Patriarchy Simmering in the "Pressure Pot"

Book of poetry "Expres pot" by the poetess Milena Radević will be presented today in Podgorica, in the hall of the Dodest Cultural and Information Center (KIC) "Budo Tomović" at 20 p.m. It is a collection that, the author says in an interview with Vijesti, includes her poems written in high school, when she also started to study poetry.

Milena Radević's debut, independent book of poetry was published by the publishing house Otvoreni kulturni forum na Cetinje, and tonight the writer will talk about it with the author Vasko Raičević.

"It could be said that this collection has been in the making for about 10 years, and in it I gathered all the poems that I thought deserved to be found together in my first book, although some were previously published in the anthologies of the Forum of Young Writers of KIC whose I am a member. I felt that I was confident in myself and ready to publish them, unite them in my own collection, considering that I have several joint publications behind me, as well as poems translated into foreign languages", says Radević at the beginning.

Coordinator of the Forum of Young Writers and editor of the informative and educational program of KIC, Valentina Knežević, in reviewing the collection, identified its title with the poet's need to react to the world around her.

"Just as water boils in a pressure cooker and food is cooked under pressure, the lyrical voice from song to song suggests that a similar emotional process is going through as it accumulates many stimuli and intimate reactions to given patterns of behavior, from traditional roles in a patriarchal environment, to petty-bourgeois expectations of the environment , up to the modern principles of a changed paradigm of the world - the new normal. In such a poetic image, through which the initial interpretation of this book could be opened, the poetic word is the only found safety valve through which 'excess steam' is released", Knežević points out in the foreword of this collection.

This was also confirmed by Radević, who says that through poetry she looks back at certain phenomena and problems in society, patriarchal patterns and everyday life that accumulate in her and in the form of verses, come to the surface.

"It seems to me that sometimes I can best express myself through a poetic image and my words. It's my way of bringing awareness to certain things, addressing them and focusing my attention on them. I think that sometimes various situations and themes accumulate in me, which is related to the pressure cooker, which is the dominant motif of the collection, as well as the name of one of the songs. A pressure cooker is one of the objects that we all have in our households, and just like various situations in our society, our patriarchy also simmers under great pressure in that pot and touches all young people who may deviate from some of the principles of our society... That's how everything simmers in that pot of poetry and thoughts of mine. In the song 'Express pot', it is about how everything is boiled in a certain way, how it is added, steamed and the pressure gets higher and higher, which indicates a gradation that foreshadows the explosion of the pressure cooker, which is a fear that I also had in my childhood got from that pressure and what it can cause - an explosion", says Radević, and he gives his song to Vijestima for publication.

Knežević adds that the poetess finds an adequate, original and fresh expression for rebellion in her lyrics, "whether it is about formulating her own feminist views, or about defiance wherever the individual collides with the collective, but also in response to other challenges that she thematizes in the collection - like the digitalization and automation of the modern world".

Radević says that the motives and topics she deals with concern her as a young person and young woman in Montenegro, that is, everything that concerns, interests and touches her.

"It's society, ours, then women, that is, the female voice, which those who read my poetry and deal with literary theory point out as interesting, which I'm glad about, because I think there is a female perspective that is desirable to be heard. When I say society, there is also criticism of contemporary, but also our traditional and patriarchal society. One of the cycles is family. However, as it happens naturally, I try to put a distance between myself as the author and the lyrical subject, so that it would not be thought that this particular song reflects my personal experiences, because it is usually not so. I try to make my poetry universal, I try to make what is personal and intimate be universal in the poem, so that someone else can find themselves in it," explains Radević.

By reading her poetry, which has been brewing for some time, readers will be able to listen and feel a young, contemporary voice, but also follow the maturation of a young person, teenager, woman, poet...

"Certainly, this is not poetry similar to earlier and those poetic classics that we all love, but rather a new voice that can be interesting to every young person both in Montenegro and the Balkans, but also in Europe, I hope, and which thoroughly observes society around him, he sees the good in him, but also the bad," Radević points out and adds that the book can be purchased through the new Montenegrin online bookstore platformaknjiga.me.

Milena Radević was born in 1998 in Podgorica. She graduated in French language and literature at the Faculty of Philology in Nikšić, and is currently a master's student in journalism. She won two third prizes at the competition for young poets at the 50th and 51st Ratković poetry evenings in Bijelo Polje. She is a finalist in the contest for the first poetry collection of the festival "Trni se! Poetry!” Third Square from Belgrade in 2022, as well as the 3rd ZaNa Literature Festival (Mitrovica) in 2023. Her poems have been published in numerous anthologies, anthologies, magazines, translated into German, French, Polish, Greek, and are expected to be translated into Albanian and English.

Song "Express Pot"

What will they say, what will people say

If word gets out

It spills

More

Spices

It's riveting

It overcooks

If the pressure cooker explodes

What if it gets to the mother

So she confided in her father in tears

And he clutches his heart in agony

and asks God

What did he do wrong?

that the son did not make

Like that day in the maternity ward

So he curses,

like that day in the maternity ward

I can already hear my mother yelling

that I'm going to bury them, because

What will they say, what will people say

if it explodes