Credit: NY Times
About 130 supporters and friends of the Gennadius Library celebrated Clean Monday at Kellari Taverna in New York City on February 27th. Kellari Taverna was this year's new venue for ASCSA's annual event. Amidst the wine, bountiful food, fine music, and camraderie, much-needed funds were raised for the operation of the Gennadius Library.
Clean Monday or "Kathara Deftera", marks the end of carnival and the beginning of Lent, a Greek Orthodox national holiday coinciding with the first hints of spring. Executive Chef Gregory Zapantis outdid himself with a multi-course Lenten offering featuring htapodi sti skhara (octopus), garides (giant shrimp), astakos (lobster with fennel salad), gigantes plaki (baked giant kastoria beans), stifado me manitaria (wild mushroom & onion stew) and several other Greek specialties.
Gregory Maninakis and the Mikrokosmos Ensemble performed the poetry of Elytis set to music by Yannis Markopoulos and Mikis Theodorakis to set the mood for the evening. During dessert, Suzanne Perrault of PBS-TV's Antiques Roadshow took the stage to start a lively auction that included art, travel opportunities, and a chef-prepared dinner.
All proceeds supported the Gennadius Library, a national treasure of Greece and a world-renowned center for the study of Hellenism from antiquity to the present containing some 120,000 rare books, archives, manuscripts, and research volumes illuminating all periods of Greek history and civilization.
See below for additional photos of the evening.
