On April 12, the second event of the new format for culture and ethnicities took place at the National Library “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” under the project “United in Diversity” – “Ethno Cafe”. Georgi Georgiev was invited to meet the audience. This is the first public appearance of the intellectual of Roma origin, who at the beginning of the evening shared that instead of “Roma” he will call himself “gypsy” because he was born as a gypsy and is not bothered by this definition. He told about the gypsy quarter in Byala Slatina, as he remembered it from his childhood, about the name Gunter, with which he was born and which was changed during the “renaissance process”, he recalled interesting and indicative events of his personal formation youth.
The focus of the event was education and the symbolic wealth it brings. Today, Georgi Georgiev is a bachelor in history and a master’s student in the Bulgarian Revival program at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. The conversation was attended by his scientific supervisor Prof. Radoslav Spasov, who presented to the audience the scientific interests of Georgi Georgiev.
From 2022, Georgi Georgiev is a postgraduate in Ottoman studies at the National Library “St. St. Cyril and Methodius”. He spoke excitedly about the experience this specialization brings him, as well as the opportunity to touch authentic documents from the Renaissance period. He also talked about the Facebook group “Bulgarian Gypsy Community – Meritocracy”, which he started by posting there to try to attract more people from the Gypsy community to education through his personal example.
The audience joined in with questions and impressions. Associate Professor Hristiyan Atanasov, head of the “Oriental Collections” Department, wished Georgi Georgiev to become a “doctor” and dedicate himself to the Ottoman Turkish language, as there are many documents in the Library that are waiting to be read and described.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Georgi Georgiev – Gunter on the YouTube channel of the National Library “St. St. Cyril and Methodius”.
The third participant in “Ethnocafe” will be the writer Eddy Rumyan. He is the author of the collections of short stories “Banitsa s Lokum” and “Last Chance”. The event will be held on May 10 at 6:30 p.m.
