AGI – Giovanni Caccamo brought the Italian voice of young people to the UN headquarters in New York. The Sicilian singer-songwriter discovered by Franco Battiato and who made himself known at the Sanremo Festival in 2016 in the big category with the song “Via da qui”, brought his project “Parola ai youth” to the United States. Together with Jesse Paris Smith, daughter of Patti Smith, Caccamo met the young people who arrived from all over the world to attend the event in the hall of the Economic and Social Council, in the name of peace, inclusion and sustainable development.
“We live in the most fervent era, the era of love and opportunity – he said in his speech, read in English – Bach composed his ‘toccata and fugue in D minor’ at the age of twenty, Michelangelo he sculpted the Pietà at 23 and painted the Sistine Chapel at 33, Steve Jobs founded Apple at 21” and Malala “became the youngest winner of a Nobel Peace Prize thanks to her commitment to defending educational rights, Lewis Carroll at At 33 he wrote ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and Walt Disney invented Mickey Mouse at 27.” “And U.S? – added Caccamo – our time has come”. The singer, much applauded, launched an invitation not to feel alone, to believe that “diversity is a value” to understand that “there is no victory without failures”, to “feel alive”.
The intervention, on the occasion of the international youth forum ‘Change the World Model UN’, is part of the international project to which the artist is linked and which sees the involvement of numerous universities and youth organizations. Caccamo is expected at a series of meetings in the most prestigious universities in the world, from Yale to Harvard, and then Berklee College of Music, other stops in Brazil, Mexico, the University of Tokyo and the Sorbonne in Paris. “What would you change about the society you live in – Caccamo asked the young people – what is your word for change?”. The meeting was attended by, among others, the undersecretary of the Vatican culture department Antonio Spadaro, the Canadian composer and cellist Rebecca Foon and the philanthropist Alessia Zanelli.
“Together – Jessie Smith recalled in her speech – we possess the extraordinary ability to bring unprecedented change. We can design green cities that are not only the expression of innovation but to reach the goal of zero emissions by 2040, if not sooner.” “Cities – she added – where you must not just simply live but thrive and make them points of reference for sustainable development and well-being”. “But we must start today,” she warned, “let the International Day of Conscience act as a spark for action” and realize “our vision for a renewable, more just and equitable world.” That day, dedicated to inclusion and building a world of peace, was celebrated yesterday.
