February 21

February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 313 days remaining until the end of the year (314 in leap years).

Events

Spoken word

Spoken word is a style of entertainment involving performance-based poetry that primarily focuses on the aesthetics of word play and story-telling. It often includes collaboration and experimentation with other art forms such as music, theater, and dance. Performers may weave in poetic components - such as rhyme, repetition, rhythm, improvisation, and other traditional elements of poetry.

History

The art of spoken word has existed for many millennia. The tradition of the spoken word is particular to cultures around the world when oral traditions were the means to pass on the genealogical, historical, cultural knowledge and traditions of different geographical sects of indigenous peoples and civilizations; it was particularly steeped in the African traditions that also included drumming and dancing as a means to reinforce cultural mores, spiritual incantations, social practices and world views. This can also be evidenced in Native American and Aboriginal cultures. The Ancient Greeks included Greek lyric which is similar to spoken-word poetry in their Olympic Games.

Love Stories

Love Stories (Polish: Historie miłosne) is a 1997 Polish film about four men with unresolved romances. Jerzy Stuhr plays all four characters and wrote and directed the film. The film is dedicated to Krzysztof Kieślowski, who gave Stuhr important roles in his films. The film was selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

Plot

The four characters played by Jerzy Stuhr all arrive at the same place at different times in different vehicles: a college professor in his own car, a priest in a taxicab, an army officer in a government vehicle and a prisoner in a police van accompanied by two police officers. As the opening credits roll, the four characters walk about the same building.

The professor collects the written exams of his students, and is surprised that one, Ewa Bielska, has written on hers, "I love you." He resists her advances but eventually gives in. For a crucial oral exam with the dean, Ewa asks for the professor's help, because she doesn't know anything at all. When the time comes, Ewa decides to resign, and the dean jokes with the professor that this is Poland, not America, and he wouldn't have been kicked out for having an affair with a student.