It is a romantic comedy, in six chapters. A love story like the times does not do anymore, with encounters, obstacles, hugs and, finally, happiness. An idyll between Sakine, a young Sudanese musician who lives in a reception center, and Dayana, a singer of Venezuelan origin who lives in the neighboring house … “The scenario was to take place in Paris”, says Rachèle Bevilacqua, on a bench in the Temple square in Paris.
The director of Editions du Portrait, in addition to the publication of several books per year, launched this writing workshop, Le monde en tête, in 2017. Thirty hours of jotting down stories, in pairs, at the rate of two sessions by an, in partnership with l’association Kodiko and its assistance program for the professional integration of refugees.
The small group continues to meet every other Saturday at the Arab World Institute, and there was never any question of stopping. Even at the height of the health crisis, at the beginning of 2020, these literary meetings took place on Zoom, says the editor: “I am convinced that words and imagination are very important, as much as the mixture of people, especially at this time. ”
A shorter and more compact format
For Rachèle Bevilacqua, 52, the pandemic was ” A blessing “, she said, almost embarrassed to put it that way. In March 2020, she is “Exhausted”, to the point of being unable to imagine the future. “Overnight, I started working as if it was August”, smiles the editor. Less noise, less stress and new ideas, like the Petite Collection – a shorter and crisper format in which she is publishing these days the Reception speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature, by Toni Morrison, delivered in 1993.
The year 2021 will be African-American at Éditions du Portrait! The next title is coming in a few days … ????Stay … https://t.co/696V9FfA0a
In the process, it is refining the publication program until 2022, with an event release: The Last Interview of James Baldwin, produced in 1987, a few months before his death, by the poet Quincy Troupe. The text, unpublished in France, will be available in October. The first to know are the booksellers, who have today become one of the landmarks of this slow-moving life.
“During this crisis, it’s important for everyone to come, discuss, adds the head of Portrait editions. And booksellers do an incredible job of being responsive, of adapting. ” For advice, a discussion or just to see someone out of the house, the public flocked to bookstores, and sales explode.
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