29 Mar 2019 CROATIA REDIVIVA – ‘ča-kaj-što’
TRANSLATED FROM AN ANNOUNCEMENT ORIGINALLY ISSUED ONLY IN CROATIAN
Selca on the island of Brač will hold the 29th all-Croatian literary-poetic review, Croatia rediviva ‘ča-kaj-što’. It will commemorate the 76th anniversary of the burning of Selca by the Italian occupation army (which occurred on the 9th of August 1943). This year Croatia rediviva will be held on the anniversary of that catastrophic day, on Friday August the 9th. It will begin at 9pm. Apart from Selca, which suffered the most and was turned into ruins, five other settlements on Brač were burned that fateful day in 1943 – Novo Selo, Gornji Humac, Pražnica, Pučišća and Bol. Despite the heroic efforts of the then Mayor of Selca, Ivan Štambuk, to prevent fascist burning, many beautiful stone buildings were completely destroyed whilst others were permanently marked. None of these settlements have fully recovered from the barbaric actions of that day. They are still small with numerous ruins, including some dilapidated palaces that stand as pearls to the stone-carving tradition.
The Croatia rediviva festival was founded in 1991 by Dr. Drago Štambuk [1]See his profile on our site HERE and it was built on the idea of a trinity of the Croatian language and its koinëization [2]koinëization is the merging of languages into one that is shared. The latter has been happening for almost thirty years. What has stemmed from Croatia rediviva ‘ča-kaj-što’ is extremely important for Croatian language, culture and identity. The event is supported by the President of the Republic of Croatia, the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament, the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Matica hrvatska, the Society of Croatian Writers and the Institute for Croatian Language and Linguistics. Its organizers are the Croatia Rediviva association, the Municipality of Selca and the KUD [3]KUD stands for Kulturno-Umjetničko Društvo, ‘Cultural-Artistic Association’ in English Croatian chapter. Every year a winning poet is selected and they are crowned with an olive wreath and they become the ‘poet oliveatus’. Twenty-eight such oliveati have had portions of their winning verses etched on marble plaques that adorn the Wall of Poetry, in Stjepan Radić square in Selca. The verses that will be preserved in stone are chosen either by the founder or the winners. Twenty-five oliveati have had their verses published in the Book of Olive Wreaths, of which there are five editions.
The oliveati are, in order, from 1991: Zlatan Jakšić, Drago Štambuk, Jakša Fiamengo, Božica Jelušić, Vesna Parun, Luko Paljetak, Tonko Maroević, Ivan Golub, Vlasta Vrandečić Lebarić, Slavko Mihalić, Dragutin Tadijanović, Zvonimir Mrkonjić, Petar Gudelj, Sonja Manojlović, Tatjana Radovanović, Mate Ganza, Joško Božanić, Mladen Machiedo, Milko Valent, Zoran Kršul, Igor Zidić, Ante Stamać, Branimir Bošnjak, Ernest Fišer, Veselko Koroman, Delimir Rešicki, Tomislav Domović and Zvonimir Sutlović.
On Friday the 9th of August, beginning at 9pm, the poets will perform at Stjepan Radić square in Selca, where there is a popular outdoor village market. The event will begin with a welcome speech by its founder Drago Štambuk which will be followed by a reading of the ‘Maslin’ poem by Vladimir Nazor (1876 – 1949). There will then be speeches by the Mayor of Selca, Ivan Marijančević, and other senior guests. The unveiling of the plaque of last year’s oliveatus, Zvonimir Sutlović, will follow, after which there will be an exploration of the work of Vjekoslav Jurdana (1967 -) as well accounts of Zvonimir’s winning verses and the performances of last year’s other poetry participants. This year’s recital will follow, after which there will then be a short music program, whilst this year’s winner is elected. Once the winner has been decided the founder will crown the 29th oliveatus with an olive wreath. Their name and a sample of their winning verses will later be etched into plaque that will be affixed on to the Wall of Poetry in the village.
Stambuk Association – Selca, Island of Brac, Croatia
OIB 55907686126
e-mail: info@stambuk.hr
www.stambuk.hr
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