Tuscany, kicks off literary festival featuring community and its stories

Scheduled for September 11-13, 2020, is the second edition of There are always words. [non]festival of popular (and unpopular) narratives, theEmpolese Valdelsa festival that aims to focus on the territory, on people and their tales of daily life, to rebuild connections between communities, regenerate listening skills and cement empathy. The festival, which will be held in Certaldo, Gambassi Terme, Castelfiorentino, Montelupo Fiorentino and Fucecchio, will see the citizens themselves, authors of the selected stories, tell their stories to the public, assisted by theater companies or professional actors.

Directed by Andrea Zanetti and Cinzia Compalati, the festival will tell “stories of lived life,” the organizers announce in a note, “staged directly by those who carry these memories with them, thanks to the dramaturgical support of professional actors identified through public call. Ordinary stories, in which everyone can recognize themselves or find assonances, but which as a whole translate the complexity of the present. In the Tuscan countryside ’going to wake’ was the way to spend evenings in company, conversing, reading, playing some music, playing or dancing. The best storyteller would take the floor and tell stories that combined truth and fantasy, building that epic of the everyday in which the Italian provinces are so rich. The common thread will be the time axis that always marks the history of places: tales of emigrants, tales of the elderly, of families, of children, of war, of love, of migrants who have arrived in recent decades.”

The festival intends to distinguish itself in the Italian scene for its “diffuse” character and for the choice not to focus on big names, but on the extraordinariness of the everyday, which is fundamental for regenerating personal and territorial identity in an age marked by the virtuality of communications and physical distancing. A festival-not-festival that, making its “not” the positive thrust toward the codification of contemporary complexities, aims to present an open and flexible program that can be exported to other places, because every community holds stories that deserve to be passed on.

It begins on Friday, Sept. 11, at 6:30 p.m.: two Gambassi Terme citizens, Gianni Cortina (with the stories Il Pelo and L’eremita di Gambassi Terme) and Augusta Elena Giglioli(A Terra), are featured at the Palazzo Pretorio in Certaldo. Both will perform with the dramaturgical support of L’Oranona Teatro - Polis Association; at 9.00, at the BeGo - Benozzo Gozzoli Museum in Castelfiorentino, stories by Dario Boldrini of Montespertoli(Life is coexistence), Maria Grazia Lotti of Castelfiorentino(I have gained twenty years), Marco Mainardi of Empoli(Lampedusa), Antonella Profeti of Certaldo(Without Bikes), all with the dramaturgical support of the “Il Gabbiano” Association.

OnSaturday, Sept. 12, at 10 a.m., on the Via Francigena in Gambassi Terme (departure in front of Azienda agricola Casanuova, Via Santa Maria a Chianni 77/A), there is a story by Antonello Grieco, a resident of Montaione(Di Francigena and Santa Maria a Chianni), with dramaturgical support from Teatro Castello, and Teatro trekking - difficulty T (trekking clothing); at 7 p.m.00, at the Museum of Ceramics in Montelupo Fiorentino, short stories by Tamara Morelli of Vinci(Childhood Memories), Elena Giannotti of Empoli resident in Capraia(Family History) and Rita Eller Vainicher of Montelupo Fiorentino(Looking at the Stars), with dramaturgical support from Pilar Ternera.

The festival ends on Sunday, Sept. 13: The program includes, at 7 p.m., a concert by Bobo Rondelli, Words and Music. The popular singer from Livorno is the godfather of this edition of the festival (tickets are already sold out). “It is a satisfaction,” said Rondelli, “to be the godfather of a festival that has in its title a word dear to me: narration. If then this word is accompanied by the adjective unpopular, I find my adherence even more important. In an age of real solitudes that have nothing to do with virtual relationships, bringing out the everydayness of people, in their daily struggles, in their grayness, in their unpopularity, becomes a heroic and romantic gesture. That is why I am there: to bring with my words and music a piece of truth, that of those who often have no voice. Long live beautiful words. Long live the unpopular stories.” Finale at 9 p.m., at the Civic and Diocesan Museum of Fucecchio, with stories by Empolese Sandro Gualdani(Bassist Wanted), Paolo Fanciullacci(Brunero), Eugenio Pannocchi(The Mandolin), with dramaturgical support from Andrea Giuntini.

The festival is promoted by the Unione dei Comuni Circondario Empolese Valdesa and produced by the museum system “Museo diffuso Empolese Valdelsa” (MuDEV) and YAB Young Artists Bay. There are always words is produced with the contribution of Fondazione CR Firenze (main sponsor) and D.Marble Design; media partners Radio Nostalgia and Segnonline. Technical partners: Albergo Il Castello, Azienda agricola Tamburini, Azienda vinicola Collina dei Venti, B&B Antica Torre del Borgo, Bar Boccaccio Caffetteria, Casa al Cantone, Casa Il Fileno, Casa Primavera, Crocerossa Certaldo, Cucina Giuseppina Italian Cooking School, Greenbassi, Hotel Certaldo, Locanda Linando II, Osteria Pinchiorba, Proloco Certaldo, Sabrina Taddei Art Studio, The Gambassi Experience. The program for the event is available at www.museiempolesevaldelsa.it. Free admission to all events with compulsory reservation, while places are available, through the appropriate form.

Pictured: a moment of the first edition of the festival. Ph. Credit Stefano Lanzardo

Tuscany, kicks off literary festival featuring community and its stories

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