21 August 2013 L.U.C’s Verbal Duel

After Warsaw and Łódź, it is high time for Krakow. This is where, on the 26th of October, the third edition of Rymoliryktando, that is a national spelling competition originated by one of the most valued contemporary lyricists of the young generation, Łukasz L.U.C Rostkowski, will take place. Where will the spelling competition be held? It is up to you! We would like to encourage you to send venue proposals to the following address: Ry2013@eluce.pl.

No one has written this extremely difficult dictation without mistakes so far. No wonder why. Each sentence of the text dictated by L.U.C is abounding in spelling niceties, while the artist often uses a characteristic “desyllabication” and word plays while reading it out loud. If this is not enough, the contestants in this verbal duel are disturbed by sudden events which make them feel as if they are in a computer game and this is highly distracting. Therefore, it is not an easy challenge, yet one worth taking. Apart from fun and great atmosphere, the winner may expect a cash prize of PLN 10,000; there are also cash prizes for the first and the second runner up (PLN 5,000 and 3,000 respectively).

The participants will decide on the venue for Rymoliryktando on their own. “We would like to introduce proper language standards to the streets, also to places excluded from participation in culture. We would like to go into public space and share the richness of our language with passers by,” says Łukasz L.U.C Rostkowski. “Thus, we would like to encourage you to send venue proposals to the following address: Ry2013@eluce.pl.”

It is no coincidence that Krakow will become the capital of the “written word” this year. The city is candidating for the prestigious title of the UNESCO City of Literature. “Rymoliryktando is a project whose aim is to emphasise the importance of language in general and the beauty of Polish language, so I can’t imagine we’re not there,” says Izabela Helbin, the director of the Krakow Festival Office. “The event inscribes perfectly into a series of activities we have been executing to promote the city’s literary image, which include support for two major events – the Conrad Festival and the Czeslaw Milosz Festival, but also the cooperation with the Book Fair in Krakow and the organisation of a big all-year-round campaign known to literature enthusiasts as “Drugie życie książki” [The Second Life of a Book], which is basically a free of charge book exchange,” she adds.

The national spelling competition will be accompanied by unique performances, debates and scholarly discussion panels. The reliability and level of the contest will be supervised, as each year, by doctor Katarzyna Kłosińska of the Council for the Polish Language.

More information is available at: www.rymoliryktando.pl


“Subsidized from the resources of Narodowe Centrum Kultury [National Centre for Culture] within the scope of its “Kultura ‒ Interwencje” [Culture ‒ Interventions] programme.”