Andrew Calimach
|
|
Andrew Calimach (1952 - ) is an American author of Romanian extraction. Calimach researched and re-wrote an entire domain of Greek mythology - the myths of male love - which was censored from the beginning of the Christian era up until the end of the 1900s. He published his research in 2001 under the title of Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths.
Three years later he collaborated with Israeli director Agnes Lev and other artists in the production of a dramatized version of the myths, released as a CD with the title of Lovers' Legends Unbound, a work intended by Calimach to complete the process of bringing these major yet little-known myths back to life.
Also a poet, and occasional hanger-on in the beat universe, some of his work has been privately published in chapbooks circulating in the New York underground. He was a friend and co-religionist of Allen Ginsberg, both students of Chogyam Trungpa, the Tibetan Buddhist teacher.
Calimach was born in communist Romania under the Ceausescu regime, and by his own account "Having spent my early years under dictatorship, I have a particular appreciation for human rights, and consider the right to love as the most basic right of all." He is a descendent of the Calimachi clan, one of the old ruling families of Moldavia, but claims to have no ambition to the throne.
An independent scholar who writes on gender studies and other social issues, Calimach runs workshops on the gay Greek myths. He divides his time between New York and Bucharest, and continues his studies and writing.