Arturo Giovannitti – Poet And Trade-Unionist

Symposium

One hundred years ago, on November 23, 1912, Arturo Giovannitti, a trade-unionist originally from the Region of Molise in Italy, defended himself before a Court and a jury in Salem, Massachusetts. He had been one of the leaders of the famous Bread and Roses Strike of the textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and unjustly accused of murdering a young striker, Annie LoPizzo, killed by the police. His famous self-defense, together with a poem he wrote while imprisoned, “The Walker,” have become the basis of a compelling theatre piece, beautifully written and directed by Stefano Sabelli, director of the Teatro del Loto of Ferrazzano, in the province of Campobasso. Magistral interpreter of the “Auto-da-fè of the Walker” is Diego Florio, a young Italian actor destined to a brilliant career both in Italy and the USA.