Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

The Sky Over Kibera (2019 film)

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“THE SKY OVER KIBERA is an art film: it tells us about the ‘bringing to life’ of the Divine Comedy in the immense slum of Nairobi, Kibera, where the director has worked with 150 children and adolescents, reinventing Dante’s masterpiece in English and Swahili. And he does so with his poetic and visionary style, interweaving other images with the filming of the play, sequences shot specifically in the slum to carry out the alchemical operation of transforming theatre into cinema. Three teenagers from Nairobi offer face and voice to Dante, Virgil, and Beatrice: they are the guides that lead the viewer into the labyrinth of Kibera, where the ‘dark forest’ in which the poet is lost is more than just a metaphor: in Swahili, Kibera means ‘forest.’ Around them a chorus swarming with bodies recites the tumult of being both beasts and damned, thieves and murderers, devils and corrupt politicians and poets who indicate the ways of salvation: between songs and acting, frenetic races and wild dances, the 150 protagonists give life to a fresco full of moving poetry, further confirmation of the universality of Dante’s masterpiece.” [. . .]    —Teatro Delle Albe

View the trailer here.

Image credit Andrea Signori

Contributed by Silvia Valisa (Florida State University)

Exhibit: Klaus Wrage illustratore della Divina Commedia

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“La mostra presenta 36 xilografie di Klaus Wrage, artista espressionista tedesco, sulla Divina Commedia da una collezione privata, in occasione delle celebrazioni per i 700 anni dalla morte di Dante Alighieri.

“L’evento rappresenta la magia di un incontro, quello fra le immagini di un maestro dimenticato e i vertici più alti della poesia di tutti i tempi, cioè i versi del Sommo poeta Dante. L’incontro, che per Klaus Wrage ha avuto un peso decisivo nella sua vita (è lui stesso a definirlo salvifico) ci rivela anche l’aspetto universale dell’opera più pubblicata al mondo dopo la Bibbia, un primato che fa della Divina Commedia uno dei fenomeni letterari che maggiormente hanno inciso sulla cultura internazionale.” [. . .]    —Associazione per la promozione artistica e culturale del Lago Maggiore (AMALAGO)

The exhibit ran from June 5th – June 27th, 2021.

See our post on Klaus Wrage’s illustrations here.

“Dante in Greece” Conference (Athens, 2021)

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Dante-700-greece-conference“The ‘Dante and Greece‘ International Conference is part of the vast programme of Dante celebrations put in place to mark the seven hundredth anniversary of the death of the Supreme Poet. This initiative is also inspired by the bicentenary of Greek independence (1821-2021) and promoted by the Italian Philhellenic Society and by other Italian, Greek and Cypriot institutions.

“One of the stages of the conference will be at the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens on 30 September. The conference will discuss the extraordinary influence that Dante has exerted and indeed still continues to exert on Greek and Cypriot literature, from Kavafis to Kazantzakis, from Sikelianòs to Prevelakis. Italian and international scholars will be taking part.

“At 8 pm Dante Night will begin, with a screening of ‘L’inferno di Dante‘, a silent film by Bertolini, de Liguori and Padovan (1911). The film will be accompanied by a musical performance featuring saxophone and live electronics by Marco Castelli, who composed the arrangements.

“The preview of the exhibition ‘Dante: l’immaginazione delle immagini‘ (Dante: The Imagination of Images) will follow. The Divine Comedy today: an artistic dialogue between Greek and Italian painters 700 years after the Poet’s death. The exhibition is curated by Konstantinos Moussas.    —Italiana

For more information on the Convegno: Dante e la Grecia, see here.

“In cammino con Dante”: Istituto italiano di cultura di Istanbul

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“L’Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Istanbul ha organizzato il ciclo di incontri online ‘In cammino con Dante,’ una serie di 8 di letture drammatizzate e critiche di canti scelti dalla Divina Commedia, con il patrocinio dell’Ambasciata d’Italia in Turchia e la collaborazione del Dipartimento di Lingue e Letteratura Italiana dell’Università di Ankara.

“L’iniziativa realizzata nel corso dell’anno, con cadenza mensile da aprile a dicembre 2021, fa parte del ricco programma di eventi per il 700 anniversario della morte di Dante Alighieri.”   –Institute of Italian Culture, Istanbul

Dante’s HiFi in Miami

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dantes-hifi-interior“Dante’s HiFi isn’t looking to be Miami’s next megaclub or — God forbid — another Tulum-inspired hot spot. Instead, its claim to fame is a more modest one: It’s the city’s first Japanese-style listening bar.

“For those unfamiliar with the concept, Japan’s listening bars are an audiophile’s dream — a place where you can sit down, drink, and feast your ears on the expertly curated playlist. The quality of the speakers, amps, turntables, and mixers are just as important as the cocktails being served. As Resident Advisor notes about the culture: ‘It’s rooted in the joy of discovering music and listening to that music in the best possible environment.’

“That means Dante’s is not the kind of place where the music is so loud that your only option is to dance on the furniture while bottle sparklers go off every five minutes. Here, you’re expected to sit down, speak in hushed tones, and, most importantly, listen.”    – Jose D. Duran, Miami New Times, October 6, 2021

Notice the statue of Rodin’s Thinker (modeled after the poet) on the back wall!

How to Cite

Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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