The I.C.B.I.E. Blog

Last night will be remembered as a key moment in ICBIE history, because it marks the foundation of a permanent Roman committee, comprising a substantial number of determined friends that will operate an Italian office. We met for dinner, gathered around a big table on Pina Madonna’s terrace, discussing the nuts and bolts of our new mission.

Pina described our current situation: although she established an Italian fiscal account for the ICBIE a year ago, we still cannot function as a bona fide non-profit association without having a physical office space and a telephone, operating with fixed office hours. So we have decided to actively pursue a search, so that by September we can begin to function, taking turns in manning the office.

The advantages are twofold:

• As a bona fide non-profit association, we can apply for grants and benefit from the Italian tax system, where donors can write-off their gifts or assign us 5/1000ths of their Italian tax payments.
• As a stable committee, we can plan an articulated series of events, informing the wider public of ICBIE’s noble mission and organizing fund-raisers.

We also discussed the status of ICBIE’s websites, and we agreed to help integrate icbie.com (the official website) with the new icbie.net blog, using a consistent format throughout.

The evening ended with a chorus of thanks to Pina and Gianfranco for the hospitality and the wonderful dinner.

CONVOCAZIONE DEL COMITATO ORGANIZZATIVO ICBIE di ROMA

In seguito al successo della manifestazione al LINUX del 21 scorso, voglio fare i complimenti e ringraziare tutto lo staff che si è impegnato entusiasticamente per raggiungere l’ottimo risultato.

Non vorrei perdere per l’occasione di lasciare questo bel gruppo inattivo per un anno intero e così si è deciso di nominare tutti voi membri del Comitato organizzativo al fine di elaborare un piano annuale di lavoro che preveda almeno altri 4 o 5 eventi culturali dell’ICBIE/Roma-Italia - con o senza sottoscrizione - fino alla prossima manifestazione di giugno 2008.

Poi vi è l’urgenza di avere una piccolissima sede con telefono e PC propri: un luogo dove si possa lavorare a turno un paio di volte a settimana, riunirsi, preparare gli eventi.

La lista dei seguenti nomi che mi piacerebbe accettassero di far parte del comitato organizzativo, è quella che penso possa essere efficace per dare più visibilità e grinta all’ICBIE/Roma-Italia, finora un po’ addormentata sul suolo italiano. Vorrei che fosse presieduta per motivi legali da Pina Madonna e Roy Zimmerman e piuttosto che venisse nominata una segretaria/o affiancata da un tecnico e per questo pure suggerirei Monica e Adriano quali candidati, ma ciò si potrà decidere a votazione tra voi stessi una volta accettata la carica di membri del comitato:

Anna Foglietta, Adriano Bonforti, Claudia Sobral, David Angelelli, Filippo Gatti, Ivan Prado Longhi, Loona Tirabassi, Marco Raganella, Margherita Cappelletto, Marida Moretti, Monica Bernardi, Paolo Mauriello.

Tutti i membri, insieme al presidente onoraio Roy Zimmerman, sono convocati da Pina Madonna alle 20,15 di mercoled, 27 giugno in via di Vigna Girelli (Portuense-Trullo). Segue cena!

Un abbraccio a tutti,

Pietro Gallina

Last night all the Roman friends of the ICBIE (and there are many!) turned out at the Linux Club for the fifth annual benefit evening. This tradition, begun by Marlene de Souza in 2003, while Pietro was in Salvador, preparing to purchase the property in Ribeira, has continued every June, always in a different venue, but with a growing number of faithful supporters. ICBIE president Pietro Gallina opened the evening with a brief presentation, saluting the throngs of his ex-students, then Roy Zimmerman proudly detailed the work of the Bridge to Bahia project at the American Overseas School, hoping to inspire other similar initiatives. The illustrious musicologist Mario Bortolotto then reminisced about the pleasures of Ribeira, the delights of the beaches and the beautiful girls. Pina Madonna (the administrator of ICBIE’s Italian office) spoke about her efforts to establish a fully-functioning organization in Italy, in order for the ICBIE to qualify for benefits from the Italian tax system (the famous cinque per mille that can be transfered to charitable organizations). To close the discussion, Pietro’s ex-student Anna Foglietta (now an affirmed actress) incited all the alumni of the Socrate high school to galvanize their efforts to sustain the ICBIE in the future.

