The appointments concluded on Friday 10 May Zero Festival, the literary review dedicated to adolescents and in particular to students of lower secondary schools in Legnano, in which several authors participated, held in the park of the Legnano Civic Library, the main organizer of the event.
Photo gallery
Zero Festival 2024 4 of 14
Closing the five days of meetings, games and workshops was the author present on Thursday 9th Sumaya Abdel Qader with her book “In Search of Me”.
This is the first novel for children by the authorwhich dedicated itself for a year to the study of youth behavior and to the collection of stories of boys and girls from which to draw inspiration. The protagonist girl, Fairùz, is a thirteen-year-old of Arab origins who lives in Milan and finds herself facing the typical difficulties of adolescenceand at the same time tries to understand herself and her identity, torn between being Italian and being Arabfacing those who don’t accept her for who she is, in an attempt to understand who she is and who she wants to be.
The protagonist has many similarities with the author, although many of the events take inspiration from the stories she collected in preparation for writing the book. “I am of Jordanian-Palestinian origin. In my life I have struggled to understand whether I was closer to my origins or whether I was more Italian, until… I have learned to accept my plurality – said the author -. Being Italian means loving the country and wanting its good. Abroad I feel Italian, I speak the language better and I know its history better. However, not all Italians recognize this, and racism can arise from this mentality. Fairùz also has prejudices, but instead of generalizing she tries to work on herself. I thought it was important to make even very young people reflect on this.”
In the discussion the boys faced tmature issues such as racism, prejudice, discrimination against those who are openly Muslim, the formation of an open and mature mentality, the responsibility of voting, and also questions about current events. In fact, many kids wanted to know how Qader is experiencing the current conflict in Palestine, given his origins: “I have not suffered discrimination and I talk about it with my friends and family. It is a situation that is testing our ability to dialogue and believe in freedom – she said – I wish more would be done to find alternative solutions to war.”
The last meeting of the Zero Festival proved stimulating for both the author and the students, concluding the annual event in style.
