euskalkultura.eus

Liverpool, England.  The University of Liverpool will celebrate Iberian Week, dedicated to languages and cultures where Basque, Catalan, Galego, Spanish and Portuguese will be featured.  Juan Arana, Basque language and culture teacher at the university was in charge of organizing the Basque portion of the even with support from the Etxepare Basque Institute. 

The Basque events will begin on Tuesday with a poetic-recital in Basque by Kirmen Uribe and Mikel Urdangarin.  Augusto Bover will also join them and recite poems in Catalan.  The next event will take place on Wednesday, with a talk by Argitxu Camus Etchecopar whose talk is entitled “The Basque Culture and Identity in France.”  The talk will be done in English. 

A poem in twenty seconds

On Thursday the day will begin with a food tasting providing the opportunity to sample dishes from Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia, as well as Sefardic and Andalusian treats.  In the afternoon Xabi Paya, Basque teacher at the University of Birmingham, will give a talk on bertsolarismo.  Paya is also a bertsolari and he will use his skills to provide a very attractive and creative talk entitled, “Improvisation sung in Basque, or how to create a poem in twenty seconds.”

The events will end on Friday with a concert by Zea Mays, from Bilbao, one of the best-known Basque rock groups on the scene today, with the spectacular singing voice of Aiora Renteria as one of their hallmarks.  Alongside them will be the Portuguese flamenco group Misturado, and the Catalan group the Manel Alvarez Trio. 

-Complete Iberian Week program, here