Category Archives: poetry links

Явлението Воев П Канев за 30 май 25 Плакат11

The Dimitar Voev Phenomenon – performance and book presentation by Petar Kanev May 30, 2025

May 30 6:30 PM The Voev Phenomenon by P. Kanev at Art Bar 158 Between Bach and swing – an undiscovered, unknown, unrecognized or forgotten Dimitar Voev – come and discover and rediscover or remember him together in a performance with a presentation of the book “The Dimitar Voev Phenomenon. The Transformation of the End of the World”,

Dimitar Voev (1965-1992) is known to some as a “cult figure” of the latest Bulgarian culture; to others – as a musician from the late 1980s and frontman of the legendary bands “Kale”, “Wocek and Chugra” and “New Generation”; to others – as an inimitable poet and author of strange, “surrealistic” texts, defying genre definitions; to others he is almost an idol; and to many people he is actually completely unknown.

The spectacle “The Voev Phenomenon” on May 30, 2025 will immerse us in the inimitable poetic world of one of the brightest representatives of “alternative culture” in Bulgaria. And the alternative that Dimitar Voev embodies in his work and in his seemingly short life has already passed the “test of time” and continues to be relevant even after the end of the twentieth century, perhaps because in its essence it is “beyond time”. It stands for:
- painful truthfulness as an alternative to lies;
- radical honesty as an alternative to hypocrisy and amorality;
- boundless imagination as an alternative to stupidity;
- personal position as an alternative to the herd position;
- personal dreams (dreams and nightmares) as an alternative to “greenhouse life”;
- sarcastic to the point of absurd humor as an alternative to “stupidity on a throne”;
- the suffering in the soul as an alternative to soullessness and spirituallessness.
Contrary to superficial opinions, Dimitar Voev is not and has never aspired to be a “subcultural artist”. The cultural alternative that he defends and represents is Culture itself as an alternative to vulgarity. Although associated with legendary scandals and “informality”, as he matures he strives to achieve increasingly “serious” classical perfection in his art and as much publicity as possible in his appearances – concerts, festivals, interviews, sound recordings, videos, drawings, stories, poetry, drawings, strange surrealistic tales and photographs. The watershed of the change in his aspirations for self-expression is also directly stated on May 30, 1987 in his “programmatic” poem “New Generation Forever”: the goal is “to enter the cultural temple”; and at the same time, to enter there not alone:

,,I waited so long,
five, six centuries.
I am coming with you.
Give your hands, everyone!
Kneeling, standing, walking,
crying, real, flying.
Let us all together make
one Great,
who will enter the cultural temple.
And so, holding hands together,
we begin to howl
like a herd of hyenas,
which remained:

Always!

Always!

The purpose of my book “The Phenomenon of Dimitar Voev” is to draw attention to the “unknown” and “underrecognized” dimensions of a significant and unique creator of symbols, who has become both a symbol “beyond his time” and a cultural phenomenon of recent Bulgarian history.
Voev’s fairy-tale world humanizes by cultivating the spirit. But why does it happen that Voev becomes a phenomenon? What he has done so much, isn’t it the same thing that is characteristic of every authentic artist – including the completely unknown, and in general for every mentally and spiritually healthy person – and there are thousands of such. Why then did Voev become a cultural phenomenon? Maybe because of the peculiarities of his personality and character, maybe because of his great love, maybe because of his great misfortune, maybe because of the need to have just such a hero as Voev – and most likely because of all of this, taken together. And maybe it is also because of a howling prophecy, a testament from the future. Like every great Poet, Voev also has clairvoyant insights. But what is even more significant in this case is that he without a shred of doubt believed in them as a child – that is why they turned into truths. But it is hardly only because of that – it is certainly also because of personal morality, a worthy personal character. And the “probable improbability” is not excluded, as Chugra says in the film “Voev”: – “that there is such a thing as genius, I know.”
“Paper boats in the basin are jumping… Let’s give them freedom…”

We will hear an echo of his voice together – in a different reading, never heard before, we will immerse ourselves and experience his creativity and personality, and his dream, we will remember Words and stories that we seem to have heard and others that we haven’t, in images that seem to have dreamed, in thoughts that shake and shake the dormant feelings and make them dance – on the way to the horizon, “in the direction of the sunset”…

Beyond death. Something.

