“Fears and Hopes” of Project Gutenberg

Long live the “Project Gutenberg Calabria – Multimedia and Music Book Fair”! Who, this year too, as a sniper patient in his stalking and infallible in his execution, hits the spirit of the times. Crossed by disturbing fears and, at the same time, by great hopes. And “Fears and Hopes” is the title of the XXI edition of “Gutenberg”, taking place from 20 to 25 May. Despite serious financial difficulties and annoying stumbles, Armando Vitale, strategic mind of the “Project”, and Rosetta Falbo, enlightened guide of the Liceo Classico Galluppi of Catanzaro (which boasts an immense library named after Giovanni Mastroianni), together with a slew of teachers and enthusiasts of the book, set up a sparkling laboratory of ideas. Condensed into an itinerary that engages students from fifty Calabrian schools in reading texts of pressing current affairs and ends with a face-to-face comparison with international signatures. As always, going beyond stereotypes and cultural provincialisms, the “Project” – which received the applause of the President of the Republic Ciampi and the prestigious Andersen prize in 2019 “for being capable of growing over time in the name of ideas, passion and competence and for having placed the importance and educational value of the book at the centre, starting from schools” – has the ambition of cultivating the talent of children and of being a bridge between the Calabria that reads and thinks and the Italian humanistic and scientific. From the school routine and the asphyxiated public debate, often manipulated and emphasized by social network centers, to the critical evaluation of the problems that affect society and pose Hamlet-like questions about the present and the future. The network of Calabrian institutes inspired by the logic of “Gutenberg” is all this. A collective and intelligent representation of authentic reflections, based on knowledge of the past and the pursuit of truth in its multifaceted and ever-changing unfolding. The result of long months of work behind the scenes, which, by disseminating books, enhancing reading at school, hosting authors and inundating them with questions, contributes to making Calabria an open society. Revealing it not only in its stretches of border land, but also in its being a land of rules, strong spirits, kindness, thought and culture, civil duty and ethical commitment. Calabria, as Leonida Repaci said, is a “moral category before a geographical expression”.