CYPRECO to Present Folk Stories and Poems as Compiled and Published by Lucy Maroulleti

CYPRECO of America, Inc., launches the new year with a very unique program that will revive Folk Stories and Folk Poems of Cyprus which were compiled and published by the late Lucy Maroulleti.

The program will feature stage readings in English and in Greek from “Lucy’s” books, “Folk Stories My Grandmother Told Me” and “Cypriot Folk Poems – (900AD-1900AD)” by Elena Maroulleti, Executive Producer/Host of AKTINA FM and AKTINA TV and Polys Kyriacou, poet/lyricist; a mini-documentary dedicated to “Lucy” and a very unique musical performance with selected songs by great Greek lyricists and composers with the talented artists, Fay, vocals and Glafkos Kontemeniotis, keyboards.

Referring to the event, the President of CYPRECO, Ms. Elena Maroulleti stressed that, “the event will also pay a special memorial tribute to the late Lucy Maroulleti for her important contributions to the folklore of Cyprus and we selected February 17th because it coincides with her birthday. Furthermore, this year will also mark the 7th anniversary of her passing and we feel that we owe to “Lucy” but also to our Greek American community and to all New Yorkers who loved and admired her to share with them her work from these two very important featured books. We are certain that Greeks and non-Greeks alike will greatly appreciate this program because, no matter what ethnic background we come from, we all have similar folk stories and poems to share and compare. What is more exceptional about these two books is that the majority of the stories and poems which “Lucy” included do not exist in any other publication. More importantly, she is the first to have ever published Cypriot folk stories and poems in a tri-lingual format (Greek, Cypriot dialect, English) and for this reason her books are considered even more unique and incomparable. I wish to further stress that, the publishing of these two books was one “Lucy’s” lifetime projects and achievements. After years of research and hard work she was able to publish them and today they comprise an invaluable point of reference for anyone who wants to know about the folk poems and stories of rural Cyprus. To her credit, the Cyprus Ministry of Culture purchased many copies which they distributed to the libraries of all public and high schools and universities, to public libraries all over Cyprus, as well as to Cultural and Folk Arts Institutions on the island and abroad, including to all Cyprus Embassies across the world as valuable books to reference the Cypriot folklore”.

The event is offered with free admission as a public service and will take place on Friday, February 17, 2012 at 8pm at The Stathakion Cultural Center, 22-51 29th Street in Astoria, N.Y. 11105. All seats in the venue are numbered and a reservation is preferred. To RSVP please call 718-545-1151 or send an email to cypreco@earthlink.net. For more information visit www.cyprecoofamerica.com.

Brief Biography

Lucy Maroulleti, author, poet, playwright, translator, actress, folklorist and storyteller. The late Lucy Maroulleti immigrated to America in 1975 a year after the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus which resulted in the illegal occupation of her hometown Famagusta which is still occupied by Turkish troops. A co-founder of CYPRECO of America, Inc., the multi-talented and multi-awarded Lucy Maroulleti was recognized here in America as well as abroad and she will always be remembered for her many years of devotion to the promotion and preservation of the rich folklore and culture of Cyprus and Greece through her exemplary volunteer work with CYPRECO, as well as through her poetry, novels, plays, her acting (she appeared in several CBS soap operas), her storytelling and her award winning literary translations from Greek (modern to ancient) into English and from English into Greek. She translated many famous Greek contemporary poets, as well as ancient Greek plays and her work has been published in several newspapers and magazines here in the U.S., in Cyprus and England. Lucy held a Proficiency Greek and English Language Certificate from London’s Cambridge University.

Lucy’s published work is represented by a total of 11 books and two un-published works. As a translator, she has translated into Greek over 10 foreign playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, Terence Rattigan, Harold Pinter, Eugene O’Neill, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, John Steinbeck, Pirandello, Bertoldt Brech and George Feydeaux among others. She has also translated numerous ancient Greek playwrights into Modern Greek and into English such as Euripides, Aristophanes, Socrates, Plato among others, while she has also translated into English the poetry of several Greek and Cypriot poets.

The importance of Lucy’s books, “Once Upon A Time, Folk Stories My Grandmother Told Me” and “Cypriot Folk Poems 900AD-1900AD”: Lucy published these two books after conducting self-financed thorough research on the topics which spanned for over 10 years with frequent trips on the island of Cyprus during which she travelled from village to village seeking the famous storytellers, as well as the surviving elderly members of her extended family who were scattered all over the free areas of Cyprus in the south after they were expelled from the Karpass peninsula during the 1974 Turkish invasion and subsequent occupation of the northern part of the island and who relayed to her or further verified these folk stories and poems which comprise an integral part of the Cypriot rural life. Lucy was the first to collect, document and translate these poems and stories which survived orally through a span of one thousand or more years, and which have traveled through the mouths of mostly illiterate and older people. Lucy adhered to the text of the poems strictly without any adaptations or improvements. They are written in the original Cypriot dialect and translated into Modern Greek and into English. What is more exceptional about these books is that Lucy also included vital biographical information and references as to the origins and meanings of each poem and story, explanation regarding the phonetics of the Cypriot dialect, as well as information about Cyprus and its folklore.

As Lucy writes in her “Cypriot Folk Poems” book, “Most of these poems reflect true events when they were first created but with the passing of the centuries they were distorted, improved with fantasy and superstition until they reached us in their present form. They are to be read and enjoyed for what they are, the childhood of our race”!