Events

February 2007

African American Evening at the American Corner Features Poetry and History, Koper, February 20, 2007

In celebration of Black History Month, the American Corner in Koper hosted an evening of African American history and poetry.  John Withers II, an American diplomat, related the story of his father’s experience as the leader of an all-black convoy in Bavaria at the end of World War II who sheltered two Dachau survivors for more than a year.  “I think I identified with them very strongly and instantaneously,” John Withers Sr. explained years later why he had broken the rules of the segregated Army.  Intrigued by his father’s story, John Withers II decided to find what had become of the two Jewish prisoners.

Kristina KoÄ?an and Samo Salamon introduced their African American poetry anthology, The Talking Drum, and read selected poems in Slovene.  The Talking Drum was recently published by the Murska Sobota Literary and Cultural Society (Edicije Separatio) and includes poems by 21 contemporary African American poets: Naomi Long Madgett, Gwendolyn Brooks, Etheridge Knight, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, Lucille Clifton, Nikki Giovanni, Tom Dent, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Michael S.Harper, Ishmael Reed, Al Young, Quincy Troupe, Maya Angelou, Sherley Anne Williams, Yusef Komunyakaa, Rita Dove, Jay Wright and Clarence Major.

Samo Salamon, Kristina KoÄ?an, John Withers, and American Corner Head Breda BišÄ?ak

Kristina KoÄ?an and Samo Salamon read from their newly published The Talking Dru

John Withers tells his father’s story while Breda BišÄ?ak translates