To celebrate LGBTQIA+ History Month, which in the UK takes place in February, the British School at Rome is pleased to present an evening of poetry reading.
The evening will focus on the reading of poems dedicated to different queer subjects by Andrea Acocella (bar.lina), Viola Lo Moro (poet), Donatella Saroli (SIL – Società Italiana Letterate) and Giovanna Cristina Vivinetto (poet), while Baldwin Giang (Samuel Barber Rome Prize – American Academy in Rome, University of Chicago – PhD Candidate) will share with the audience some musical tracks that are part of his work and artistic research. After the guest readings, there will be an open mic session in which those who wish can read poems on LGBTQIA+ themes, for a maximum duration of five minutes. The event will take place in English and Italian in the Academy’s Lecture Theatre and will be accompanied by an installation by artist Tura Oliveira, Abbey Scholar in Painting at BSR.
The event will take place in person.
Per celebrare il mese dedicato alla storia delle persone LGBTQIA+ nel Regno Unito a febbraio, la BSR vi invita a una serata di letture di poesie. L’evento si svolgerà nel Lecture Theatre, dove ci sarà un’installazione dell’artista in residenza Tura Oliveira, Abbey Scholar in Painting presso la BSR.
La serata prevede letture dedicate a diverse tematiche queer da parte di Andrea Acocella (bar.lina), Baldwin Giang (Samuel Barber Rome Prize – American Academy in Rome, University of Chicago – PhD Candidate), Viola Lo Moro (poetessa), Donatella Saroli (SIL – Società Italiana Letterate), Giovanna Cristina Vivinetto (poetessa). Dopo le letture dellə ospiti, ci sarà un momento di open mic in cui chi vorrà potrà leggere poesie a piacere.
L’evento si svolgerà di persona.
Andrea Acocella (Rome, 1991), is an art historian, activist and independent curator. His personal reflection revolves around the themes of non-normative sexuality, unacceptable bodies, sexual politics, and desire practices identified in the so-called queer theories. In 2022, he founded bar.lina, an independent space for LGBTQIA+ art and literature, placing the Italian and international queer community at the center of its development. Since 2022, Andrea personally directs the Think in Pink project, a series of exhibitions – now in its second edition – with a monthly frequency at the independent queer space in San Lorenzo. Participants include Gahel Zesi with “Traumatic Insemination”; Mattia Giuntini with “As long as I’m beautiful I’m alive”; Eva Maleen with “Crack in time”; Chiara Laruffa with “Eternally Restless.”
Baldwin Giang (Philadelphia, 1992) is a composer, pianist, and multimedia creator. He is the winner of the Samuel Barber Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome for 2023-2024, and was recently named as a composer-in-residence for the Louisville Orchestra beginning in 2024. His work aims to empower communities of audiences and performers by creating concert experiences that are opportunities for collective wonder and judgment.
Baldwin is a graduate of Yale University, earning a B.A. with Honors in both Music and Political Science, and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, earning a M.A. as a Regents Fellow. He is currently a PhD candidate and Division of Humanities Fellow at the University of Chicago.
Viola Lo Moro is a lesbian-feminist poet and activist. Born in Rome in 1985, she studied modern and contemporary literature between Rome and Siena and then specialised in comparative literature. She has been part of several feminist and queer collectives. She is a member of the bookshop – women’s bar in Rome, Tuba, where she curates the programme. Her first book of poems, ‘Cuore Allegro’ (Perrone editore) was published in October 2020. She writes articles and short stories for literary and feminist magazines (Letterate magazine, DWF, Leggendaria, K) and collaborates with the magazine of the Italian Society of Literate Women. She curates a section of literary dialogues within the Spazio Kor theatre seasons in Asti.
Together with Lunetta Savino, she staged a reading and story about Carla Lonzi.
Her second book of poems “Luoghi Amati” (Perrone editore) was published in September 2022. She is a member of the artistic collective GROSSO SONNO VIOLA.
Tura Oliveira is a multidisciplinary artist that uses the dual languages of craft and science fiction/fantasy to draw parallels between marginalised identity and marginalised material culture, drawing from the aesthetics and materiality of queer communities and Latinx leftist political movements. Their practice is rooted in the sensual materiality and inescapable politics of cloth; hand dyeing, mono printing, quilting, and beading transform silk and found fabrics into images and objects that straddle past and future, the human and the non-human. Their project at the BSR explores the hazy line between mystic vision and demonic possession, and the emancipatory potential of the female beast, seprent, and demon. She has received awards, residencies, and fellowships from organizations including Yaddo, BRIC, AIR Gallery, Ars Nova, and the Tides Institute. They have had solo exhibitions at spaces including Geary Contemporary, BRIC, Wave Hill, The Java Project, and Disclaimer Gallery. They were 2019 Van Lier Fellow at Wave Hill, and a 2020 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow. They are currently an Abbey Scholar in Painting at the BSR.
Donatella Saroli is a researcher and independent scholar in contemporary visual arts, curatorial practices, and literature as expressions of socio-economic conditions and generative inner narratives. Feminist theory, spatial politics, and multispecies entanglements inform her approach to these fields. In recent years she has collaborated with international artists and pursued research regarding formal and informal institution-making, combining her background in production and her academic training. She holds a Master’s in Foreign Languages and Literature, graduating with a thesis on American poet and painter Marsden Hartley. A Fulbright Fellowship recipient, she completed a Master’s and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, with a dissertation titled Generatio Aequivoca. A genealogy of mannequins. She teaches and writes regularly. Since 2013 she has been working at MAXXI- National Museum of 21st-century Arts. She is the Vice-President of the Società Italiana delle Letterate for the current year.
Giovanna Cristina Vivinetto (Siracusa, 1994) lives in Rome, where she graduated from La Sapienza University with a thesis on Franco Buffoni’s poetry. She is a teacher in secondary school. Dolore minimo (Interlinea, 2018) is her debut book, the first text in Italy to address the theme of transsexuality in verse and winner of numerous literary awards, including the prestigious Premio Viareggio Opera Prima. It has been translated into Spanish (translated by Angelo Néstore) and English (translated by Dora Malech and Gabriella Fee), winner of the Malinda A. Markham Translation Prize in the USA and semi-finalist at the PEN America for Poetry in Translation. It also inspired the television series Prisma, available on Amazon Prime. Dove non siamo stati (BUR Rizzoli, 2020) is her second book, currently being translated for publication in the US. It has appeared in many Italian anthologies, it was included in the anthology for secondary schools Controcanone. La letteratura delle donne dalle origini a oggi, edited by J. L. Bertolio for Loescher Editore, and among the forty-two female voices in the anthology volume Parole d’altro genere. Come le scrittrici hanno cambiato il mondo edited by linguist Vera Gheno for BUR.
