Irena Wiszniewska
About the artist
Irena Wiszniewska is a journalist and writer. In France, she published Paroles dégelées, a collection of reportages about Lithuania. In Poland, she is the author of We, the Jews of Poland, a collection of interviews, and Nothing Is Impossible, a series of conversations with Michael Schudrich, the Chief Rabbi of Poland. She also practices street storytelling, creating improvised stories at village fairs in Podlasie, on the streets of Provence, in Madagascar, and in Odesa. She writes poetry as a way of engaging in dialogue with the world.
Author Talk: How I Didn’t Tell the Story of the Queen of Morocco
What happens when storytelling becomes a performance? What power does a story offered to a stranger hold? Join Irena Wiszniewska for a conversation about her book How I Didn’t Tell the Story of the Queen of Morocco—a literary journal of a fifteen-year journey that brings together reportage, essay, and performance.
The book began with a simple invitation addressed to passers-by: “I will invent a story for you, free of charge. No one else in the world will ever know this story except you.” From these fleeting encounters emerged a reflection on travel, attentive listening, and the relationships that can arise between strangers.
The meeting will explore storytelling as an artistic practice, performance as a form of encounter, and the ways in which chance conversations can become the starting point for extraordinary stories.