This coming fall is to live and love. This is a season to enjoy culture, art, food, reading, all the Italian way. October is Italian Heritage Month, with the traditional Parade that came back to the streets of North Beach on October 10th. People could enjoy the event in person, tasting Italian food while cheering and waving the Tricolore flags.
And it does not stop here: the calendar is full of events to honor and celebrate Italy, Italians, and Italian-Americans. They are not-to-miss events, and there’s one for each interest or taste.
On the occasion of the special exhibit Italian-American icons: Mosaic Portraits at the MarinMOCA, the Italian Cultural Institute hosted a webinar on the History Of Mosaic Art In Friuli, with Guglielmo Zanette and Denise Toson. Mr. Zanette, a film director, an architect, and a designer, graduated from the prestigious Politecnico di Milano, and Mrs. Toson, who graduated from the Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli and is now an artist in residence of MarinMOCA, talked about this collection of mosaic portraits highlighting the skill and artistry of emerging artists. A celebration of cultural affinities of Marin County’s Italian heritage, showcasing twenty-two mosaic portraits of Italian-American cultural icons of our age, it is presented by MarinMOCA in collaboration with Associazione Naonis and the Italian Film Festival, under the patronage of the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco until November 7th in Novato.
Longtime Director Lido Cantarutti welcomed everyone back to Marin for the 44th edition of the Italian Film Festival of Marin County. This is a special year for Mr. Cantarutti who worked as an Italian cultural consultant to the Pixar Animation Studio’s 2021 feature film Luca. Under his direction, the film program has included appearances from Italian film directors and composers, dignitaries of the Italian and Italian-American communities, and an authentically Italian atmosphere at every presentation. For six Saturdays in a row, the festival brings Italian dramas and comedies to the Italian-American audience in the historic Angelico Hall on the campus of Dominican University in San Rafael.
Another round of save-the-date goes to the 21st annual Week of the Italian Language in the World, with events organized by the Italian Cultural Institute in San Francisco.
Dante Plus 700 USA is a collective exhibition showcasing the work of 150 graphic and street artists, featuring installations, performances and augmented reality. An online show presented by the Italian Cultural Institutes in the US as part of the official celebrations for Dante’s 700th anniversary. Italian literature gets the spotlight on October 19th with a conversation with author Gianrico Carofiglio presenting the English edition of his novel Le Tre del Mattino, during an online tour coordinated by the IIC Los Angeles in collaboration with the IIC San Francisco.
An Italian Poetry Contest is coming as an opportunity to recognize budding Italian writers. Organized by Fondazione Italia, in collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles & San Francisco and the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles & San Francisco, all K-12 students can participate in a contest to showcase their creativity and connection to the Italian language.
Going into arts, a number of exhibits also open in October and November: the Museo Italo-Americano kicks off an exhibit on October 22nd until February 2022 to honor Giancarlo and Giovanni Cerri. The perfect opportunity to get to know two different Milanese artists, father and son, in their themes and expressive language.
At the beginning of November, the Legion of Honor will also host two art experts, Furio Rinaldi and Laura Da Rin Bettina, for some virtual events to learn all about the current exhibit Color into Line: Pastels from the Renaissance to the Present.
The love for food and traditions does not stop with the new season, on the other hand with the Holidays approaching, learning how to cook Italian is a must. The ICC San Francisco has been running Italy by Ingredient, a series of 8 live Zoom cooking classes in which chef Viola Buitoni presents an all-around overview of Italian agri-food excellence, allowing participants to learn about 8 uniquely Italian ingredients, focusing in-depth on their history, cultural context, efforts to preserve their quality, and, of course, their use in cooking. On October 28th, you can join Chef Viola to make mousse of mortadella with pistachios from Bronte and traditional balsamic vinegar of Modena, or rolls with prosciutto di Parma and fontina cheese from Val d’Aosta.
One of the highlights of this season is surely the Litquake Literary Festival welcoming 80+ events and 300 authors in San Francisco from October 7th through October 23rd. Italy got its own space at the festival, thanks to the efforts made by the Italian Cultural Institute San Francisco and its Director, Annamaria Di Giorgio. “Since I moved to the Bay Area in 2019, I started thinking of a series of Italian authors or texts that haven’t been translated into English yet,” she said. “Along the lines of what some other colleagues did in the past, I wanted to continue this path and opened it up to graphic novels and poetry, where Italy has some extraordinary talents yet to be known abroad.” And continues: “I met curator Marco Cassini (founder of Minimum Fax and Sur Edizioni), during the celebrations of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s 100th anniversary at City Lights and together we worked on an idea that became LITaly.”
The goal, as explained by Director Di Giorgio, is to spread the knowledge of books and authors in the US, to initiate or facilitate relations between publishing houses that can open to future collaborations. This effort can also count on the “Vivere all’Italiana” program, funded by the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
The first volume can be downloaded for free starting on October 9 on the IIC website and it also honors the Italian Heritage Month and the Week of the Italian Language in the World. A collection of nine songs, taken from Italian authors, alongside some illustrations by Studio RAMI / Meneghello, special edition for LITaly.
The book and publishing industry has evolved in the last few years and Director Di Giorgio is aware of the impact these efforts have on the audience. “The so-called Ferrante effect led to a renewed interest in Italian literature in the US. Many authors are being translated, including Natalia Ginzburg, Elsa Morante, Igiaba Scego, Francesca Melandri, just to mention a few. On the other hand, some famous and influential writers, like the Pulitzer Prize Winner Andrew Sean Greer or Chang Rae Lee, live in the San Francisco Bay Area and have very close ties with Italy. Other Italian writers chose to spend time in the US, for good or temporarily, just to prove that it is important to take advantage of this historical moment. On the West Coast, certainly, the number of publishers interested in Italian authors is lower than on the East coast, so there is room for anybody interested in the challenge. Also geographically, the IIC of San Francisco has a broad audience across important cities. If I think of Portland and Seattle, Salt Lake City or Hawaii, the interest in literature – especially the so-called independent – is very strong and we want to work to expand to these book-lovers and introduce them to Italian literature.”
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