Isabella Livorni, New York University
The name Rocco Scotellaro has become synonymous with Basilicata. In his work, however, the young writer, poet, and politician was interested in situating his home region within a transnational framework. In this talk, Isabella Livorni will analyze how Scotellaro conceived of the connections between Basilicata and other parts of the world in his poetry and creative writing—not only his analysis of his compatriots’ emigration, but also the potentially fruitful solidarity between Lucanian contadini and oppressed peoples elsewhere in the world.
In conjunction with the exhibition BASILICATË: A Celebration of Lucanian Culture in the World
Join us for a public presentation of the inspiration and preparation for the upcoming international exhibition Basilicate: A Celebration of Lucanian Culture in the World.
Tuesday, November 7, 2023, 6:00pm
Speakers about the scope and meaning of this multinational exhibition will include
Mimì Coviello
Centro dei Lucani nel Mondo Nino Calice
Joseph Rinaldi
Federazione Lucana d’America
Anthony Julian Tamburri, PhD
Dean and Distinguished Professor, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute
The exhibition will open in August 2024 in Genoa, Buenos Aires, New York, and Montevideo.
Architecture of Shame, the cultural organization curating the exhibition, is developing a variety of creative groups and events to bring increased awareness to the influence of Lucanians across the globe. Projects include: engaging communities to restore, through Rocco Scotellaro’s poems, their still-vital language; cooking workshops to highlight the transmission of Lucanian culinary traditions to new generations; the filming of rituals native to Lucania that are preserved and practiced in their adopted cities, rituals that have survived emigration and been perpetuated for dozens of years; and demonstrating, via photos of diasporic homes, the search for the Lucanity preserved in them.
The project, implemented by the Federation of Lucanians in Piedmont, is coordinated by the Nino Calice, of the Center of Lucanians in the World of the Basilicata Region. This exhibition will be presented across the globe with the help of the presidents and activists of the Associations of Lucanians in the World and, in the case of New York, with the support of the Craco Society and the Federation of Lucanians of America.
