Italy: November/December 2023


A chronicle of the launch of Eco/Echo, from New York to Milan to Rome to Naples to Catania.

Eco/Echo, ed. Carla Buranello with Italian translations by Buranello, Gherardo Bortolotti, Luigi Ballerini, Marco Giovenale, and Milli Graffi (Milan: Il Verri, 2022). 

1. The Re-Appearing Pheasant: An Encounter of American and Italian Poets and Critics conference in New York, November 11-13, 2022, under the baton of Maestro Luigi Ballerini:
full set of videos of the conference: Day One, Two, Three. Here are some excerpts:|
••Poetry reading from Eco/Echo: "Contradiction Turns to Rivalry" with Marco Giovenale,  "Gertrude and Ludwig’s Bogus Adventure," "Catullus 5,"  "Covidity," "Rivulets of the Dead Jew": mov
••Remarks on translation panel together with foreword to Italian poetry anthology including in Eco/Echo: mov
••Paul Bové, "Critical Poetic Grace" (a kind of coda to Charles Bernstein: The Poetry of Idiomatic Insistences, the boundary 2 issue he edited): mov
image: Ballerini, Chris Mustazza, CB. 

2. Milan Book City Launch at Castello Sforzesco, Nov. 20, 2022: Barbara Anceschi intro,  "Johnny Cake Hollow," CB intro, Marco Giovenale intro,  “Contradiction” Italian only Giovenale,  Bilingual: “There’s a Hole in My Pocket.” Carla Buranello introduction, bilingual: “Covidity,” “All the Whiskey”:  (47:31): MP3

l to r: Anceschi, CB, Buranello, Giovenale

3. Campo Boario,Rome, Nov. 21, hosted by Marco Giovenale  with Carla Buranello reading her translations. (1:42): MP3

4. RAI-3 radio interview on Fahrenheit 11/22, with opening remarks by Cristina Giorcelli: full segment (16:12) MP3 
[RAI web recording, which begins at opening of 11/22 segment, omits Giorcelli)

5. American Center, Rome, November 23, 2022:  “After L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E”: seminar/ conversation with Cristina Giorcelli and Marco Giovenale: YouTube, PennSound MP4

6. Casa Morra 11/25, Naples: (1:15): MP3

"Pompeii"; Domenico Mennillo intro; "Liftjar Agate"  CB/Barbara Anceschi; Anceschi intro; CB / Giovanna Marmo: "Thank You for Saying Thank You," "There Is a Hole in My Pocket," "Errata"; Giancarlo Alfano commentary: CB/Marmo: "Self-Strike,"  "The Moment is You,"  "A Unified Theory of Poetry"; Mannillo: from "Catachresis, My Love"; CB: "Wheat and Chaff Rhumba"
Note: Tommaso Ottonieri could not be present in Naples but he translated "Pompeii" (2008) for the occasion and sent a recording, which started the event. (Pompeii is on the outskirts of Naples.) ---
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Pompeii [mp3]

Conoscono, i ricchi, il nodo del soffrire
che viene dalle cose di Natura: 

il Fato, da loro detto Incontrollabile,
la monta

       delle maree, l'erodersi
dei circoli polari

l'erompere della nera cupidigia
in coloro che più non si accontentano
di quello che gli manca, il giorno che li invischia
un grasso di abbondanza: che gli rimane oscura.

Tale abbondanza, è il prezzo del progresso. 

Al mercato, sui volti delle trote,
vede il terrore il pesciaiolo, e in quelli degli sgombri
fermi su un blocco che subito si liquefa.
                                       A Pompei
correva, la lava, a seppellire un popolo
perché nascessero questa e altre poesie.

 7. Università di Napoli “Federico II,” November 24, 2022
hosts: Bernardo De Luca and Fabrizio Spinelli with Alice Colantuoni

8. University of Catania, November 28, with Floriana Puglisi and Salvatore Morano
recording to be posted here soon

Many thanks to Marco Giovenale for documenting many of these events for his indispensable web site slowforward. 

These recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2008 Charles Bernstein. Used with permission of Charles Bernstein. Distributed by PennSound.