The presentation of Albert Benbasat on March 21 marked the beginning of the new format for cultural events of the National Library “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” – “Ethnocafe”. The realization of the event is carried out under the project “Unity in diversity” of the program “Cultural entrepreneurship, heritage and cooperation”. At the event Tony Nikolov talked about Albert Benbasat – as a person, author and researcher. At the end of his presentation, he also focused on the collection “Lost Things” – for the humor in it, for the new role of the postcard, which the author puts in, and for the opportunity he discovered to capture time. Tony Nikolov also focused on the contributions of Albert Benbasat to rediscover the personalities of Andrej Protich and Stefan Tanev. The literary critic Georgi Tsankov also joined the audience, who shared his observations about the “Lost Things” collection: “The whole book says that the erotic theme of youth has turned into a nostalgic one, but one that reaches the hearts of young people.”
Albert Benbassat told curious stories about his path to teaching, books and traditions. He shared that there is nothing better than turning your hobby into a profession. He also said of his works of fiction that there is a lot of biographical but also a lot of fiction, and that he has already prepared a new book for publication – an autobiographical novel about his childhood, which he called an “old-school novel” – with the title “When the Big Become Small” . Related to the theme of childhood was the question of the spring holiday of Purim, about which Albert Benbasat shared what he remembered from his grandmother.
The event took place among the exhibition “Jews on the Bulgarian lands”, prepared from documents about the life of the Jewish community from the funds of the National Library “St. St. Cyril and Methodius”. After the official part, Albert Benbasat signed autographs and talked to his guests. Among the audience were Boyan Biolchev, Kiril Kadiyski, Nikolay Aretov, Emil Basat, Kristin Dimitrova, Kalin Yanakiev and others. colleagues, friends and creators.
You can follow the entire presentation from the video recording from the YouTube channel of the National Library “St. St. Cyril and Methodius”.
The next event from “Ethnocafene” is scheduled for April 12, when Georgi Georgiev – Gunter will be a guest.
