University of Michigan/Department of Classical Studies Winter 2009 Newsletter MODERNGreek Program

“Rebetiki Istoria” Comes to Ann Arbor! by YonaStamatis

his is a tale of discovery of the finest reminded me of the original version I Kyriaki” (Cloudy Sunday) by Vasilis rebetika musicians in and an knew so well, recorded in 1948 by the Tsitsanis and “Frankosyriani” (Franco- Tinvitation to attend their first and two greatest singers of all time, Syrian girl) by , as only U.S. appearance on Saturday, Prodromos Tsaousakis and Sotiria Bellou. well as a selection of extremely unusual April 25, 2009 at the Stamps Auditorium With a sinking heart, I spent the rest of and difficult rebetika songs rarely in the new Walgreen Drama Center on the summer combing the city for rebetika performed today, including “Tis Arizonas U-M’s North Campus here in Ann Arbor. performed in the original style. ta vouna” (The Mountains of Arizona) by Giorgos Katsaros and “Ta mallia mou After settling into my Athens apartment Frustrated and disappointed and about ginan griza” (My Hair has Turned Gray) Mark your calendars last June, I rushed off to the Metropolis to give up hope, my luck suddenly by Babis Bakalis. I will preface the for a FREE concert music store in Omonia Square. I had just changed in mid-September, when a concert with a short commentary on the arrived in in order to start my friend, U-M Lecturer in Modern Greek history of rebetika and on Rebetiki Istoria, “Rebetiki Istoria” dissertation research on contemporary Panagiotis Pafilis, recommended including my experience performing Sat., April 25, 2009 rebetika performance, and I was eager I visit Rebetiki Istoria [Rebetika violin and tzoura (small-sized bouzouki) at 8pm to find recordings by current rebetika History], the oldest and best- with the group for a full eight-month musicians. Upon my arrival, I knew quite a known rebetika establishment in season. Stamps Auditorium bit about the history of the music: Rebetika Athens and home to some of the Walgreen Drama Center was a genre of urban popular song that greatest rebetika musicians of 1226 Murfin Ave had formed in the late-nineteenth and all time, including Sotiria Bellou, early-twentieth century in the major cities Takis Binis, and the bouzouki North Campus, U-M of Greece, Asia Minor and the United great, Stelios Soulyioultzis. Only

States; its basic instrumentation included here would I find live rebetika This is an evening the bouzouki (a six-stringed lute), performed in the musical form’s not to be missed! baglama (a miniature bouzouki), guitar original style. and voice; its lyrics were intensely sad, Sponsored by the Tsangadas Fund concerning the hardships of everyday I visited the very next day, and I life of the urban proletariat; throughout could not contain my excitement: The the twentieth century, numerous performers in Rebetiki Istoria not only governments and dictatorial regimes in adhere strictly to early-style rebetika ABOUT THE AUTHOR Greece censored and banned the music but maintain an atmosphere inside for not adhering to various Westernizing the establishment loyal to the original Yona Stamatis is a Ph.D. visions for the nation. I also knew that rebetiko culture. In fact, the owner Candidate in Ethnomusicology I had fallen in love with the music and and lead singer Pavlos Vasileiou is so in U-M’s School of Music, that it had provided the focus of my devoted to this original culture and Theatre & Dance writing a academic and extracurricular life since music that he refuses to sing in any other dissertation on “The Quarrel I had discovered it three years earlier. rebetika establishment in Greece! In of the Moderns and the Now I hoped to learn about the current addition, despite endless requests from Moderns: A Reconsideration state of rebetika performance in Greece: major record labels, he will not make of Greek Modernity through Do still perform rebetika and if his own recordings out of respect for Contemporary Rebetika so, does anyone still play the music in its the original proponents of the genre. Performance.” original style? Vasileiou is arguably the best living rebetika singer and his fellow musicians Scanning the shelves of the Metropolis are highly respected throughout Greece, music store, I finally decided upon three sought after not only for their stunning different contemporary recordings of musicianship and technical ability, but perhaps the most famous rebetiko song of also for their esoteric knowledge of all time, “Synnefiasmeni Kyriaki” (Cloudy the rebetiko culture and repertoire. Sunday) by Vasilis Tsitsanis. Tsitsanis It goes without saying that it is an wrote the song during the 1940s as a extremely rare opportunity to hear commentary on the German Occupation rebetika musicians of this caliber of Greece in World War II. The plethora perform outside of Rebetiki Istoria, let of recordings of the song did not surprise alone in the United States. me. What did surprise me however was how different these recordings were In its first U.S. appearance, we are lucky from each other: aside from the song to host Rebetiki Istoria at U-M. The concert lyrics and the basic tune, they had few program will include some well-known features in common! And none of them rebetika songs, including “Synnefiasmeni A Note from the

