From the US to Frankfurt, spreading the Basque culture

The Bernardo Atxaga Chair, that starts today at the CUNY in NY with professors Nerea Arruti and Mari Jose Olaziregihas brought to the United States the director of the Etxepare Basque Institute, Aizpea Goenaga, and the Director for the Promotion and Dissemination of Euskera.
Mari Jose Olaziregi.

But the journey began a few days before. It was hot in Miami when they arrived there on  September 30, according to the chronicle sent by Olaziregi. The goal was to meet Sergio Andricaín, responsible of the Miami Book Fair, to be held in November, in order to arrange the details regarding the  participation of the Basque writer Harkaitz Cano: round tables, different activities ... The Consul of Spain in Miami, Cristina Barrios - born in Donostia, Basque Country- also received affectionately at her home the two Etxepare representatives, who also had the opportunity to meet some people in charge of the Dade College (which has 177,000 students enrolled).

From Miami to Boise. Many colleagues and collaborators expected them there : the highest academic responsible at the Boise State University, the provost Martin E. Schimpf; the Director of International Learning Opportunities, Corrine Henke; three faculty Deans; Adrian T. Kane of the World Languages Department and responsible of the Special Collections and Archives– who received the book donation made by Etxepare- and the teachers working in the department of Basque Studies of the University: Nere Lete, John Bieter and John Ysursa.

The Bernardo Atxaga Chair, that starts today at the CUNY in NY with professors Nerea Arruti and Mari Jose Olaziregihas brought to the United States the director of the Etxepare Basque Institute, Aizpea Goenaga, and the Director for the Promotion and Dissemination of Euskera.
Mari Jose Olaziregi.

But the journey began a few days before. It was hot in Miami when they arrived there on  September 30, according to the chronicle sent by Olaziregi. The goal was to meet Sergio Andricaín, responsible of the Miami Book Fair, to be held in November, in order to arrange the details regarding the  participation of the Basque writer Harkaitz Cano: round tables, different activities ... The Consul of Spain in Miami, Cristina Barrios - born in Donostia, Basque Country- also received affectionately at her home the two Etxepare representatives, who also had the opportunity to meet some people in charge of the Dade College (which has 177,000 students enrolled).

From Miami to Boise. Many colleagues and collaborators expected them there : the highest academic responsible at the Boise State University, the provost Martin E. Schimpf; the Director of International Learning Opportunities, Corrine Henke; three faculty Deans; Adrian T. Kane of the World Languages Department and responsible of the Special Collections and Archives– who received the book donation made by Etxepare- and the teachers working in the department of Basque Studies of the University: Nere Lete, John Bieter and John Ysursa. "The purpose of these meetings - indicates Olaziregi- has been to strengthen the presence of the Basque Studies and to ensure that they have a greater weight in the curriculum; we have much work ahead, but we will succeed”.  The day after they also met some representatives of the Basque community: Ana Mendiola updated them on the festival Boiseko Jaialdia and they advanced in a joint work proposal with Patty Miller, of   The Basque Museum and Cultural Center; finally, they also greeted Martin and Taylor, responsible for the Basque Center.

On October 5 they set out for New York, where, in addition to the Chair program at the CUNY, they have planned meetings with universities and cultural agents. On October 9 Aizpea Goenaga will travel to Washington DC to visit the people in charge of the renowned Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,  with the aim of launching a program focused on Basque culture. Meanwhile Mari Jose Olaziregi will move to the Frankfurter Buchmesser Book Fair where he will speak on the internationalization of Basque literature in the roundtable “National Literatures Revisited" ,  organized by the Department of Education, Language Policy and Culture of the Basque Government and the Association of Publishers in Basque Language along with Finnish and Swiss cultural organizations.

NEWS ABOUT THE VISIT on the Boise State University website

Picture 1: Aizpea Goenaga eta Mari Jose Olaziregi with Martin E.  Schimpf, Provost of the Boise State University and Nere Lete, of the Basque Studies Department

Picture 2: with Cheryl Oestreicher, responsible for the Special Collections and Archives

Picture 3: with the members od the Basque Studies Department of the Boise State University