The Municipality of Rhodes, through the Department of Education and Youth and the Rhodes International Center for Writers and Translators, the Association of Philologists of the Dodecanese and Koukkida Publications, in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Greek Art of the Municipality of Rhodes —Nestorideio Melathro—are organizing the presentation of the new poetry collection by the Rhodian poet Suleiman Alayali – Tsialik, titled “The White Innocence of Vilelmini.” The event will take place on Saturday, October 31, 2026, at 6:30 p.m., in the New Wing Hall of the Museum of Modern Greek Art of the Municipality of Rhodes — Nestorideion Melathro.

The poetry collection is a lyrical and multi-layered composition that navigates themes of love, beauty, memory, loss, and the passage of time. At its center is Vilelmine, an idealized and symbolic figure through whom the poet explores the desire for the absolute, the longing for unfulfilled love, and the distance between dream and reality.

With intense lyricism, musicality, and imagery that resonates with nature and the island landscape, Suleiman Alayali – Tsalik creates a poetic universe where beauty coexists with melancholy and personal experience takes on a universal dimension. Vilelmine becomes at once a person, a symbol of love and beauty, and a quest for the poetic ideal itself.

Speakers for the event:

• Evangelia Moula, Coordinator of Philologists of the Dodecanese.
• Dimitris Kokkinos, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Elementary Education at the University of the Aegean and former head of cultural events at the Stamatis Foundation.
• Olga Komizoglou, philologist and Ph.D. candidate in Modern Greek Literature.

Excerpts and poems from the collection will be recited by Kostas Chartofylis, Giannis Apokourastos, and Andromachi Batzouki, members of the “Praxis” theater group.

The evening will feature musical performances of poems from the collection set to music by composer Leonidas Sakellaridis, who will perform them himself, accompanied by Vivian Apostolou on the piano.

The event will be moderated by Irini Symiakou, Director of the Rhodes International Center for Writers and Translators.

Suleiman Alayali-Tsalik was born and raised in Rhodes. He works as a goldsmith in the Medieval City and is a member of the Writers’ Society, the Poets’ Circle, and the Dodecanese House of Letters and Arts. He has published eight collections of poetry and was awarded the Second “Ipekçi” Poetry Prize for the years 1992–1993. His poems have been published in literary journals and included in Greek-language and foreign-language anthologies.

The event aims to be a unique encounter with contemporary Greek poetry and an artist with strong ties to Rhodes, highlighting the power of poetic expression to transform personal experience into a shared one.

Admission is free to the public. Media partner: Lychnari Radio.