Sissy Doutsiou
Dec 13, 2025
Tuesday, December 16, 2025 | 7:00 PM
Literary Society of Thessaloniki
The Women Writers Network Against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Her Voice, in collaboration with Kastaniotis Publications and ΚΒΘΕ (State Theatre of Northern Greece), are organizing the presentation of the collective volume One Hundred and Twenty Voices on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, at 7 PM, at the Literary Society of Thessaloniki (Dimosthenous 4).
The evening will include dramatized readings of excerpts from the volume. And with great joy, I will read the prose poem Voice Crying in the Wilderness included in the volume.
All proceeds and rights from the book will be donated to the Greek Women’s Network of Europe.
Theatre Amalia, Thessaloniki
Directed by Nantina Katsanoula
One of my dreams is coming true: my short story The Ghost on Stage from the book Sisters of Kain (Kastaniotis Publications) is being adapted for the stage at Theatre Amalia in Thessaloniki, directed by Nantina Katsanoula.
Tickets: More Info & Tickets
On December 6th, I attended the demonstration in memory of the murdered 16-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos, killed by Greek police. No matter how many years pass, December 6th, 2008 is and will remain etched in our memory as a day of paying tribute to the anarchist student Alexis Grigoropoulos, as a day that triggered rage against injustice, repression, and the horror of murder.
Sometimes I feel trapped in a state of permanent waiting, longing not for the event of demonstration itself, but for that moment where the individual body becomes collective within the crowd. That moment where courage is not individual virtue but collective action, that moment when we abandon the ego to let the multiplicity of human existence traverse us.
And as the years go by, the hatred grows: cops, pigs, murderers. For ten years I’ve carried within me the desire to write with Tasos Sagris a text about the limits of anarchist space. A text that examines how organizations, networks, structures produce mechanisms of exclusion that function unconsciously.
I want to speak about the toxic practices that permeate even the most radical spaces. The pure political identities that demand homogeneity of ideas, the competitions that are symptoms of capitalist subjectivation implanted deep within us. It’s not enough to reject capitalism ideologically; we need to disassemble the mechanisms it has installed within us.
What we need is not more ideological purity but more multiplicity, the capacity to become one with the other, to create assemblages of enunciation that exceed the limits of the individual. The self-criticism I propose is not moral condemnation but analysis and investigation of the logics and practices that keep us bound to reproducing domination even when we believe we’re fighting it.
Lately I’ve been concerned with the relationship between vanity and narcissism as forms of egotism that trap and isolate bodies in small groups—not in large friend circles but in closed cycles of pseudo-identities of narcissistic artists, writers, and politicians. We’ve confused cool with attitude. Cool, in its most radical expression, is not a stance but a refusal. A refusal of the instrumentalization of human relationships that has become the dominant logic of contemporary social fabric. It’s the ability to see the other not as a means of social or professional advancement, not as a source of likes, collaborations, networking, but as an existence you meet in the present, without ulterior motives, without calculation. Cool transcends the economy of spectacle imposed by social media, that logic where every relationship becomes an image, every encounter becomes content for publication, every friendship a strategic move for personal success. It’s not about appearing happy next to others who appear happy, but about the act of authentic co-presence that doesn’t need confirmation, that doesn’t measure engagement returns. Cool is the calmness that emerges when you stop seeing the world as a market of opportunities and begin experiencing it as a network of genuine encounters. It’s the breathing-together that doesn’t pretend, the “nothing’s happening” that isn’t indifference but deep understanding that life’s value isn’t measured in engagement metrics and success. It’s the encounter that doesn’t need to be photographed to exist. In a world where every moment is recorded, every emotion is codified, every relationship is calculated, cool becomes a political act. The refusal to transform your existence into a brand, your friendships into a ladder for your own success story, your love into a flashy performance. It’s the insistence on authenticity and simplicity when everything around you demands the fake image of genuineness.
Organized by Panos Drakopoulos aka Witness
★★★ There are specific people I trust instinctively—those in whose eyes I recognize the urgent need for creation. In Panos’s case specifically, his love for spoken word, slam, and poetry is evident. These spaces don’t tolerate competition and jealousy; they exist only for our willingness to coexist, for the free time to experiment and play, and to remember never to betray what Zen calls Shoshin, the beginner’s mind, the amateur’s spirit.
★★★ To approach every creative act with an open mind, vitality, curiosity, and without prejudices, exactly as someone would approach it for the first time. Shoshin is liberation from the weight of experience, the refusal of “I already know,” maintaining the freshness and experimentation that characterizes the beginner, even when we have years of practice behind us.
The women’s network I Foni Tis produces work—both literary and social. Two hundred and fifty writers who desire to interact, to understand the patriarchy under our pillow. None of us is interested in dominating or imposing. All of us within the network come from different cultural and political backgrounds, and yet we learn to resolve our disagreements because one thing interests us: our presence in public discourse, the resonance of our voice, the sharpening of our feminist ideas.
Thank you to all the women and femininities in the network and all these wonderful beings who will come to accompany us at assemblies, book presentations, demonstrations, and who will want to become our members.
Also, we had the Christmas Bazaar of Thraka Editions organized by my beloved poet and friend Nikolas Koutsodontos—a gathering of poets at the social space Altai.
“Altai” is inspired by the work of the same name by the writing collective Wu-Ming (a.k.a. Luther Blisset), who always urged us to free ourselves once and for all from the logic of individualism and move toward a culture of the collective.
This hybrid race of falcon, in the mentioned work, is presented as a symbol of the convergence of civilizations, but also of equal interaction as a means to transcend the possibilities of the individual and catapult into something greater.
You can listen to my work on these platforms:
You can watch my TikTok
Right here, yes here:
https://www.tiktok.com/@sissydoutsiou
You can see the latest videos from performances and live shows
Spoken word & soundscapes
Release Date: 09.05.2025
Available as Coloured LP + MP3 (€26,00) or Digital Album (€6,00)
Buy the LP or digital album from Inner Ear Records
For bookings, collaborations, and inquiries:
+the Institute [for Experimental Arts]
theinstitutecontact@gmail.com
Sissy Doutsiou
Actress – Poet
sissydoutsiou.com
sissydou@hotmail.com
Instagram: @sissy_doutsiou | Facebook: sissydoutsiou1
I’m thinking about how to maintain the amateur’s spirit (Shoshin) while I’m ready to finish the mastering of my second LP, publish my third book of short stories, and go to London for a live show.
Also during this period:
Conversations with friends about building non-toxic political cultures
Planning the text with Tasos Sagris about the limitations of anarchist space
Preparing for my trip to Thessaloniki
Recording and music production for the second LP
Maintaining curiosity for new friendships, musical discoveries, travels
Until we meet again,
Sissy Doutsiou
An anarcho-feminist poet who loves sex, love, and travel
Thank you so much for making it this far and reading my thoughts.
My two most beloved people in the world, George Katsiaficas and Tasos Sagris, holding the book GEN Z MAKE HISTORY dedicated to Generation Z - published in London by Freedom Press, in the USA, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Nepal, and coming very soon to bookstores in Greece.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.