Genia Markova, Poet, Charlottenburg

This is Genia (pronounced Zhenya). Genia was born in Ukraine and lived in Tel Aviv for a while until she moved to Germany for her studies in 2001. To Berlin she came six years ago where she now teaches English, French and Russian at a local high school and also writes her poetry. “Before I came to Berlin I mainly wrote for myself and friends”, she says, “but in Berlin everything changed”. She participated in her first poetry slam at the HKW and the response was great. When Alexander Delphinov, a famous Russian poet from Berlin, moved to Moscow, Genia took over the management of the Russian poetry scene in the city. Today she is in charge of the bimonthly poetry events and many other events which are very popular among the Russian crowd in Berlin. Her poetry is mainly written in Russian but she wants to write more in German, she says. You can listen to Genia’s poetry at one of the many Russian poetry slams in Berlin and/or read some of her pieces online.