SERBIAN MONTH 2019

Serbian Month in Great Britain 2019

London, Coventry, Reading, Halifax, Leicester, Bedfrod, Birmingham, Tunbridge Wells, Millom, Berkhamsted, Warrington

The eleventh Serbian Month, was certainly the largest festival of Serbian culture on this island, and is a proof that our diaspora in this country is maturing and developing. Every year more and more organizations and individuals join the programme, covering an increasing number of cities across England. Program included 40 events organized by numerous organisations and individuals, held from 26^th January until 3^rd March, in 11 cities across England: London, Reading, Birmingham, Halifax, Leicester, Tunbridge Wales, Bedford, Coventry, Millom, Berkhamsted and Warrington. The catalogue included the programme and information about Serbian organizations and groups in England, British organizations that collaborate with Serbia and successful British Serbian academics, artists and athletes. The catalogue has proven to be a great way of finding out information about our community and is excellent promotional material, not only during Serbian month.

Serbian month began with the St Sava’s celebrations in Halifax, Reading, Leicester, London, Birmingham and Bedford with appropriate programmes that included performances by folk groups and pupils of Serbian language schools.

Aleksandar Djermanovic, pianist from Novi Sad performed in a packed hall with the Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Neil Thomas, playing Brahms Concerto No.1. Pianist Natasa Sarcevic presented Serbian, Armenian and Bulgarian classical music together with renowned violinist Yury Zhislin and cellists Joseph Spooner at St James’s Piccadilly.

The concert by the young guitarist David Strbac, a student at the University of Vienna and the winner of the SANU Award for the most successful concert of the season, was held at the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia, after the AGM of the Serbian Council. SCGB presented its work on the projects Serbian Month, Round Table and Serbian Language Course GCSE level.

Coventry, Belgrade’s twinning city participated for the first time in Serbian Month, highlighting the links between the two cities through visits to the Herbert Museum and city tours, including a visit to the Belgrade Theatre.

Holocaust Remembrance Day was marked at St. Sava Church in London by the Jasenovac and Holocaust Foundation, and included a guest appearance by author and journalist Rodney Atkinson and was accompanied by an exhibition. The Memorial Service for Women in Foreign Medical Missions during the First World War was followed by an exhibition and a lecture and was organized by Zvezdana Popović.

‘Untold Memories of Two Wars’ was the theme of an evening organised by SCGB, promoting the book ‘Memories of Siberia’ by Jovan Milankovic, a Serbian diplomat in Tsarist Russia. A documentary by Vesna Lukic about Jews who found themselves in Serbia during World War II, ‘Two Emperors and Queens’ was also shown. The Circle of Serbian Sisters organised a screening of a popular documentary film by Boris Malagurski ‘Kosovo: A Moment in Civilization’.

Svetlana Meiehofer presented Artem, a magazine on Serbian culture and art, with an evening of Serbian music, folk dance and film. Books by Serbian authors were also presented at the Mini Book Fair at the Serbian Library in London.

Fetch Theatre in cooperation with Serbian Council presented the comedy ‘Hitleria Pizzeria – an absurdist Balkan drama’ by John Knowles and other British actors from Hastings, while the comedy ‘Stolen Identity’ with Lane Gutovic was a treat for a Serbian speaking audience. The programme also included concerts by popular rock starts from Balkans, Bajaga and Goran Bregovic. ‘ Belgrade Party in memory of Olga Gakovic who died last year was held at Paya & Hoarse pub, while Around the Globe Music & Arts had a networking event.

The Serbian City Club hosted a lecture by psychotherapist Rialde Sebek, as well as ‘Coffee with…event’ with Impact Hub from Belgrade and Petar Savic from the Serbian Entrepreneurs organization, London chapter. A Teacher Training Workshop for Serbian language teachers was held by representatives of the Azbukum Centre, while young students of the Serbian school had an opportunity to gather at the Youth Forum and meet You Tube star David Vujanic.

HRH Princess Katherine’s Lifeline Charity Foundation celebrated its 25^th anniversary with a charity Gala Dinner. The movement ROD hosted Forum-Culture i Diaspora with representatives of Serbian cultural societies from Slovakia.

From this it is clear that, as usual the diverse program of the eleventh Serbian Month covered the rich and wide range of interests of our community.

Serbian Month 2019 supported by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region

Publicity links:

Mira Adanja Polak: Ekskluzivno – Važno je voleti (from 11:05 -21:02)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O891Ak32N88

Catalogue released: The elite of British Serb artists and organisations and the whole of Serbian Month ahead

http://www.britic.co.uk/2019/01/25/catalogue-released-the-elite-of-british-serb-artists-and-organisations-and-the-whole-of-serbian-month-ahead/

St Sava’s Day celebrated in Corby and Bedford

http://www.britic.co.uk/2019/02/05/st-savas-day-celebrated-in-corby-and-bedford/

Meet Youtuber “VUJ” at Youth Award initiative on Sunday

http://www.britic.co.uk/2019/02/26/meet-youtuber-vuj-at-youth-award-initiative-on-sunday/

Serbian Month keeps inspiring the right kind of headlines