As the ICBIE performs its mission, it confronts the social reality of the cidade baixa with a profound admiration, respecting the native traditions that sustain it, even amidst enormous challenges. Primarily, we work for an empowerment of its youth by means of a reinforcement, rather than a reformation or an annulment, of their cultural heritage. On a human level, ICBIE president Pietro Gallina often operates in a void, where his own extensive culture is rendered useless, when attempting to confront the real difficulties of our young people.
Or so it seemed, in the beginning. Instead, our kids have a great curiosity about First World culture. They, too, have been enchanted by Hollywood, they bop to the imported beats that blare out of their potent sound systems, and they have developed an insatiable fancy for cell phones, fashions and all the other consumer cornucopias. So, as our students progress through years of Italian language courses, Pietro has been happy to offer them the deeper bounties of Italian culture, such as the on-going cineforum, but now he has added another dimension. By request of the advanced Italian students, every Friday evening at 6:30, just before the weekly film, Pietro will present a short poetry lesson, “A Poem a Week.” A cycle of ten lessons will cover the whole arc of Italian verse, from St. Francis of Assisi to Dante and Petrarch, and on to the giants of the modern era: Foscolo, Leopardi, Carducci, D’Annunzio, Pascoli, Gozzano and Montale. The lessons will outline the merits of each poet and of one representative work, that will be read at the end.
From Fellini to Dante and from Montale to Troisi (the actor!), our young people will have a lot on their minds!
