Readers that donated money to cover the billion ruble fine of the Lohvinau bookstore were first joined by artists (weekly auction of their works ended yesterday), and now by writers, poets and musicians. Today, Zmitser Vaitsyushkevich gave a concert in the Gallery Y.
Yesterday in the gallery, Andrei Hadanovich gave a lecture on “How to be a poet without looking insane?” Today, the charity race was joined by the Belarusian bard, who not only sang the folk songs collected during ethnographic expeditions in Belarus, but also read fairy tales to the public. Zmitser, who has been collecting Belarusian folklore for many years, said that the search process has its own peculiarities: first, it is very difficult to make the village old ladies sing a song, but when they do sing, you cannot stop them.
The bookstore representative, Paval, said that today they have half of the required amount for payment of the fine: about 34 thousand dollars of the required 64 thousands. He also said that in recent days there had been an increase in donor activity. Apparently,they ‘held off until the last minute’. The bookstore is supported not only by Belarusians, but also by foreigners. Today, for example, “a tourist, who did not mention his name, came to the store and contributed money on behalf of the entire German nation”.
Lohvinau is hoping for a payment delay and is hoping to collect the required amount. In any case, the store will continue to exist at the usual address, as “it is already registered to another legal entity”.
The Lohvinau bookstore support marathon will last until the end of the week. Tomorrow, there will be a seminar at the Gallery Y titled Biographical Literature in Sweden and Belarus, and on Friday the Putin’s Book will be presented by its author,novelist Barys Pyatrovich.
