Svetlana Alexievich To Open Intellectual Club In Minsk In September

According to the writer, the club will unite intellectuals famous in the world and in Belarus.

Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich’s intellectual club will start working in Minsk in September this year.

According to BelaPAN, on May 8, the writer spoke about her immediate plans at the master class dedicated to the art of reportage, organized by Press Club Belarus.

“I thought, that it was meaningless just to give money away, so I decided to create an intellectual club. There will be performances of intellectuals really well-known in the world, in Russia, Belarus,” – the Nobel Prize winner explained.

Meetings of the intellectual club will be held in the TUT.by gallery, which can seat about 250 people at a time. “I will be the presenter and the keeper of this club, because everything has to be paid for ... Anyone can visit it, no closed clubs,” – Alexievich said.

Russian poet, novelist, translator, linguist and ethnographer Olga Sedakova will be the first guest of the intellectual club, which opens a set of lectures in September. According to Alexievich, Sedakova is “the most interesting writer and thinker of our time.”

“She talks about the reasons why we are at the tag end of civilization, why things that are happening to us now happen, why a man who comes out of a camp cannot and will not want to be free tomorrow. Why a man finds it easier and more comfortable to be among banalities and mediocrities, he seems to be making no effort, as most people do tend to,” – Alexievich said.

She also plans to invite to a meeting of the intellectual club Russian film director and screenwriter Alexander Sokurov, known for his pro-Ukrainian position in the Donbass conflict. At each meeting, the writer says, the audience will also be able to wish which lecturers exactly they would like to hear. By the time of the club opening, it is planned to launch an official website, where one will be able to find out about the announcements of lectures and guests invited.