Stories, poetry and words for the European day of languages

On Sunday the 23rd of September, a unique combination of slam poetry, storytelling, music and video saw the light at the Città dell’Altra Economia in the heart of Testaccio, a historical area of Rome. Racconti d’Europa chose to celebrate the European day of languages by bringing together 9 international performers who create and narrate worlds through words. The event took place both outdoors and indoors on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

All storytellers and slam poets were chosen for their international background. They are all polyglots that travel around the world, transmitting stories and poems in different social, linguistic and cultural contexts.

At 4 pm, three storytellers captured the attention of a group of 25 children at the Tana Liberi Tutti. Sophilia Tsorteki, Sophie Heydel and Angela Sajeva told stories in Greek, English and Italian to their young audience.

In the meantime, the outdoor stage was kept alive with a DJ set by Marco Bonetti, and visitors could stream through the informational material that was distributed at the EuropeanCommission-Representation in Italy stand. 

The performances started at 5 pm on the outdoor stage. We started with one hour of slam poetry with Jessy James LaFleur from Germany, Miss Elli from Belgium, Simone Savogin and Francesca Gironi from Italy.

At 6 pm the storytellers came on stage to share the myth of Melusina. The co-telling performance brought together Mimesis Heidi Dahlsveen from Norway, Angela Sajeva from Italy, Sophilia Tsorteki from Greece, Malgorzata Litwinowic from Poland and Sophie Heydel from the UK.

At 7 pm the audience moved to the conference hall in which we showed the short film Roma Anima Mundi.

This was the first public screening of the film, which was produced by the association Cultural Pro and the EuropeanCommission Representation in Italy last May, in occasion of the World Day of Cultural Diversity. On the set, 60 people living in Rome and all speaking different languages came together to share a text of their choice in their mother tongue. So the film shows the beauty and musicality of languages, as well as their value as shared cultural heritage.

The venue was an open space with a lot of passage. So the audience was composed of both the people that were reached through direct invitations and social media, as well as curious passers-by.

For more information and visual documentation of the event:
RACCONTI D’EUROPA

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