“In the American and the global context, Mekas is firstly remembered as the master of an avant-garde cinema, perhaps even more as an organizer, curator, and critic of that cinema. In the Lithuanian linguistic and cultural environment, he has another dimension, which is little known abroad, but is important – he is a poet. And here he is in no way inferior to the filmmaker” – Tomas Venclova.

The Publishing house “Odilė“ starts a series of selected writings by Jonas Mekas with the first volume “Jonas Mekas. Poezija” focused on the poetry of this artist. Authorized by his son Sebastian, a collection of selected works is compiled by the director and poet, friend and collaborator of Jonas Mekas, Julius Ziz (Žižliauskas). Accompanying words were written by the poet, literary critic prof. Tomas Venclova and musicologist, art critic prof. Vytautas Landsbergis, while the poems by Jonas Mekas written in English were translated into Lithuanian by the poet Kornelijus Platelis.

Follow the link here for more information on this volume.