Previous Conferences

The Gingko Conference Series – intended for scholars, public figures and members of the wider public who are engaged with issues concerning the MENA region – fosters dialogue between the West and the Middle East, and promotes mutual understanding based upon our shared interests and concerns.

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The First World War and its Aftermath: The Shaping of the Middle East

2014 Conference
Iran’s Constitutional Revolution of 1906 and the Narratives of the Enlightenment

2015 Conference

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The Mercantile Effect: On Art and Exchange in the Islamicate World During 17th ̶18th Centuries

2016 Conference

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Religious Imaginations: How Narratives Of Faith Are Shaping Today’s World

2017 Conference

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Gingko is at #mesa2019 in New Orleans! Find our Sales Manager Edoardo at Booth 45. All our titles are 25% off throughout the conference.

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Great to see Gingko’s “A New Divan” on sale in @blackwellbooks ’s flagship Oxford store alongside some of the staples of inspiring contemporary poetry anthologies
#blackwellsbookshop #newdivan #poetry #oxford #gingko

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The keynote speaker on the first night of “A New Divan” Festival at the‪ @boulezsaal on 18th November will be ‬Mathias Énard, author of the prizewinning novel Compass.
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Énard will speak on the theme of “The Cupbearer in Hafiz’s Divan and Goethe’s West-östlicher Divan”. The character of the saki, the cupbearer, is one of the most important of both classical Persian poetry and the West-östlicher Divan. He gives his name to one of its chapters, “The Book of the Cupbearer,” which is the only chapter that Goethe’s Divan shares with its admired model, Hafiz’s.
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 After an historical description of the cupbearer as a fictional character in lyrical poetry from both East and West, and a short discussion of the sakinamé as a genre in Persian literature, we will explore the persona of the cupbearer in both Goethe’s and Hafiz’s Divans: who is the saki? Or who is she? Where does he/she come from? What drinks does he serve and when? Does the cupbearer participate in the feast? Is he a musician? A singer, maybe? And, more important: what kind of ebriety does he provide? Is the cupbearer an erotic or mystical character? “Come cupbearer, rise and serve us the wine!” .
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Mathias Énard, born 1972, is the author of Compass (winner of the Prix Goncourt, the Leipzig Prize, and the Premio von Rezzori, and shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize), Zone, and Tell Them of Battles, Kings and Elephants, as well as a translator from Persian and Arabic. His own books have been translated into more than 25 languages. After living in the Middle East for ten years, he now resides in Barcelona, were he taught Arabic at the University. Mathias Énard was a guest of the DAAD’s Berliner Künstlerprogramm in 2013. He writes a weekly chronicle about books in Le Monde newspaper in Paris.
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This event will be in English with simultaneous German translation. .
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To book your free ticket for this event, and to hear a podcast featuring Mathias Énard in conversation with curator of the Festival, Prof. Dr. Mena Mark Hanna, follow this link:
https://boulezsaal.de/event/a-new-divan/2019_11_18_1900

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Announcing “A New Divan” Festival – a celebration of 200 years of Goethe’s West-Eastern Divan, co-produced by the Barenboim-Said Akademie and Gingko
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. ‪18-20 November 2019
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. “To everything there is a season!” Goethe wrote 200 years ago in his “Notes for a Better Understanding of the West-Eastern Divan". Today we face another era in which the "West" feels threatened by the "East", by Islam, by the “Other,” by the unknown. To everything there is a season —and the season now seems right to attempt a divan for our times: A New Divan. Gingko and the @barenboimsaidakademie have invited leading poets, artists, and musicians from “East” and “West” to come together for a festival celebrating 200 years of Goethe’s West-Eastern Divan.
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The programme, curated by Prof. Dr. Mena Mark Hanna, Dean of the Barenboim-Said Akademie and co-produced by Gingko, is the culmination of a four-year collaboration between the Barenboim-Said Akademie and the publishers of A New Divan. A series of poetry readings, keynote lectures, and panel discussions will explore and elaborate Goethe’s themes. The three-day event concludes with a concert presenting different settings of poems from Goethe’s Divan, under the musical direction of Daniel Barenboim.
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A New Divan is a multi-lingual anthology of poetry, celebrating what we have in common at a time when people seek to divide us. It was conceived to mark the 200th anniversary of the publication of the original Divan. “This reimagining of Goethe’s seminal work gives us the opportunity to re-engage with his thoughts—a much-needed exercise, given the state of the world today”, writes Daniel Barenboim in his foreword.
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The festival programme is complemented by an exhibition and the screening of a documentary film featuring the artist and activist Bahia Shehab. Admission to all events except the concert is free but tickets are required. .
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See here to explore the full programme: https://boulezsaal.de/new-divan
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@boulezsaal
#berlin #music #art #activism #poetry