I

In an ancient manuscript found in a cave somewhere in Judea, it is written:
“From the egg of the sacred bird, as big as the sun, a boy and a girl will hatch. They will be brother and sister, man and woman, and they will mark the beginning of the new humanity. They will have a gender, but they will not know it and use it, because their meaning will be different. All worthy people will be their children, because they will not have children. Their names are Jon and Anna. They will be birds, but no one will know, because they will be human in appearance. Only one will recognize them and want to destroy them…”
Here the manuscript ends. Too bad.

II

- How will we know the end of the world? – the students ask.
- You will know by this, when Nature begins to prostitute herself
then the end has come – the teacher answered.
- She was rich. Enviably rich, he continued. But for a long time Nature has been progressively impoverishing. The time has come when she begs. She knocks from door to door and begs for alms. That is now. But people give her very little. Most of them simply reject her. They are so used to seeing her on television and on colored cards that when they see her at their own door they do not believe her at all and are rude to her. I met her on the street once. She looked quite bad. Dressed in old clothes with greasy stains on them, she was stretching out her hand. It seemed to me that most people passed her by. I passed her by too. Later I regretted it. I have never seen her again. Now I know that people are afraid of her. She is moving further and further away from them. The time will come, and this is certain because I have read it, but I will not tell you where, when Nature will start to prostitute herself. This will be her last attempt to become rich again and be with people. Then the end of the world will come.

Dimitar Voev, from: Beyond Death (1992)

Istorii ot Nevidimoto v Pernik Smachkano 1

“Stories from the Invisible” – poetic-musical artistic-educational series

The series of events entitled “Stories from the Invisible” started with 2 performances on March 9 and 10. The performance unites poets, actors lecturers and musicians on one stage. The initiative was taken by the poet and cultural anthropologist Petar Kanev, and the idea is for artists to get stage time for a more in-depth presentation of their ideas.

featuring: Violeta Zlatareva, Dimitar Petrov-Regin, Denis Olegov, Dimitra Kaneva (poetry); Violina Dotseva, Miroslav Moravski-Moro (author’s songs); arch. Gergana Stefanova and Ivan Popov-Ivo (Hellion Stone and Sdruzenie Stastlivetsa) – favorite songs for guitar and vocals; Petar Kanev (clever words and riddles) With the support of Shtastlivetsa Sofia Civic Association and the Place for Future Transdisciplinary Educational Network .

 

 

 

Radosveta Krastanova: My Place for a Future

Radosveta Krastanova:

I commonly argue with friends, students, and colleagues about the sense of being active in Bulgaria. The conversation – emotional, skeptical or radiating touching indulgence from my interlocutor’s side – unalterably comes to one point –

We, the Bulgarian, are good-for-nothing people, the most aggrieved on the Balkans, , our country is the most unorganized of all possible, our nature – the worst protected, the roads- full of pot-holes, our infrastructure and culture – beneath criticism, the education – antediluvian, the politicians – the most unconcerned and corrupted and so on and so forth.

Our compatriots are ignorant, rough-mannered, stuck in chalga-pop folk music; furthermore lacking initiative, unmotivated, and incompetent.

However, not long ago I had a similar conversation with two of my students. They were complaining against the ignorance in Bulgaria and just like Aleko, were asking themselves “Switzerland or…?” When I asked them if they were not a piece of the same picture, they started a heated argument – their parents were different, they had chance upon relatives, teachers, friends, they were born in good social environment, they had genetically set talents. I asked them if their negative observations concern me. “In no way. How could you even think of it?” My parents? – Obviously no – being my parents they have, to a great extent, formed me, to be the person I am now. I started to extend the range of suspects – named other colleagues, lecturers, my students’ relatives – here the answer was all the same: “We are not talking about these people; they are from those OTHER people… You know what we are talking about, don’t pretend you do not understand.”

