In a tavern on Antiparos island, Iakovos Ragoussis, a veritable people’s artist, was a mind-blowing revelation for us. With an idiosyncratic identifying writing style and a very mature philosophy of life, he spoke to us about his art and his thoughts on living on the island.
Archaeologist Yannos Kourayos has been mainly associated with the excavation at Despotiko, the small island to the west of Antiparos, which came to prominence even before it officially opens its gates to the public. Indeed, this excavation, which began 28 years ago, and advanced despite numerous adversities, was destined to become his life’s work.
Nikos Malatestas is a low-key, serious and methodical person, with a deep love for Paros, committed to collective action and backed by a technological professional background.
Konstantina Andreakou has intertwined her life with the music and choirs of Paros. On the occasion of this year’s award won by the Archilochos Choir in an international competition in Romania, she takes us on a melodic journey.
The interview of Maroulia Kontou took place the day after the 1st Choir Meeting held by the Mythodia Conservatory. She was exhausted but exhilarated; she had managed to realize yet another plan, yet another dream of hers. Two highly competent mixed choirs had travelled all the way from Athens to meet the audience of Paros and, along with the choir of Mythodia, offer them a sensational musical evening.
6,885 nautical miles! That’s the distance that lies between San Francisco and Paros. That venture also comprised other, shorter journeys, but it mainly entailed a long inward journey for Dimitra Skandali which, thankfully, keeps on going...
Susan Daboll was a familiar face and name even before we actually met. I had noticed her tall juvenile figure pass through the Holland Tunnel Gallery, the old Azari house and I had seen her photos in an exhibition at the same space. The interview with Susan Daboll opened for me a window to two worlds: the world of the artist and the world of the wife of the late Takis Dimitrakopoulos who passed in 2020 and their home, the iconic mansion of this historic family, right in the heart of the town of Parikia.
At the heart of Drios, in a space that lives and breathes the sea even without facing it, Myrto Tabouratzaki has set her dream into motion: putting forward solutions that turn a mere dwelling into a home. And successfully so, as she carries fond memories of Paros while being open to what the future may hold.
Last summer was unlike any other. Paros unveiled its dynamic activist face by uttering a vocal “No” to the illegal exploitation of its beaches and every other public space. Behind that massive non-partisan movement that received media coverage all over the world is the Citizens’ Movement. One of its representatives, Mr. Damianos Gavalas, tells us about that strange summer...
We all know that fish is one of the most loved foods and, in fact, this has been so since the old days. What is not so well-known is that the approximately 300 fishermen of Paros have recently dropped to 200, and keep dwindling in number. As a result, in the summer, we here on Paros often eat fish from nets of unknown origin, unless we eat out at tavernas that have their own caique boat. But these are just a handful. A lot has changed in the fishing sector in recent years, and work has become easier, but the number of fishermen is constantly declining and the subsidies they receive are eating up their boats.