Of course, seeing all the staunch friends together was the greatest part of the evening. “Il Commandante” Sandro Righi and his wife, the vice principals of both the Socrate Liceo and of the Moscati school, Monica Bernardi (who has brought the ICBIE to the attention of actors and actresses at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia), filmmaker Paolo Grassini (whose documentary, I Tamburi dell’Amazzonia, was premiered at the ICBIE’s inauguration), film directors Ulrik Bruel Gerber and Giuseppe Voltarelli, professor Carpiceci, actress Valentina Chico, George Eottos (an acclaimed cameraman who was at the ICBIE just last week), professor Guido Zaccagnini and RAI journalist Sabina Sacchi (with their daughter Carlotta), music teacher Paige Short and Grant Thompson (a New Zealander who works in high tech satellite imaging), professor Tony Brophy, writer Michael Sullivan, photographer Valerio Bispuri, AOSR teachers Daniele Dattilo (who is off for Salvador on Monday) Gabriella Gangi, Victoria Pasquantonio and Alessandra Cozzi, artist Kim Gallimore (with her mom), Rosa de Bellis’s sister Ginevra and her boyfriend, were all present.

The musical performances began with the mellow jazz of Claudio Zenobbio on trumpet, accompanied by Gaia Possenti. Accompanied by the Sina Quartet, Patrizia del Vasco followed, singing a wonderful set of pieces by Vinicius de Moraes, taken from her new record “Valsa de Euridice”. Members of the Sina Quartet also accompanied the Brazilian singer Jony Porto, who was brought by Caetano Veloso’s manager, performing classic tunes from the Bahian tradition.

Filippo Gatti took the stage with his guitar, presenting his intimate moods.

As the evening progressed, more and more people kept streaming in, enticed by the great dance music presented by DJ Adriano Bonforti, with assistance from Paolo Mauriello. The happy drinking and dancing continued until 3 AM, and by the end of the evening, more than five hundred people had attended, making this the biggest ICBIE benefit ever!

Buongiorno,

Mi chiamo Daniele e sono un’insegnante di francese e di italiano per stranieri. Mi sono appena iscritto al blog e questo è il mio primo messaggio. Sono un neo-arrivato nella squadra dell’ICBIE in quanto mi offro volontario come collaboratore. Devo dire che difficilmente riesco a nascondere la mia emozione questi giorni perché sono prossimo alla partenza, lunedì prossimo mi imbarco per Salvador dove darò anch’io un contributo. Insegnerò le lingue e avrò l’opportunità di aiutare persone che hanno bisogno… questa cosa mi riempie di gioia perché a Roma di solito insegno ai figli di persone facoltose…

Questo mio primo intervento vuole essere un semplice biglietto da visita e un piccolo invito a tutti coloro che vogliono scambiare due chiacchiere sull’argomento. Spero di portare all’ICBIE un programma che possa essere utile (ma anche piacevole!) e di vivere una bella esperienza.

Ciao

Daniele.

After a last-minute shuffle, the ICBIE Benefit evening is planned out in every detail.

First of all, the venue has been changed to the Linux Club (Via Libetta 15c, 00154 Roma - tel. 06.57250551), which is just off the Via Ostiense, near the Roma Tre University and the Garbatella Metro Station.

The evening will begin in earnest at 9:30 PM on Thursday, with a conference led by I.C.B.I.E.’s President, Pietro Gallina, supported by the following people:

• Giuseppina Madonna - ICBIE Administrator in Italy
• Guido Zaccagnini - Musician, Professor and RAI journalist
• Roy Zimmerman - Musician and Honorary President off the I.C.B.I.E.
• Mario Bortolotto - Musicologist, writer and journalist

The conference will be followed by a lot of music:

• Patrizia del Vasco sings Vinicius de Moraes: introducing her new record “Valsa de Euridice”.
• Filippo Gatti: Roman songwriter, ex-leader of the group “Elettrojoyce,” currently working on his new album.
• Sina Quartet: A young and eclectic quartet specializing in latin-jazz and funk sounds, reinterpreting tunes from the African-American and Brazilian cultures.
• Gaia Possenti: this delicate and refined pianist who found jazz amidst her classical studies also has a passion for teaching.

