Share Your Voice in Rome!

Dear Roman Writers,

You should hopefully know that on two occasions we'll be meeting up with Alessandra Bava — poet, translator, and Rome enthusiast — whose poem on Giordano Bruno we discussed on the last day of Reading Rome.

Alessandra has written to me with yet another opportunity for us while we're in the Eternal City. She has recently completed translating and editing an anthology of American poetry, Nuova antologia di poesia americana (Ensemble, 2015). On Friday evening, May 29, she hopes to organize a reading of selections from the volume in the historic center.

She has issued a warm invitation to any and all of us to read from the volume (in English) for the audience of invitees — in other words, to inject some American voices into the proceedings. I hope to participate in this extraordinary opportunity, and I hope that some of you will join me.

If you're not sure at the moment, perhaps you'll change your mind after meeting Alessandra the week before. In any event, I wanted to put this chance to experience Rome's literary and artistic culture on your radar as soon as possible.

Please let me know if you're interested in participating, or if you have any questions.

DC

PS: I realize that not all of us are Americans, strictly speaking; and that America is (or the Americas are) much more than the United States. But, for the purposes of this event, we can be considered de facto Americans due to Skidmore’s location.

Assigment for Monday, 04-27-15

Dear Readers of Rome,

For our last Reading Rome class on Monday, April 27, please do the following:

(1) Download, print, and read Alessandra Bava's poem, "In the Shadow of Giordano Bruno." In lieu of a factsheet about Alessandra, who is too modest for such things, I'll say a few words about her in class. For now, it's enough to note that she is a Roman passionate about Rome and that we'll spend some time with her during our residency in the city.

(2) (Re)download, (re)print, and (re)read "City Imaginaries" by Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson, the essay with which we began the semester. IMPORTANT: As you revisit this piece, write down one way in which you feel Rome has fit into the Bridge-Watson range of imaginaries in any of our four units. We will invite everyone to share their examples in class on Monday.

(3) If you haven't done so already, create a blog and share the URL with all three members of the instruction team. Guidelines for doing this have already been published previously.

(4) If you missed it in class, download the narrative timeline of modern Rome. As I noted yesterday, you should read it at least twice: once, just to get a sense of its scope; a second time, after a break but before before taking the quiz to be based on it (on which more in a follow-up post).

Finally, please bear in mind that Monday's class will be packed to the gills with both concluding  remarks about Reading Rome and reminders about Writing Rome. I urge you in the most violent and animated language possible to be on time.

We look forward to receiving your giornali by noon on Sunday.

DC