„Urban leben- urban lesen“ das ist das Motto des astikos Verlags. Was also könnte besser passen als eine Lesung im öffentlichen Raum? Wir sehen darin die Möglichkeit Plätze, das öffentliche Leben, das Erscheinungsbild einer Stadt aktiv mitzuprägen. Am Montagabend (12.09.16)  hat deshalb Jannis auf dem Königsplatz aus seinem neuesten Buch „Rauschgefühle“ gelesen. Ein lauer Sommerabend vor der Glyptothek am Königsplatz, Decken, spannende und nette Leute, Literatur und ja ein vielfältiges Rahmenprogramm ☺. Insgesamt ein bunter Abend, voller Imperfektion (ein paar Pegida-Anhänger die über Mikrofon dummes Zeug verkündet haben, weshalb wir erst zeitverzögert starten konnten) und Überraschungen (Tango-Musik vor der Antikensammlung als Untermalung für unsere Lesung). Genau deshalb ein Abend, der sehr sehr astikos war.
Und wie’s scheint hat’s den Gästen auch gefallen. Doch lest selbst….

“As I arrived at Königsplatz looking for the open air reading by astikos author and founder, Jannis Plastargias, the last thing I expected to be confronted by was an army of Policeman and what at best could be described as a dribble of PEGIDA demonstrators. (Because perhaps the term Nazis is a touch politically incorrect coming from an Englishman that made his home in the captial of Bavaria) But in retrospect, perhaps this was the appropriate setting for what for me became a poetic exercise in peaceful rebellion, demonstration against something ugly through an at times humourous and at times personal juxtaposition of themes and characters. There is something romantic and brave to be found in the image of an openly gay author, the child of immigrants who works in his professional life helping refugees, reading excerpts of what I understood to be ostensibly a love story interspersed with personal anecdotes, against the backrop of a demonstration by Far-Right sympathisers. Despite, or perhaps in part, because of the almost comical distruption posed by the demonstration, the open-air, flashmob style reading took on an intimate air, with friends of astikos and newcomers that happened to be just passing by mingling and exchanging ideas in the warm summer’s air. And although with the poetic irony that can only be provided by real life, the reading was prematurely ended by the unexpected return of the demonstrators, greeted by chants of ‚Wir haben euch nicht um eine Zugabe gebeten!’, it became clear that there would most definitely be an encore from the authors of the astikos Verlag.” (Luke Rogers, Englishman, cook and booklover)