Prosvjeta Young Artists Club Vienna organized the Evening of Young Writers for the thirteenth time on Sunday, 5 November 2023, in the Viennese bar Kotor. Marko Sarić, president of the Viennese Prosvjeta, welcomed all the present, comparing this event to Serbian intellectual elite gathering in Vienna during the time of Branko Radičević and Laza Kostić.

This time, young poetry and prose authors presented their creations inspired by various topics of today. In addition, the program included humorous poems about male-female relations, youth literacy in the virtual world, and works reflecting critically on the current political situation in the world.

‘The most exciting part of the evening for me is when young poets read their original works, because thus we can better understand how they see the world around them’, said Miljan Milunović, one of the participants. He added that the Young Writers’ Evenings contributed significantly to the preservation of our native language, but also enabled networking of the creative people sharing similar interests – which was of particular importance after the time of the pandemic and social isolation.

The performance by a total of thirteen young writers was accompanied by the guitarist Ognjen Šuka, so that the audience, as always, enjoyed the synergy of music and the written word. The greatest impression was left, among others, by the poet Aleksandar Gavrić who presented a compilation of his and Balašević’s song Badnje veče by singing it with the guitar, and by Đorđe Despotović, a young student from Bijeljina, whose frank performance charmed everyone present. The Young Artists Club, as part of the SECS Prosvjeta, has been organizing the Evenings of Young Writers under the baton of Vesna Špirić and Uroš Uljarević for seven years. Since its founding until today, the association has expanded its activities to include painting, dancing and acting.

‘Soon we will premiere a poetry cabaret Deca dedicated to Đorđe Balašević and Mika Antić, directed by our member, the acting graduate Ena Pavlović’, announced Vesna. ‘I hope that the Viennese audience will love this play, as they loved Izbiračica or our author’s play Šta to beše ljubav’, added the Club coordinator and invited the audience to the premiere of this interesting musical, which will take place on 24 November 2023 in Vienna.

Source and photo: Serbian Educational and Cultural Society Prosvjeta Austria