The evening will conclude with a demonstration of Capoeira.

A donation (minimum 5 Euros) will be requested upon entry, to help the I.C.B.I.E. to realize its dreams.  Please come and bring all your friends!

Full information (in Italian) at: linux-club.org

The D’Artagnan festival in Amsterdam has finished and, thanks to Pietro and Mary Norris, news is trickling through. Sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute, the festival covered a seven day period, with contrasting events held in different places around the city, to illustrate the multi-faceted talents of D’Artagnan. His youthful passion for music was honored with an opening concert on June 4th at the Keizersgracht church, where the Ensemble Duomo played Fellini film music by Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone. June 6th brought a street party at the Paramariboplein, with Fellinian costumes, Venetian masks and a circus show by Triomfo Infanti. Mary arrived from New York in time for that event, and described it as “a Dolce Vita party, with people dressed as Fellini and Giulietta Massina and clownish puttane (Gradisca?) . . . There was a runway, and a lot of strutting in dark glasses.” A troupe from Italian RAI TV was there, collecting material for a future D’Artagnan documentary. Mary raved about the six musicians of the Fietsarmonik Orkestra (a cymballist, tuba, accordion, two saxes, and a cornet), that arrived–lined up on a bicycle. “They rode around the park a few times and then came in and played. It got better later, when the cook (they made pasta for fifty) started strumming a guitar and singing, and the old accordionist tried to jam with him, and finally all the other band members went and got their instruments and just played all night and everybody danced in the square. Roberto Rizzo, the wonderful photographer that went with Ella to Ribeira, was there, dancing around with his camera.” Mary sent the photos below, but there are hundreds more at
www.buurt-online.nl/amsterdam/baarsjes/.

June 7th was the busiest day, with a 5 PM vernissage of the exhibition of D’Artagnan mask-portraits (which continues until June 30th) at the D&T Fenice Hotel on the Prinsengracht, and a cocktail at its wonderful old bar. Mary enjoyed both the art and the venue: “I’d never thought of them as a separate genre–in fact, I thought of it as a portrait gallery when I came in. It’s a sweet show, and the bar is very low and dark, with a door onto a road along a canal, with some trees. It stays light out here till almost eleven at night. There was free-flowing prosecco, just the way I like it.” (Mary has posted some pictures of the show on her blog: http://alternatesideparking.blogspot.com/.) But there was no time to linger. At 8:30 PM came an exclusive, invitations-only evening at the Italian Cultural Institute, where amidst an assortment of D’Artagnan memorabilia and photos, our own Professor Pietro Gallina gave a lecture that centered upon his new biography, while Mary Norris and Ella Arps added their appreciation of the master’s genius. A fine new film, “Sognando Fellini,” by Alberto Felicetti was shown, where D’Artagnan drawings are superimposed over snippets from three Fellini movies made at the time as the sketches. The evening was again filmed by the Italian documentary team, led by Pietro’s talented former student, Monica.

The D’Artagnan celebrations finished on Sunday, June 10th, with a 3:30 PM showing of Fellini’s Amarcord and Toby Damitt at the Filmmuseum in the Vondelpark. Pietro, rather than returning straight to Rome, suddenly veered off to Brussels, where he is making new artistic contacts for the ICBIE.

I have less than 24 hours left in Ribeira; sadly, by tomorrow at this time, I will be at the airport in Salvador, waiting to board the flight back to Rome. I have just one more night of listening to the buses rumbling by outside my window, just one more evening to see the sun set over the bay, just one more night to say goodbye to all the folks I have gotten to know in my almost eight weeks here. And, of course, just one more morning of hearing “BraaaasilllGaaaaaaasss” and making the trek on Marlene’s bicycle into Uruguai to say goodbye to all the people I met and worked with there as well.

