Sophia Kouidou-Giles

‘… And I screech ToWho, ToWho, but no one listens to me…’ A Monologue
TRANSLATED BY Sophia Kouidou-Giles
Searching for contact with the mighty, wise creature of the forest, the owl, Karina Ioannidou captures the spirit of our lockdown days in a tangle of myth and imagery. This is an ‘excursion’ from a world of isolation, where the wanderer craves connection. The yearning is expressed inventively and poignantly. The narrator turns to an interaction with the owl, a significant ancient Greek symbol of wisdom, in a hide-and...

Relief and sunshine came pouring through on the morning of November 7, 2020, in contrast to the anxiety and distress people felt watching the election results delivered by the news networks in the United States. It turned out to be a day of victory for a new administration, a day we regained hope that the country will begin to rebuild and make gains facing its problems. People celebrated in the streets with cheers, fireworks and church bells rang around the world welcoming Joe Biden and Kamal...

Guidance for forming writing habits: For a writer, staying home is not much of a change to my routine during the coronavirus pandemic. On most days when I abide by my usual habits, writing fits in during the morning hours, right after the first cup of coffee. I enter that space, a time capsule where I have gathered my craft tools and settle in. For me, regular hours are as necessary as reading, and inspiration, as is a keyboard or pen/paper and an eraser.

Two months earlier, Aunt Marika had decided her father wanted to kill her.
My sweet grandpa? … How could she think that!
I shared my worries with my friend, Efi. ‘Her parents sent her away again. Mother said she should be out soon. Maybe next week.’ Efi and I agreed to pay Marika a visit before she was discharged. It was my hope to see her back home, and I dared to dream that the asylum staff would let us take her home with us.
It was 1964. We chose a school day to meet at the rural bus termi...

Today’s America is a country occupied by hostile forces that have been bringing down our civil liberties. The protests that emerged following George Floyd’s senseless death reveal how authoritarian policing and falsified reports have been a cover up to the violence that poisons our fragile democracy. Videos by eyewitnesses capturing police brutality have made the case and we realize that we have gotten acclimatized to chokeholds, tear gas and other dangerous practices. Our complicity is in pa...

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020
Sept 18, 2020 is a dark day for the country. It is the day Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at the age of 87, of metastatic pancreatic cancer. She has been our warrior for equality on the Supreme Court bench, our defender of equal rights. I joined the nation mourning the loss of a brilliant legal mind, sharing a sense of desperation for what now seems the loss of an enlightened person with a point of view not likely to be replaced. She has been...

The days that ought to be the same felt different, and all that because the coronavirus lockdown is here. When the pandemic started, obsessively listening to news, radio and tv, and reading informative articles soon turned exhausting as I began attending to all recommended cautions. At first the beginning the guidance seemed simple, but soon questions arose. Could I turn the faucet off after soaping my hands without touching it again? What about delivery packages? Did they need to be sanitize...

August was the month of political conventions in the United States, a time when parties put on their best accomplishments and vision for the future, while emphasizing the deficiencies of the opposing party. This year’s virtual coronavirus version has televised the usual basic agenda that ends with the acceptance speech of the nominee. Although devoid of the pomp and circumstance that the adrenalin enthusiastic delegates contributed in the past, the events have featured the famous, the lesser ...

Memoir writers can be an assembly of refugees that keep away from what they want to avoid recalling, until they tackle it, like alcoholics in AA meetings, until they trust themselves to explore, research, seek truths and receive the gift of resolution. The challenges they face come from provoking the past, digging into stories about conflict with family, lovers, strangers, friends, and issues like sickness, and addiction. The storytellers may not have addressed the story in depth but it has o...

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Description (Dublin Core)
Several of my friends are high risk to contract the virus because of compromised immune systems. This article is written to sensitize people to this group
This item was submitted on August 22, 2020 by SOPHIA KOUIDOU-GILES using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive
Click here to view the collected data.

Traveling to Mt. Athos during coronavirus days

August was the month of political conventions in the United States, a time when parties put on their best accomplishments and vision for the future, while emphasizing the deficiencies of the opposing party. This year’s virtual coronavirus version has televised the usual basic agenda that ends with the acceptance speech of the nominee. Although devoid of the pomp and circumstance that the adrenalin enthusiastic delegates contributed in the past, the events have featured the famous, the lesser ...