHEPA’s Hellenic Cultural Commission. The event will be introduced and moderated by Lou Katsos, EMBCA's President/Founder and Chairman of AHEPA’s Hellenic Cultural Commission. The distinguished panel will include Author/ Poet Nicholas Alexiou Professor of Sociology and Director of the Hellenic American Project at Queens College; Poet/Essayist/Prose Writer/Translator and twice President of the Hellenic Authors’ Society Yiorgos Chouliaras; and Author/ Translator/Materials Scientist Andeas Melas the former President of Hellenic Link- Midwest. The panel discussion will focus on the Hellenic Revolution of 1821 and the poetry around it. Professor Nicholas Alexiou will be presenting on “The Greek Revolution and America Philhellenic Poetry” which will include the poetry of James Gates Percival, William Cullen Bryant, and Lydia Huntley Sigourney; Yiorgos Chouliaras on "Greece, Poetry, Revolution" and discuss among other poets the "double-headed eagle"of modern Greek poetry Solomos and Byron; and Andreas Melas will discuss the poem "The 9th of July 1821" by Vasilis Michaelides, considered the national poet of Cyprus, that he has translated and written about.

Poetry, a word from the Ancient Hellenic ποίησις/ poiesis, meant in philosophy "the activity in which a person brings something that did not exist before" and etymologically deriving from the Hellenic term ποιεῖν/ "to make" has a long history in the Hellenic world and played a very important and pivotal role in the Hellenic Revolution and Independence both domestically and abroad. This genre was used to explore and disseminate new political ideas in a period of Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Revolution. In many ways poetry and Revolution are intertwined historically and certainly in the Hellenic Revolution.

The event among others we have had this year around the anniversary of the Hellenic Revolution are part of EMBCA’s American Hellenic Revolution of 1821 Bicentennial Committee series of events focusing not only on the Revolution but also importantly on the American, Diaspora and International aspects and influences of the Revolution on this its 200 Year Anniversary.