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Drs. Ann Wilkins and David Wilkins, two of the curators of the Sisters in Liberty: From Florence, Italy to New York, New York exhibition at the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration (October 18, 2019—April 26, 2020), will discuss Pio Fedi’s monumental Libertà della Poesia (1883) on the tomb of the Risorgimento author Giambattista Niccolini in the church of Santa Croce, in Florence.

The illustrated talk will emphasize the relationship between Fedi’s statue and Liberty Enlightening the World in New York Harbor (a.k.a. the Statue of Liberty) and discuss how these contemporaneous images of Liberty grew out of the struggles for self-determination that swept across Europe during the 19th century.

Ann Thomas Wilkins and David G. Wilkins are Senior Faculty at Duquesne University’s Rome Program. David is Professor Emeritus of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh and Ann is retired from Duquesne’s  Department of Classics. They were living in Florence during the Arno Flood of November 4, 1966, and have traveled around the globe, teaching, leading study tours, and exploring new and old examples of art and popular culture. They have authored/co-authored many articles and books, including Art Past/Art Present, A History of Italian Renaissance Art, The Big Book of Art, and Villain or Hero: Sallust’s Portrayal of Catiline. They provided entries for two recent guidebooks: City Secrets: Rome and City Secrets: Florence and the Hill Towns. Their most recent publication is Cass Gilbert’s West Virginia State Capitol.

In ENGLISH.

Following the publication of his book "L’italiano è Meraviglioso. Come e perché dobbiamo salvare la nostra lingua", Claudio Marazzini, the President of the century-old institution Accademia della Crusca, gives a lecture about the importance of preserving and promoting the Italian language. Event in Italian.

Claudio Marazzini, is the president of the Academy of The Crusca and professor of the history of the Italian language at the University of Eastern Piedmont. The author of more than two hundred publications, he is co-director of the journal "Language and Style", a member of ASLI and SIG, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Turin.

 Event in Italian

The Week of the Italian Language in the World, is under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic and is an event promoted yearly by Italy’s cultural and diplomatic network abroad in the third week of October. This 19th edition’s main theme is “Italian language on the stage”: one full week enriched by book presentations and staged reading where language and literature will be at the centre of the scene.

Friday, October 25, at 5pm  Cludio Marazzini will be at CUNY Graduate Center (365 Fifth Avenue, room 9206, 9th. floor) for a talk on: Com'era difficile essere autore di teatro in Italia: una lingua alla ricerca del vero parlato - How difficult it was to be a playwright in Italy: a language in search of true "parlato".
In collaboration with the Dip. of Comparative Literature CUNY.