I will not miss the noise, nor the dirty rainwater splashing up onto my pants, and I have to say that I think I am looking forward to being able to communicate again WITH EASE with those around me…however, at the same time, I am sure that when I am back in the relative quiet of Rome (because compared to here, Rome really is quiet), I will be thinking fondly of the sounds of voices outside my window, buses, and the music/publicity that blares from speakers on bicycles, speakers in cars, speakers in pushcarts (it’s a wonder these people aren’t deaf by now), and laughing at the memory of how so many people continued to persist in their efforts to speak to me, even though I repeatedly said to them that I had no idea what they were saying…

At the same time, I am a bit sorry that I didn’t see more of Brazil (or for that matter, even of Bahia, or even of Salvador!) than Ribeira and Uruguai BUT at the same time, since I did not come here as a tourist but as a volunteer, I am also quite satisfied with my time, because by staying put in one place and hanging out with the same people all the time, I actually developed relationships and friendships with them, rather than one-time conversations or encounters that would not endure. I feel, really and truly, that IF!!! (who knows?!) I were ever to come back here, I would have a “home” and that I would really be welcomed back as a friend of many. I think that if I had not spent the last nine months traveling around as a volunteer, living out of my suitcase and off of other people’s hospitality, I would be tempted to stay longer, but as it is, I have made what has been for me a big tour around the world, and I am ready to unpack my suitcases and move back into my home and my life as I know it again.

Many thanks to Roy for encouraging me to come to Salvador; thanks also to Pietro for his enthusiastic response to my emails, also encouraging me to come; a big big thank you to Marlene for her gracious hospitality, particularly each morning when I went knocking on her door seeking my morning coffee…

Teaching English here at ICBIE was just one part of the experience; just as important are the memories and acquaintances and friendships that resulted from being here…too many people and too many memories to write them all down in this blog. Suffice it to say that I am absolutely happy to have had the opportunity to be a part of this project, and I encourage anyone who has any interest in it, to try to get here and experience it yourself!

Two teachers from the American Overseas School of Rome have added English language instruction to the ICBIE’s curriculum. After Rosa de Bellis started the program last summer (with an unprecedented wave of enthusiasm), during the month of May, Michelle Falcinelli offered another round, with two five-day-per-week classes, one for younger students (starting at ten years old) and another for young adults (the oldest was 49-year-old Carlos, Ribeira’s famous green grocer). Despite a frustrating inconsistency, Michelle found great satisfaction from, in her words, “those few super consistent, super hard workers who took lots of initiative, participated a lot, did everything I asked and… were awesome.” Her greatest challenge came from pronunciation: “especially “th” … one night after hearing too many “birFdays”, I decided to tell them what a BARF BAG was, and the pronunciation, versus birTHday and its pronunciation. Everyone got a laugh out of that one! Another unexpected pronunciation difficulty was with “R” at the beginning of words, so for them Restaurant was Hestaurant, and so on.”

As always, Michelle was swept away with the the wonderful community of Ribeira, and her description captures the intense human rhythms:

“I have loved all the people I have met, and they have been many. I am already a pretty outgoing person, so I am always out and about either taking walks, or riding one of the bicycles here; plus I found the Catholic churches to go to, so I met loads of people: I know the cashiers at the two closest supermarkets, a lovely couple at the fruit shop, the guy at the newsstand, who knows me as the one who buys Marlene a copy of A Tarde every Sunday morning, plus all the church ladies and the priest of course, who then took it upon himself to introduce me to anyone he knew spoke English. Then of course Joseph at the bar across the way (Pietro’s “Teatro”) and Silvio at the orfanatrofo, who also yabbers at me in Portuguese even though I have repeatedly told him NON INTENDO NADA (because poi alla fine faccio finto di capire since they take no notice and continue talking). Not to forget Orlando and Nailton, who are two waiters at one of the locales where we found the cheapest caipirinha; the padrone of tres irmaos pizzeria; and Cristian and Daniela who make beijous at the weekend. There are others but I can’t forget Lu. She is amazing. I went to her evangelical church last Sunday, and THAT was interesting!) Then Gilberto from the bike shop, who took me on an all day giro a couple Sundays ago, reminiscent of The Motorcycle Diaries: we wound around and around thru all the worst neighborhoods because he knows I have this passionate interest in the poor and understanding their lives…mamma mia, I cannot believe how many people I have gotten to know, seriously, every time I go out even for just ten minutes, I see someone I know who stops to chat at least for a few min…”

Michelle finished her courses on May 30th, but because the next day was her birthday, everyone came back for a party!

At least the kids won’t have to wait too long for their next round of English lessons, as AOSR’s Daniele Dattilo will be arriving in about three weeks. He will also teach a course in beginning French!

(Photos by Davide Diacci)