It turns out that when it comes to being concrete, the conversation sinks in schizophrenia – those conclusions refer to the OTHERS, but not for me, my parents, and my friends.

And it is so because…

The Bulgarian as an individual is a measure of intelligence, resourcefulness and adaptability, of success and flexibility, but only when they are in another, well organized, standardized and cultivated environment…

The conclusion goes without saying – I am capable and gifted, the problem is either in the system, or in the OTHERS. The way to escape is to run. Run out- abroad, or run in – in ourselves, in the more and more limited circle of friends.

Our dreams reach the same – we dream how to escape from the reality in Bulgaria, not how to make it better. Because the way to live better in Bulgaria is to work together with the OTHERS, and to work with them we must have our own, but common project for future…

MEANWHILE…

A Bulgarian man from Sliven, chairman a of a local association, succeeded to prove expertly, that the water in the sewerage of the city is not suitable for drinking, because it is rusty, and for this reason unusable, and to go to law against the respective ВИК for discrimination against the population.

A few young people in love with the magic of Irakli, succeeded materials at hand, a lot of enthusiasm and twenty-four-hour dogged work (мостmost of the people hardly even realize the last of these things) to make the region a legend, their actions – a national movement, and the campaign “Save Irakli” – one of the few bright and significant symbols of the civil activity in Bulgaria.

A little civil association from a little settlement nearby Sofia, succeeded through a referendum to announce that it objects to go on living near a radioactive dung-hill.

A few organizations, associations, groups, and just citizens got over their differences, joined their efforts and created the coalition For the Nature

There are even more examples. What is nice, is that they are much more that we can even imagine. What is bad is that these people fairly know each other and this makes them weak and vulnerable. They miss a tribune, a meeting place, a room to share their experience, to talk about their problems and successes, to pass their message.

We decided PLACE FOR PUTURE to be this place. A place where students, lecturers, experts, lovers of nature, or just people with bright, active position, could meet each other. A place where good examples become visible. A place where, everyone, who is interested, can find information, learn something and pass it to the others, that way expanding the network of aware and active people.

We plan this place to settle in the university area, and to become a centre of information, discussions, debates, a tribune for the good practices, which medias hardly, rarely and tendentiously do (not) reflect. PLACE FOR FUTURE already finds its place in the educational programs of the departments, faculties, universities.

PLACE FOR FUTURE is a community of joint people, for whom the professional competency complements the civil expression, and the civil position creates bright personalities.

Our aim is to show, that among us there are people, living in the present, but creating future by their actions. People, who do not wait for the Good to come, but are happy with the timely, even small, actions. This way we will demonstrate that public society and civil activity in Bulgaria are not only a good wish, something living in politicos’ fantasies, but a real state.

We wish to make the island of public community a significant archipelago.

And my personal wish is to convince my students and colleagues to join this project, in order to extend its message and pass it like a baton…

There is an idea of succession, stability, development…

There is an idea of Future…

* * *

  • The Green Movement and the Green Parties in Bulgaria: Between System Integration and System Change

Petar Kanev – A Place for the Future? or Despite the Slops

‘The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were!’

John F. Kennedy

Petar Kanev

PLACE WITHOUT FUTURE?

I don’t know how to name, what happens with everything alive- souls, people, animals, nature- nowadays, here in Bulgaria, especially on the Black Sea coast. Chalga-Pop folk music, kitsch, ignorance, criminality, corruption – these words are weak, trite and insufficient to describe the disgusting reality we are sinking in. I think the most accurate metaphor is slops.