Coordinator ArtemisLEONTIS

C. P. Cavafy C. P. ow do we U-M Modern Greek faculty spend our eds. Vassiliki Kolocotroni and Efterpi Mitsi (Rodopi). Htime outside the classroom? After we have taught, advised, supervised, recommended, organized, and “An American in Paris, a Parsi in Athens,” in Singular professed, we shore up the precious remainder of Antiquity: Archaeology and Hellenic Identity in our time for research. Here’s a brief summary of our Twentieth-Century Greece, eds. Dimitris Plantzos and C.P. Cavafy Professor, professional and research activities in 2007-2008. Dimitris Damaskos (Benaki Museum). y great grandfather, Louis Zapantis, Stepping off the airplane onto Cretan Greece exists not only as an image of that Professor of Classical Studies & came to the United States from ground to a view of the Aegean in the timeless natural beauty, but as a state of Vassilis Lambropoulos M Comparative Literature serves on the editorial Beyond teaching six language courses in Modern Cephalonia looking for work at the age spring of 2008 was one of the most mind. Why must we spend our lives bustling Panagiotis Pafilis Vassilis Lambropoulos and advisory boards of five scholarly journals Greek, , who is also Research of 19. He spent the rest of his life running relieving, reviving experiences I have ever about, constantly in a hurry and anxious representing three continents: The Journal of Fellow in the U-M School of Natural Resources restaurants in a very Greek area of New had. The trip to Greece could not have about all of the things that must get done Associate Professor of Modern Greek Studies and Diaspora: A Journal of and Environment, researches lizards of the family York, where my grandmother was raised come at a better time for me. This was the and all of the places we need to be, while Modern Greek Studies & Transnational Studies (both American); Gramma: A Lacertidae on small, rocky islets of the Mediterranean. and learned her father’s native language. beginning of three beautiful summer months others are content sitting at a kafeneio for Coordinator of Modern Greek Journal of Theory & Criticism; Historein: A Review of Many endemic lizard species exist in the Aegean, By the time she grew up and had children of of catching bats in the mountains, swimming five hours playing with a komboloi? Why the Past (both Greek); and Thesis Eleven (Australian). thanks to the impressive number of islands and Artemis Leontis her own, however, she forgot the language in the sea, conducting field research in has it become so hard to enjoy the simplest He was reelected Vice President of the Executive astonishing variety of habitats. Among the traits Pafilis of her ancestors, and was strangely able protected marine and geological parks, of pleasures, to fully appreciate how Board of the Modern Greek Studies Association. studies is caudal autotomy: lizards’ ability to shed to understand it only in her dreams. As and wandering the islands in search of amazing a mediocre beer can taste after a Lecturer in Modern Greek He is writing a book on hubris. His articles of their tail deliberately so as to escape a predator’s Panagiotis Pafilis my great grandfather was the only Greek what I had not yet realized was my own lost relaxing bath in crystal blue water? Greece 2007-8 are: attack. Because the shed tail thrashes vigorously immigrant and last full-blooded Greek in identity. has given me the most relaxing days I have (the motion is fueled by anaerobic metabolism) for my family tree, virtually all cultural ties to ever known in my life by far, and to be able Public Relations Coordinator & “Stumbling over the ‘Boundary Stone of Greek prolonged period, it also distracts the predator. his island home disappeared within two Over the course of the summer, I participated to relive that experience daily through an Newsletter Designer/Editor Philosophy’: Two Centuries of Translating the Pafilis’s research group has discovered that island generations, long before I was born. in the internship that had brought me to adjustment in my own mentality has been Kimberly Johnson Anaximander Fragment,” in Justice in Particular: populations show different levels of tail shedding, Greece. I spent a good portion of my one of the most important lessons I have Festschrift in Honour of Professor P. J. Kozyris, ed. depending on predation pressure. Tail regeneration I grew up disconnected from any ethnic evenings searching for bats, exploring ever learned. Head Librarian, Anastasia Grammaticaki-Alexiou (Ant. N. Sakkoulas). is also contingent on the same pressure. Lizards have background or homeland, knowing only just a miniscule fraction of the over five Slavic & East European Division the capacity to regain a fully functional tail in a that my ancestors had produced an Irish, thousand caves that exist in the mountains Hatcher Graduate Library “Governance, Hubris, and Justice in Modern Tragedy,” few weeks, but the exact time varies. By measuring Scottish, English, French, and Greek mutt in and gorges of Crete. My research was Janet Crayne Thesis Eleven 93 (May 2008). the time of regeneration, the group has discovered this melting pot we call America. My first volunteer work for a man writing his PhD that under circumstances of high predation lizards real encounter with anything Greek can be thesis on echolocation calls of Cretan “What Happened to Theory?” U-M Humanities accelerate tissue repair. Pafilis and his colleagues’ attributed to my neighbors, whose families bat species for the University of Crete World Wide Web Address Institute website https://www.lsa.umich.edu/UofM/ molecular analysis of lizard DNA aims to clarify the