Counterpoints Lecture
with Elif Shafak
(Live Broadcast)
Date: Thursday 27 June 2026 / Time: 16:00 - 17:30 pm
Beehive | Melissa Network
Μετσόβου 10
106 82 Αθήνα
A live screening in Athens by Melissa Network of the inaugural Counterpoints Lecture with award-winning author Elif Shafak.
Melissa Network, in partnership with Counterpoints Arts, presents a live broadcast from the Southbank Centre in London of the inaugural Counterpoints Lecture with internationally acclaimed novelist and public intellectual Elif Shafak, hosted at The Beehive in Athens.
For this first iteration of the annual Counterpoints lecture, Elif Shafak explores how imagination and artistic practice shape our understanding of the world. She reflects on the link between creativity and courage, and how creativity can open paths to belonging, imagination and collaboration in times of conflict, fear and political division.
Drawing on academic, literary critic and activist Edward Said’s concept of the ‘counterpoint’ perspective of displaced people, Shafak considers how artists from regions affected by war, violence and political extremism can offer vital insights and new ways of seeing, questioning and imagining. As part of this, Shafak unravels the idea of ‘storyland’ as a motherland.
Part of Southbank Centre’s Refugee Week 2026 programme, presented in partnership with Counterpoints. Refugee Week is a nationwide festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. Inspired by refugees, the theme this year is ‘courage’.
The lecture will be followed by a conversation with author, journalist and broadcaster Zing Tsjeng.
About Elif Shafak:
Elif Shafak is an award-winning and highly acclaimed British-Turkish novelist whose work has been translated into 55 languages. The author of 21 books, including 13 novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world.
Shafak holds a PhD in political science and is President of the Royal Society of Literature and a Public Humanities Fellow at the School of Advanced Studies (SAS). She is a leading voice on freedom of expression, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights.
Photo credit: Ferhat Elik
