21st March - World Poetry Day
12.30—1.30pm Barbican Library Gilgamesh Retold
Poet Jenny Lewis takes a fresh look at the ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh Retold (Carcanet Press) relocates Gilgamesh to its earlier, oral roots in a Sumerian society where men and women were more equal, the reigning deity of Gilgamesh’s city, Uruk, was female (Inanna), only women were allowed to brew beer and keep taverns and women had their own language – emesal. Jenny will show how new ways of interpreting old texts can help us to experience them afresh and open them up to new audiences.
Free admission and no booking required.