Conferences

Sunday, February 24, at 11.00, at the NTB's Small Hall, Eugen Istodor will hold a conference on Lipscani - Travel & Party Guide. Ticket price: 16 lei.

About the conference

Come with me to my Lipscani! I will tell you about it as I know it best. I wrote the only book about the human part of Lipscani. Today, not even the disasters of the past that have terrified Lipscani, do not hold a great significance; they can only be gentle reprimands and pale rummages of our consciousness. But they talk about the issue and irresponsibility of those who have conquered the nowadays Lipscani with beaneries and music.

Come and hear what brings luck in Lipscani. Ascensions and decays, pride and bankruptcy standing wall to wall and so they grew together: the Royal Court and the shops from Lipscani. Traces of that world still exist. We can revive this bustle for worldliness by listening to the history of Lipscani and the royalty.

Because the Lipscani area gives birth to so many passions, we will revive its legends. From the cafes prohibited by Phanariots because they were breeding grounds for gossip and rumours there is only one left on Covaci Street. From the prostitution and bohemia on Șelari Street the story of Zaraza and Cristian Vasile is still vivid in our memories. The easiness of being was a delight during the interwar period: sirloins on the grill, the troubling wine and the easy women that could be found at every corner. This gaiety is prolonged even nowadays. Today and always the Lipscani area has its own law: the legend. Together we will see who and how the legendary Lipscani was spun.

About Eugene Istodor

Born in 1965, he graduated the Faculty of Letters at the University of Bucharest. He permanently writes columns in weekly magazines like Caţavencii and Dilema Veche. He taught interview, reportage and blogging classes at the Centre for Independent Journalism (1997-2002), he was a collaborator at Cotidianul (2004-2009) and he had his own TV shows at Realitatea TV and TVR, as well as shows at various radio stations.

He published the following volumes: Interviews against Nature (interviews with politicians), Nemira Publishing House, 1997; People I would Gladly Die With (interviews with ordinary people), Nemira Publishing House, 2000; The Lifers from Rahova (interviews with prisoners serving a life sentence at the Rahova prison), Polirom Publishing House, 2005 (nominated at the Union of Writers's awards); The Book of my Life. Şulea 31, N3, sc. 2. During Communism (oral histories from the Ceauşescu regime, gathered from the staircase of my childhood), Polirom Publishing House, 2007; Dictionary of Fixed Ideas. After 20 Years (analysis and synthesis of the facts and ideas that have animated the Romanian society from the revolution to the present), Polirom Publishing House, 2009; Lipscani. Travel & Party Guide (a peek into the past and the nowadays life of Bucharest's old centre), Art Publishing House, 2011, 101 Romanian Books to Read in a Lifetime (the history of Romanian literature in an unbiased and current selection), Polirom Publishing House, 2012.

Translated by: Izabella Feher