Climate Crisis and Ecocide
   PEN Cyprus

An imaginative event on the unprecedented climate crisis, which is heading toward ecocide is organized by PEN Cyprus on Saturday May 31, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. at the open Amphitheatre of the University of Nicosia. The event is designed with an environmentally conscious approach, ensuring it does not harm the environment, while sending a powerful message across all age groups: humanity must return to environmentally friendly practices, while emphasizing that culture and the arts speak to the depths of human soul in the same way that archetypal myths and ideas diachronically shape human history. The event aligns with the new EU Commission portfolio that addresses intergenerational fairness, youth, culture, and sport. Through the art of Logos, the event will bridge generational perspectives—from antiquity to the youngest children—who will carry the message forward to the future through their dramatized logos in a delightful performance.

The program will be presented by two children, Eleni Papathoma and Konstantina Antoniou, also honoring the International Children’s Day, 1^st June 2025.

Through a groundbreaking lecture titled The Earliest Paradise: The Origins of Ecological Thought in Antiquity, postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Philology of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Asterios E. Kechagias, will present the origins of ecological thought as they were reflected in the ancient world of the third and second millennia BCE, in texts of the earliest literate civilizations: the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia. As Mr. Kechagias states: “If one turns to the ancient sources that have survived to this day, they will observe that many of them speak of places of bliss or paradises. Every ancient people seem to have formed an idea of happiness and blessedness, which they associated with specific locations; sometimes part of known historical geography, and other times purely utopian. These are almost always described as peaceful regions with rich natural environments. These paradises were usually situated near the then-known boundaries of the inhabited world, and in some cases, they referred to long-past ages. Nevertheless, there is one particular paradise, Tilmun, that stands out and attracts special interest as it appears in Sumerian and Akkadian sources from ancient Iraq, which are the earliest written sources known to us to this day. Tilmun is, therefore, the earliest paradise to appear in written records. Given the inevitable connection between ancient paradises and the environmental perceptions of their time, the example of Tilmun offers a unique opportunity to study the ecological thinking of the earliest literate peoples, the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia. This lecture, taking Tilmun as its model and through the presentation of the ancient sources that mention it, will attempt to outline the beginnings of ecological thought as they were expressed in the earliest written documents of humanity.

President of PEN Cyprus, writer and poet Angela Christofidou will present some important efforts in the context of the synergies of culture in dealing with the climate crisis. On European level The European Green Deal and the European Climate Pact (in which she serves as Ambassador), and the green dimension of the Creative Europe funding program. At the national level, she will present the 2022 PEN Cyprus bilingual Anthology of poetry and prose “Climate Change and Ecocide”, and on the global stage, the coordinated efforts of PEN International, the world’s largest writers’ organization and its newly founded Climate Emergency Network. She will conclude with a reflection on individual responsibility in a collective coexistence and how culture, as beauty, once more, is called to save the world.

The event will reach its beautiful conclusion with a dramatized performance by children from Elena Demosthenous’ Theater Gym, a permanent theatre private workshop located in the beautiful village of Peristerona. The play, titled “The Earth Sends Out an SOS,” is a humorous, experiential piece carrying a strong ecological message. Through the voices of Earth and natural elements, the children tell a heartfelt story of environmental degradation, the despair of animals losing their habitats, and eventual hope, brought by the “Children of Hope” who take action for the development of a better planet. The grandparents’ voices play a key role, offering guiding wisdom from past generations. The play was developed entirely by the children through exploratory learning, creative expression, and theatrical improvisation, combining dramatic text, music, and symbolic imagery to promote environmental awareness and collective action.

All the material created for this event will be included in a special tribute by DIORAMA publications and the homonymous cultural magazine, which is published by the philologist, poet and publisher, Andreas Hadjithomas.

Asterios Kechagias is a postdoctoral researcher in the Faculty of Philology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) and also in the School of Ancient Language and Text Studies at North-West University in South Africa. He studied Theology (B.A. 2012), Biblical Studies (M.A. 2014), and contemporary German philosophy (M.A. 2016) at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he also received his Ph.D. in 2021. In parallel, he has studied a number of ancient languages at universities in Israel, Greece, and Italy, and specializes in intercultural contacts between ancient Israel, the Near East, Africa, and the Mediterranean, both in terms of religion and mythology as well as history and geography. His most recent study concerns the relationship of Heracles with the broader ancient East.

Angela Christofidou is a poet and author, President of PEN Cyprus and Chair of the PEN International Search Committee. She is also a member of PEN International’s newly founded Climate Emergency Network. For her efforts to unite culture and the arts in addressing the climate crisis, she is now an Ambassador of the European Climate Pact. She began writing poetry during her teenage years, and for her inaugural poetry collection, The Missing Dinner Guest, penned between the ages of 15 and 18, she was honored as New Writer 1989, by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus. In the realm of theater, Christofidou has co-authored plays using the method of Devised Theatre and is also adapting literature monologues for the stage, in all of which she also performs.

Elena Demosthenous holds a degree in Theatre Studies from the University of the Peloponnese and a Master’s (Magister Artium) in “Theatre in Education” from the Open University of Cyprus. A certified professional training instructor by the Cyprus Human Resources Development Authority and Kids Yoga teacher, she has over 15 years’ experience in Cyprus, Greece, and the UK. She has collaborated with the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Cyprus Theatre Organization, the Cyprus Centre of the  International Theatre Institute and has served as a theatre critic and member of official  theatre evaluation committees. For the last seven years, she has been running her own theatre workshop, the “Theater Gym” at the village Peristerona,  which focuses on the pedagogy and development of children through drama — an experiential tool that enhances communication, imagination and psychomotor expression.

PEN, the English acronym standing for Poets, Essayists, Novelists, later broadened to Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, Novelists, is the largest international writers’ organization in the world. It consists of more than 100 national centers, which act autonomously in matters of internal policy, administration, priorities and objectives, but always and invariably within the framework of the principles set by the Statutory Charter of this Amphictyony of Logos. Cyprus PEN has been operating since 1979 and its members are Cypriot authors.

Entrance is free of charge

The event is subsidized by the Deputy Ministry of Culture and supported by the University of Nicosia

Media sponsor: CBC