The annual Italian Language Week will be held this year from 14 to 22 October and will have the theme “Italian and sustainability”.
This year’s theme is in line with last year’s, which focused on the younger generations, and with Rome’s bid to host EXPO 2030, themed “People and territories. Regeneration, inclusion and innovation”, as well as the centenary of the birth of Italo Calvino, a visionary author whose work often dealt with environmental issues.
The purpose of the week is to use the Italian language as a vehicle for promoting sustainability and the image of an Italy as a leader in environmental issues.
Italian institutions in the UK will be running a number of initiatives to mark the week.
The UK programme will begin on Saturday 14 October, when the Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh, in collaboration with the Consulate General in Edinburgh and Comites Scotland and Northern Ireland, will host Daria Bignardi, a writer and journalist, in conversation with TV and radio presenter Silvia Righini. They will discuss Bignardi’s latest book and literature in general, in particular its influence on our interactions with nature.
On Monday 16 the prizegiving ceremony for the Match Point Literary Prize will take place at the Italian Cultural institute in London, organised by the Consulate General in London, in collaboration with the association Il Circolo. The prize is awarded for short stories and the theme this year is fear. A number of the submissions explored the fear arising from environmental issues.
On Tuesday 17 the Italian Cultural Institute in London will host a conversation between the British and Italian Children’s Laureates – a title granted biannually to exceptionally talented writers or illustrators who support the right of every child to have their lives enriched by stories. The two Laureates will discuss their experience relating to literature for children and teenagers. The event is organised in collaboration with the Italian Association of Independent Bookshops (ALIR) and will provide an opportunity for reflection on the sustainability of these shops.
Also on Tuesday 17 the play “Happy Mary” will be performed at the Italian School in London, organised by the Consulate General in London. The work turns the traditional idea of Mary – grieving, tormented – on its head and examines her as a woman capable of a full spectrum of emotions, including joy. It also explores the theme of female emancipation as means to achieving gender equality, one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
On Wednesday 18 an invitation-only event will be held at the Embassy, hosted by Ambassador Inigo Lambertini and the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in London, Katia Pizzi, to celebrate the Italian Bookshop and its founder, Ornella Tarantola. The bookshop recently closed its doors after 30 years during which it was the only venue of its kind in the UK, not only selling books but also hosting events with high-profile authors and providing a meeting point for the local Italian community. During the evening there will be discussions exploring the sustainability of literature, another theme running through modern life, as reading material takes on new and different forms.
On Thursday 19, the writer Caterina Soffici will meet with secondary-school students at the Italian Cultural institute in London to discuss the issues raised in her book Nessuno può fermarmi (Nobody can stop me), which tells the story of an Italian family that moves to London in the 1940s and suffers prejudice and xenophobia.
On Saturday 21 the Dante Alighieri Society in Manchester, with the support of the Consulate, will be hosting a talk by Marina Spunta, Associate Professor of Italian at the University of Leicester, exploring how Pia Pera’s poetry on the subject of gardens provides a model for sustainability and Pera’s role as an original voice in the debate around the environment.
On Sunday 22 an event will take place at Armagh Astronomical Observatory in Northern Ireland called “The Italian stars of Armagh”, organised by Comites Scotland and Northern Ireland, in collaboration with the Consulate General and Cultural Institute in Edinburgh. It will include talks by Italian researchers based at the observatory, an exhibition on climate change, a planetarium show and a tour of the observatory and AstroPark.
The Consulate General in London is also overseeing two multi-week programmes that will be run in schools. The first, entitled “The ecological thinking in the works of Italo Calvino”, will invite students to examine the themes of nature and the environment presented in the author’s books, and the second, “Let’s explore sustainability”, will use interactive activities to activate the students’ knowledge of Italian while also raising awareness of the importance of sustainability.
The University of Liverpool will also be running a series of activities to mark the week. The programme can be found here.
23rd International Italian Language Week in the UK
For information please contact the Press Office at the Embassy of Italy: stampa.amblondra@esteri.it.
