«Our time needs all its strength»- time.news

by time news
Of IDA BOZZI

The evening at the Cattolica in Milan for the launch of the Corriere series. On stage, among others, the performer Filippo Capobianco, Valentina Cenni and Stefano Bollani

An evening of great intensity, Tuesday 21 March, in a packed Aula magna of theCatholic University of Milan, for the event curated by “Courier” in collaboration with the university to celebrate World Poetry Day and present the series of volumes of the newspaper, “Poetry belongs to everyone” curated by Daniele Piccini, with selected works by some of the greatest modern and contemporary poets.


A dense and attentive audience (and also some poets and publishers in the audience, among them Vivian Lamarque and Nicola Crocetti) who gathered “around this form of art”, as he said at the beginning the rector of the Cattolica, Franco Anelli. «The contemporaneity of poetry escapes most people, what we study at school is institutionalized poetry, from several decades ago, but what is the path of contemporary poetry? We need to go back to taking it up again, and the idea of ​​making poetry “for everyone”, as this joint initiative with the “Corriere” recalls, becomes a precious idea of ​​cultural promotion”. And she concluded: «We need a defense of culture in seasons in which the classic forms of communication and thought are put to the test by new technologies. The machine may be a good mannerist, but it’s not creative. In knowledge there can be not only competence, there is also a need for creativity, the peaks of which are reached by poetry».


She intervened on the historical link between poetry and the Corriere Barbara Stefanelli, deputy editor of the newspaper: «What does poetry have to do with a newspaper that deals with news? Let’s think of February 24, 2022, when a country was invaded, but let’s also think of the news of a man who hadn’t given any news of himself for weeks and only after many days was he found buried under a quantity of objects he had accumulated: two pieces of news distant, but terrible. Here, poetry serves to move us from the fear of something black and threatening, towards amazement. It allows us to reopen ourselves, to welcome the pain of others as well”.

Stefanelli recalled the more than secular presence of poetic voices on the masthead: «On the “Lettura” published from 1901 to 1946 there were many poets, from 1903 Pascoli, from 1906 d’Annunzio, and then Gozzano, Trilussa, Aleramo. And in “la Lettura” launched in 2011, poetry always has a fixed place, even with new, famous and less famous poets, and with a critique that allows us to bring it to everyone, not just to an elite». And he quoted the poetry of Giovanni Giudici which on 16 September 2001, shortly after the attack on the Twin Towers, the Corriere della Sera published on the front page.

A taste of amazement, in short, of poetry, was then offered by the performance of Poetry Slam champion Filippo Capobianco, physicist by training, who put his love for his city, Pavia, into verses, describing the rivers of large and small cities, the Danube, the Seine, and his Ticino. After the comic-touching monologue Differencesabout a cosmologist in love with a flat earth, Capobianco was joined on stage by Antonio Troiano, responsible for Culture of the «Corriere», who hosted the evening: when asked about the link between poetry and physics, Capobianco replied: «Professors often say: such a formula is beautiful, such an equation is elegant. Even physicists seek synthesis to express beauty with as few symbols as possible».

The conversation continued with the teacher and writer Giuseppe Lupo and with the curator of the series, Daniele Piccini. Piccini recalled his first encounter with contemporary poetry, which took place at the Cattolica as a student: «Poets are important, but teachers are also important, like Mario Luzi». And he explained how the “hot” language of poetry needs a reader, and the series is meant to be an invitation to discover the poet’s creative voice.

Lupo also recalled his beginnings as an author, poetic: «Usually one gets to writing novels after passing through poetry – which is much more difficult. I began by imagining that I was writing poetry: if this happens, the rhythm of the words that poetry gives you remains». Lupo, a professor at the Cattolica, announced that university students will be invited to participate in a poetry contest, and the winner will also be able to spend a day in the Culture editorial office of the «Corriere».

The closing was on the piano, with Valentina Cenni and Stefano Bollani (“poetry is all that is in the air, in nature: creation is a poetic act”) who proposed The deserter by Boris Vian and a highly applauded concert of poems-songs by the historic collective of «Cantacronache», which was attended by authors such as Italo Calvino and Gianni Rodari and musicians such as Fausto Amodei.

March 21, 2023 (change March 21, 2023 | 21:53)

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