The slops gradually flood everything and everyone – words, people, Medias, towns, seas, and mountains. The least we can do is to state freely and clearly, that we do not want it! And this won’t be a little act, if we do it all the possible ways, by all the possible means – however and whenever everyone can, but what is most important – uninterruptedly and constantly, really all of us. I will start with a small act against the slops – something inmost. It is also a dedication to all the people, who made something despite the despair, the misery, the tiredness, the personal obligations, and the problems, and despite the slops.I wrote this text in the heat of the campaign „Save Irakli” in summer 2006. Since then my pessimism and despair become paler with every little thing against the slops, I do daily. This is the result, when someone makes something little every day, and in the little things originates a community of people, a common spirit, a common mood, a moving from one place to another…

PLACE FOR FUTURE

Not a dream, not a project, not a Utopia. A real existing place, where a lot of little revolutions happen… They start inside you, inside your head, inside your body, and your mind – and they come outside you, for example, because you are not alone, and ferry from one to another like a chain reaction, like the energy through the neurons.

When, a few years ago, the coincidence of circumstances throw me in a concrete problem, several consecutive lightening flashed across my mind:

It is not possible a nightmare like this to happen!

It is not possible such dedicated, worthy people to exist nowadays! Why I haven’t heard of them?

It is impossible these people to be so many! I have never imagined they exist, and they have been around us all the time! They are not seen in the Medias, nobody knows about them, who could imagine there exists a civil movement in our country?

How will I look upon myself, if I do not support these people somehow?

We are not alone!

Oh, what can happen! There is a magic, a good sorcery, the wonder is with us!

This movement is like the life, once entered it, the only way back is a suicide…

In a few years the PLACE FOR FUTURE sprouted and grew up. It needs a lot of cares, and we will probably not see the product of it. The care of it- this is the gift we get. And we need the place for future, because it can happen even on a place without future. And if the solidarity, active civil position, social connection among people are still a forgotten memory from the distant past for us, I think this can change, as we start from the beginning like pioneers, today- not tomorrow, here- not anywhere else. A lot of little daily examples, sustainable and constant, create the real communities of people, society, culture, politics, and development. Do they still make sense? Only they make sense. The sense of the mantra of sustainable development.

Everything started from the emotions and in their shock new horizons gradually spread out – the necessity of more common sense, more awareness, and more light. And the place where this can happen is the place where people learn and develop. A place where future sprouts is the education. What will this future be depends on each of us.

We often hear that every effort is useless, except from the effort to regularize your own life at the expense of the others, that there are no common values, but only objective occurrences. One common value however is inside us – the preservation of life. To defeat life means to be dead.

I am happy we have succeeded so far, and I can repeat my one-time words.

I dedicate this project to all the people, who made something despite the despair, the misery, the tiredness, the personal obligations, and the problems, and despite the slops.

   * * *

SEE ALSO:

D-r Petar Kanev – Models of Interaction between Ethno-Religious Communities in Central and South-East Rhodope Mountains (Bulgaria)

Dr. Petar Kanev – The Global Criminalization as a Local Problem

Kalin Nenov

Kalin Nenov – coordinator of the virtual campaign of Place for Future, translator, editor

Civic activity

: core member of the Human Library Foundation, creator and coordinator of MREDJAN (a civic action network), participant in “Ecological and practical” (a Bulgarian educational website)

Civic experience: volunteer in Green Balkans, For the Earth (Za Zemiata), For the Nature; participant in over 500 international environmental electronic campaigns; “specializes” in forest protection, climate change, and the role of personal choices

Occupation: translator, student

Academic qualifications: BA in English Language and Culture at NBU; currently doing a Master’s degree in Translation, again at NBU – European masters in translation also there.

Professional and non-professional experience:

here (in Bulgarian only)

Two words: connect, holism

Contact: kalin.nenov in gmail.com

МиниизображениеKalin NENOV (NBU, Shtastlivetsa)

The Human Library – Alternative Culture and Society of XXI Century 

lecture at the Traveling university and Summer school for sustainable regional development ‘Place for Future: Chiprovtsi 2013′ 3-9 June 2013 Chiprovtsi, Bulgaria