http://www.lsa.umich.edu/modgreek are from Chios and Cyprus. It always Natural History Museum. The goal was to Content/humin/document/High_Theory.pdf. evolutionary story of Aegean lizards. intrigued me to observe their seemingly use a device to record the ultrasounds of Regents of the University over-exaggerated sense of identity and bat echolocation calls in Crete in order to “The Rehearsal of Antiquity in Post-modern Greek Pafilis co-organized with Prof. E. Valakos (University unity with other Greeks, or to hear their construct a call library. This databank could Julia Donovan Darlow, Ann Arbor th Fiction,” in A Singular Antiquity: Archaeology and of Athens) the 6 International Symposium on the conversations continuously shifting from later be used for species identification, Laurence B. Deitch, Bingham Farms Hellenic Identity in Twentieth-Century Greece, eds. Lacertids of the Mediterranean Basin (June 2008, English to Greek and back again. habitat management and conservation Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms Dimitris Plantzos and Dimitris Damaskos (Benaki Lesvos) and presented a total of 16 scientific purposes. The internship gave me an Olivia P. Maynard, Goodrich Museum). collaborative contributions in international and My freshman year of college I had to make opportunity to gain first-hand experience in Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor national meetings. a choice: what did I want to learn as my my own field of ecology while at the same Artemis Leontis Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park serves on the Editorial Board of next language? I had already learned time expanding my linguistic capabilities S. Martin Taylor, Grosse Pointe Farms the Journal of Modern Greek Studies. With Elsa In 2008 he co-authored with E.D. Valakos, K. Spanish quite well and wanted to take on a to a much greater extent than I could have Amanatidou and George Syrimis, she co-organized Sotiropoulos, P. Lymberakis, P. Marangou, J. Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor third. Being somewhat of a linguist at heart, imagined. I learned to communicate in the “Modern Teaching Workshop” Foufopoulos the book, Reptiles and Amphibians of Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio) I have always had a desire to learn as Greek not just on everyday matters but also at the Yale University Center for Language Study Greece (Frankfurt am Mainz: Chimaira Publications). many languages as possible. I believe that in the specialized language of my field of (November 2008). He also published four co-authored papers in thought processes are largely dominated study. More than this, I learned to perceive The University of Michigan, as an equal international scientific journals: opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies by our internal dialogue, which is nearly the world differently. She has completed the book Culture and Customs with all applicable federal and state laws impossible to escape from yet so important of Greece, forthcoming in the series, “Culture and “Post autotomy tail activity in Balearic wall lizard, regarding non-discrimination and affirmative in our everyday survival. The ability to As the intense Mediterranean sun sets over Customs of Europe”, (Greenwood Press, Spring Podarcis lilfordi,” Naturwissenschaften 95 (3): action, including Title IX of the Education speak any language is a gateway to an the Aegean and the rocky landscape of Amendments of 1972 and Section 504 of the 2009). This one-stop reference book weaves vignettes 217-221. expansion of the mind’s capacity to express the Greek countryside fades to shades of Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The University of contemporary Greek life into its examination of itself and perceive the surrounding world. I purple, the exotic beauty of the region “ of Michigan is committed to a policy of non- geography, demographics, history, religion, society, Restriction of caudal autotomy during life in Balkan wanted to learn a language to which I could illustrates why Greece has been able to discrimination and equal opportunity for all leisure, food, language, literature, music, dance, green lizard (Lacerta trilineata),” Journal of Natural trace some of my own roots, and so decided evoke spiritual and artistic rebirth in people persons regardless of race, sex, color, religion, festivals, media, theatre, cinema, modern art, History 42 (5-8): 409-419. to learn Modern Greek. all over the world throughout history. To me, creed, national origin or ancestry, age, marital and architecture. In 2008 Leontis published three status, sexual orientation, disability, or Vietnam articles: “Physiology of original and regenerated tails in era veteran status in employment, educational Cycladian Wall Lizard (Podarcis erhardii),” Copeia programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries “Greek American Identity: What Women’s Handwork (3): 504-509. or complaints may be addressed to the University’s Tells Us,” in Hellenisms: Perceptions of Greek Ethnicity Director of Affirmative Action and Title IX/Section from Antiquity to Modern Times, ed. Katerina Zacharia “Identification of polymorphic microsatellite loci in 504 Coordinator, 4005 Wolverine Tower, Ann (Ashgate). Podarcis gaigeae and Podarcis hispanica (Squamata: Arbor, Michigan 48109-1281, (734) 763-0235; Lacertidae) and assessment of their utility in three TTY (734) 647-1388. For other University of “Eva Palmer’s Distinctive Journey,” in Women Writing other Podarcis species,” Molecular Ecology Resources Michigan information call (734) 764-1817. Greece: Essays on Hellenism, Orientalism, and Travel, 8: 1367-1370.

