Contributed by Natalie L. Berkman
Venus Febriculosa’s Dante Initiative
In 1965, the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the birth of Dante was marked in the United States (as elsewhere, including, of course, Italy) by the issuance of a commemorative postage stamp.
Fifty years on, in recognition of Dante’s 750th birthday*, we are pleased to introduce The New Dante Initiative which will explore the legacy and meaning of Dante’s life and work through art and design in the form of a new conceptual/hypothetical commemorative postage stamp. We are issuing an open call for submissions in addition to inviting established artists and graphic designers to participate.
The New Dante Initiative is a collaborative venture between Venus Febriculosa, Marco Sonzogni (Victoria University of Wellington), and artists, designers, scholars, and institutions, culminating in the projected publication of a book.
Linda Pastan, “Summer Triptych” (2015)
Selection from “Summer Triptych” by Linda Pastan:
“Swathed from head to toe
in seeming veils of muslin,
the figure in the Nantucket fog
poles along the shoreline on a flat barge.
It could be Charon transporting souls
across the River Styx, or just
another fisherman in a hoodie,
trolling for bluefish
on the outgoing tide.”
Published on Poem-a-Day (June 12, 2015)
Rod Dreher, How Dante Can Save Your Life (2015)
In his 2015 book, How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem, writer Rod Dreher explores, from an ex-Catholic perspective, how the Commedia helped him come out of a deep depression.
“Dante helped Dreher understand the mistakes and mistaken beliefs that had torn him down and showed him that he had the power to change his life. Dreher knows firsthand the solace and strength that can be found in Dante’s great work, and distills its wisdom for those who are lost in the dark wood of depression, struggling with failure (or success), wrestling with a crisis of faith, alienated from their families or communities, or otherwise enduring the sense of exile that is the human condition.” —Simon & Schuster
Contributed by Marija Petkovic, Stanford University ’18
Censorship and Betrayal in Russia
Rachel Donadio‘s article for The New York Times, “Russian Artists Face a Choice: Censor Themselves, or Else,” discusses the difference between legislation and enforcement of censorship in contemporary Russian theater.
“Russia has a thriving theater scene and a constitution that bans top-down, Soviet-style censorship. But in a time of economic turmoil and growing nationalism, with society polarized in unpredictable and emotional ways over the new laws and the war in Ukraine, cultural figures say the message from the government is clear: Fall in line with the emphasis on family and religious values, or lose funding, or worse.
“‘It’s about betrayal — those who betray are put in the Ninth Circle of Hell, like in Dante,’ Kirill Serebrennikov, a prominent theater and film director and the director of the Gogol Center, a cornerstone of Moscow’s theater scene, said in a recent interview here. The result, he said, was to put writers and directors ‘between Scylla and Charybdis — between censorship or self-censorship.'” —The New York Times
Read the entire article here.
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