The prize is aimed at young people aged 18-25, who are invited to submit a poetic text of 2 or 3 pages or an up to 3-minute audio file in Greek, English, French, or all three languages by April 15, 2025, to the email: asso.konstantinos.graham@proton.me.

The winner of the award will be announced on April 24, 2025, at 8:30 p.m. at the Maison de la Vie Associative et Citoyenne (181, avenue Daumensil, Paris 12e).

INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION Konstantinos Graham Poetry Prize – Prix de poésie Konstantinos Graham

The "Konstantinos Graham Association" is organizing a poetry prize as a tribute to the memory of the young Greek-American poet and rapper Konstantinos Graham (1997-2017), born in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, where he went to school. Constantine passed away at the age of 20, leaving behind a short but promising poetic work that won awards in France and was published in Greece (I want to be an Angel, published by Aparsis, 2023).

The aim of the poetry competition - and of the association in general - is to motivate the participants, especially the young people, to express their experiences, aspirations, problems and needs through writing and art and to develop their artistic sensitivity and the capacity of active citizenship with a critical eye and intervention in society.

First prize: 250 euros or a ticket Paris Athens Paris or Athens Paris Athens

Second prize: 150 euros

Third prize: 100 euros

The Award Ceremony will take place on 24 April 2025 at 8.00pm in Paris at the Maison de la Vie Associative et Citoyenne (181, Avenue Daumesnil, 75012 Paris,12e). On the same occasion, the texts or audio archives of all participants will be presented, as well as poems by Constantine Graham, testimonies of people who knew him and musical works inspired by him.

According to theater critic and journalist Paul Ben Itzak (Paris – San Francisco):

‘This award reflects a mother’s desire to extend the life and dreams of her son and to heal the nightmares of other young people, which were also Konstantinos’ nightmares, channeling them into creation.’"

restart theater athens supports:

JURY:

Anastasia Politi - director, actress, FR

Philippe Blanchard -acousmatic music composer, FR

Marc Moreigne - critic, writer, FR

Aida Karanxha -translator, interpreter, FR

Stella Apostolaki - visual artist, GR

Eleni Karasavvidou - University of Ioannina, GR

Smaragda Papadopoulou- Mantadaki - author, Professor of International University of Greece, GR

Angeliki Kasola - director /Restart Theater Athens, GR

Irini Mela -actress / Restart Theater Athens, GR

Julie Ward - Arts in Education Adviser & former Vice-Chair of the Culture and Education Committee of the European Parliament, UK

Cecilia Woloch -director, writer, USA

Dominique Guilbert - social worker, FR

Michel Cassir -poet, university researcher, editor, FR

George Efstathiou -editor, GR

The Competition was announced during the successful presentation of the trilingual theatrical and musical staged reading production of Konstantinos Graham's book "I want to be an Angel" (GR, EN, FR) at Restart Theater Athens, on February 28, 2025, in Athens, Greece. This tri-lingual production was organized by RTA (GR) and co-organised by "Konstantinos Graham" Cultural Association (FR) and Aparsis Editions (GR).

Want to see photos and information about this unique musical theatre play?

Press here for the production Ï want to be an Angel"

The Konstantinos Graham Association was founded in November 2023 in Paris, France, by Konstantinos Graham's mother, actress/director Anastasia Politis and acoustic music composer Philippe Blanchard, in memory of the young Greek-American poet and rapper Konstantinos Graham (1997-2017). Its aim is to promote the arts and letters and to create bonds of friendship through the organisation of artistic events and cultural activities - in particular the organisation of a trilingual poetry competition entitled:

Konstantinos Graham Poetry Prize - Prix de poésie Konstantinos Graham - Poetry prize Konstantinos Graham.

The association may also propose the production of theatrical or musical performances, poetry events, the organisation of exhibitions, analogies, artistic workshops and seminars, the publication of books or magazines, lectures and public debates, screenings and other multimedia events.

Αssociation Konstantinos Graham

68, boulevard Soult, 75012, Paris, France

Tel : 0033(0) 601286648

e-mail: asso.konstantinos.graham@proton.me

I want to be an Angel

K.G. My Life next to you

The Performance in Athens

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS 15 APRIL 2025

Konstantinos Graham is no longer with us.

In his short time on earth, he left behind some beautiful writings—his thoughts on life and literature, his existential concerns, and a great poem in which he captured his anxieties, hopes, bitterness, and expectations.

A musician, actor, and poet, he was (for those who knew and loved him, he still is) a being full of ideas, clever and radiant. A highly promising and extraordinarily sensitive young creator, who, had he lived longer, would have amazed us with his work.

Konstantinos also had—how could it have been otherwise?—social and political concerns. Those who carefully read the book, where his mother, Anastasia Politi, actress and director, lovingly gathered his writings and many photographs of him, will come to know a wonderful young artist. Alongside his own writings, you will read the heartbreaking text by Anastasia, where, without exaggeration or sentimental ease, she recorded the story of her child and shared with us her soul—the anguished soul of a mother who saw her child fade away in her arms."

Maro Triantafyllou

Konstantinos Graham (1997 – 2017)

A young Greek-American rapper and actor who lived until the age of twenty between Paris, Montpellier, and California, with frequent visits to Greece—the last one in Tinos in 2016. He wrote songs and poems in three languages, read Plato, Epicurus, and Gandhi, studied the saxophone, and recited in French the lyrics of Pavlos Fyssas, Mattia Eckar, and Andreas Empirikos.

Konstantinos contributed to the documentary-theatre performance: "Pavlos Lives, Greece Resists," dedicated to Pavlos Fyssas, which was presented at the Antoine Vitez Municipal Theatre in Ivry in 2016 by the artistic group Irinna. As an actor-narrator, he participated in the performances: "Gypsy Poem" and "Song of Light," staged by the artistic group Compagnie Erinna in Montpellier in 2017.

In his writings, Konstantinos sought roots and meaning in life during the era of globalization, set against the backdrop of family breakdown, romantic disappointment, social injustice, and encounters with troubled youth. He searched for childhood innocence and the transcendence of limits. He expressed a thirst for love and freedom, for a sense of sacredness regardless of religion, within a relentlessly cynical world that creates suicides.

"Every now and then / De temps en temps / Πότε πότε"
is a trilingual poem by Konstantinos, which won the international poetry competition for young people aged 18-25, Mattia Eckar 2017, and was published in the “Anthology of Young Writers – Volume 9” by the Academy of Montpellier in Southern France, edited by Marie Gola.