~ 2 ~ My Greece by ScottBRENTON

y great grandfather, Louis Zapantis, Stepping off the airplane onto Cretan Greece exists not only as an image of that Mcame to the United States from ground to a view of the Aegean in the timeless natural beauty, but as a state of Cephalonia looking for work at the age spring of 2008 was one of the most mind. Why must we spend our lives bustling About the Author of 19. He spent the rest of his life running relieving, reviving experiences I have ever about, constantly in a hurry and anxious Scott Brenton is pursuing restaurants in a very Greek area of New had. The trip to Greece could not have about all of the things that must get done a B.A. in the Program in York, where my grandmother was raised come at a better time for me. This was the and all of the places we need to be, while the Environment and in and learned her father’s native language. beginning of three beautiful summer months others are content sitting at a kafeneio for Spanish and a Minor By the time she grew up and had children of of catching bats in the mountains, swimming five hours playing with a komboloi? Why in Modern Greek. her own, however, she forgot the language in the sea, conducting field research in has it become so hard to enjoy the simplest of her ancestors, and was strangely able protected marine and geological parks, of pleasures, to fully appreciate how to understand it only in her dreams. As and wandering the islands in search of amazing a mediocre beer can taste after a my great grandfather was the only Greek what I had not yet realized was my own lost relaxing bath in crystal blue water? Greece immigrant and last full-blooded Greek in identity. has given me the most relaxing days I have my family tree, virtually all cultural ties to ever known in my life by far, and to be able his island home disappeared within two Over the course of the summer, I participated to relive that experience daily through an generations, long before I was born. in the internship that had brought me to adjustment in my own mentality has been Greece. I spent a good portion of my one of the most important lessons I have I grew up disconnected from any ethnic evenings searching for bats, exploring ever learned. background or homeland, knowing only just a miniscule fraction of the over five that my ancestors had produced an Irish, thousand caves that exist in the mountains Scottish, English, French, and Greek mutt in and gorges of Crete. My research was this melting pot we call America. My first volunteer work for a man writing his PhD real encounter with anything Greek can be thesis on echolocation calls of Cretan attributed to my neighbors, whose families bat species for the University of Crete are from Chios and Cyprus. It always Natural History Museum. The goal was to intrigued me to observe their seemingly use a device to record the ultrasounds of over-exaggerated sense of identity and bat echolocation calls in Crete in order to unity with other Greeks, or to hear their construct a call library. This databank could conversations continuously shifting from later be used for species identification, English to Greek and back again. habitat management and conservation purposes. The internship gave me an My freshman year of college I had to make opportunity to gain first-hand experience in a choice: what did I want to learn as my my own field of ecology while at the same next language? I had already learned time expanding my linguistic capabilities Spanish quite well and wanted to take on a to a much greater extent than I could have third. Being somewhat of a linguist at heart, imagined. I learned to communicate in I have always had a desire to learn as Greek not just on everyday matters but also many languages as possible. I believe that in the specialized language of my field of thought processes are largely dominated study. More than this, I learned to perceive by our internal dialogue, which is nearly the world differently. impossible to escape from yet so important in our everyday survival. The ability to As the intense Mediterranean sun sets over speak any language is a gateway to an the Aegean and the rocky landscape of expansion of the mind’s capacity to express the Greek countryside fades to shades of itself and perceive the surrounding world. I purple, the exotic beauty of the region wanted to learn a language to which I could illustrates why Greece has been able to trace some of my own roots, and so decided evoke spiritual and artistic rebirth in people to learn Modern Greek. all over the world throughout history. To me,

