Blogopmaak
Story in Cipher magazine
Soula Notos • 2 augustus 2018
"Searching for a different life".
In august 2018 my piece about the (in)famous Greek rembetika singer Sotiria Bellou appeared in the online American Cipher Magazine (in the special AMS edition). You can read the story
here.
Bellou was a woman who was very successful in the by men dominated genre of rembetika (Greek city blues) in the 50s and 60s. Her music is still being played and she is still admired by me and many others for her music, her strong willed character, her unconventional lifestyle and clothing, and her desire to live a different life.
"It's always your place to speak". My poem Your voice was published in the first issue of Word Pages in June 2023. I had written the poem for a demonstration during International Women's Day in Utrecht in 2021.
On January 15, 2017, writers across the globe came together for WRITERS RESIST, a “re-inauguration” of our shared commitment to the spirit of compassion, equality, free speech, and the fundamental ideals of democracy. Versal, in collaboration with Butcher's Tears, Structo Magazine, Stichting Reckoning, and a group of local activists, organized the Amsterdam edition, raising funds for Wij Zijn Hier (We Are Here), an organization that represents refugees in Amsterdam who are at the end of the procedural lines and have nowhere left to go. The pieces that were read on that night were published in a special Versal printed edition, called Louder Together. I adjusted a piece I had initially written for the kick-off of the Dutch We Can Campaign (a global campaign to fight violence against women).