Acknowledging Ou r Do n o r s • Drs. Anthony and Joyce Kales – Endowment Gift • Dr. Dimitri and Irma Pallas – Annual Gift • Foundation for Modern Greek Studies – Annual Gift • Dr. Denny and Sally Stavros – Annual Gift • Greek Ministry of Culture – Annual Gift & Gift in Kind • Angela Evangelino – Outright Gift • Irene and Thomas Christy – Annual Gift • George and Hionia Mortis – Outright Gift

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NEWS&EVENTS

Al u m n i Af f i l i a t e d Fa c u l t y Aw a r d s

Peter Hasiakos (2007 BA Physics, Modern Greek Minor) Traianos Gagos, U-M Professor of Papyrology and Greek, has received the 2008 “After graduating in 2007, I pursued a year-long M.A. in Education with University Librarian Achievement Award. As Archivist of the Papyrology Collection Certification from the Secondary MAC Program in the U-M School of Education. I at the University Library, one of the largest collections of ancient papyri in the started working this fall as a Physics Teacher at the Oak Park & River Forest High world, Professor Gagos has greatly expanded the Collection’s value as a resource School (suburb of Chicago IL).” for U-M and beyond by making the collection available for use in teaching and research locally, nationally, and internationally. He has also broken new ground Erin Mays (2002 BA History, Modern Greek Minor) in the use of information technologies for the study of ancient documents. Thanks “I’ve just returned home to Chicago to serve as Public Relations Manager of Central to Professor Gagos’s ongoing efforts, U-M is one of the best places in the world Region for Grubb & Ellis Company, a leading commercial real estate services and to study ancient papyri. In the international community of papyrologists, Professor investment firm. Prior to this role, I was the Marketing Manager in the Company’s Gagos is known as a leader and outstanding scholar. Detroit office. I was one of the first two students to graduate with a Modern Greek Minor, and with support from the Program, interned in the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, where my career in public relations began.” St u d e n t Aw a r d s

Jimmy Roumanis (2003 BA Economics, Modern Greek Minor) Nelly Papalambros – Modern Greek Program Scholarship– “I joined Colliers International Commercial Real Estate in Boise, Idaho in Kales and Foundation for Modern Greek Studies Fund November 2007. I specialize in land acquisition and sales: site selection, land Study abroad in Greece at the College Year in Athens Program for the Winter consulting, contract negotiations, Buyer Representation, Seller Representation, and Semester 2009 Development services.” Courses of Study: Greek culture and politics

Niki Serras (2006 BA Modern Greek) Yona Stamatis – Modern Greek Program Scholarship – Kales Fund “After working and studying in Athens, Greece for 1 ½ years I returned home Hydra Rebetiko Conference – October 16 - 19, 2008 on Thanksgiving 2007 and am currently employed at the University of Michigan Depression Center, where I am Project Coordinator for an initiative to develop a Natalie Bakopoulos – Modern Greek Program Scholarship – Kales Fund Study abroad in Athens – Immersion Modern Greek Language Course National Network of Depression Centers.” ModernGreek Program • Winter 2009 Events For more on these events, visit our web site: www.lsa.umich.edu/modgreek

January 27, 2009 • 4pm • 2175 Angell Hall: Mediterranean Modernisms: Towards a New Mediterranean Identity Professor Marinos Pourgouris, Brown University, Comparative Literature Co-sponsored by Comparative Literature

February 10, 2009 • 7pm March 19, 2009 • 5pm lIVE IN ANN aRBOR Modern Languages Building Residential College Auditorium, E. Quad Lecture Room 1 from Athens 701 E. University, Central Campus, U-M 812 East Washington Central Campus, U-M Ludlow Rebetiki Istoria First Time Greek miners struggle A concert of urban popular Greek songs in Colorado in Godfather the 1910s Film Screening & Q&A Session Author Reading with screen writer, and Signing by Nicholas Papandreou David Mason Free & Open to the Public Colorado College

Suitable for all ages Co-sponsored by the U-M MFA Program

7th Annual Dimitris & Irma Pallas Modern Greek Lecture April 25, 2009 Painting and Politics in Romantic Hellenism at 8pm Stamps Auditorium Dr. Fani-Maria Tsigakou Walgreen Drama Center Curator of the Collection of Paintings, Drawings and Prints 1226 Murfin Ave, North Campus, U-M at the Benaki Museum in Athens FREE & Open March 31, 2009 • 7PM to the Public Vandenberg Room, Michigan League 911 N. University

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