ITHACA DIARY CONTEST

The ITHACA life story contest celebrated its finalists in Pieve Santo Stefano, Italy, on 14 September, from 10:30 to 12:30

HERE THE LINK TO THE EVENT VIDEO

Launched last winter to collect testimonies of migrations across the Mediterranean region, the call achieved great success, leading to the collection of 47 contributions from 7 countries and spanning various codes, from audio testimonies to monologues, songs, short documentaries and films, as well as photographs and paintings. Along ITHACA countries and beyond, 25 (more or less all units included) volunteers participated in 8 reading committees, who selected 18 of these stories for publication in an e-book.

The variety of languages used by the authors mirrors the plurality of viewpoints and voices, which debunk anti-migration stereotypes and hate speech through the direct narration of women and men who shared their personal or family experiences.

A place of memory

The celebration of the Contest finalists happens in a special place, a little town in central Italy, Pieve Santo Stefano, razed into the ground by the retreating German army in 1944. Forty years later, in 1984, the Archive of Diaries was founded there by Saverio Tutino to collect and preserve the memory of Italians. Over the years, many other stories have been added to those memories. In 2012, the DIMMI initiative started to collect migrant diaries (the Italian acronym stands for Multimedia Migrant Memory Diaries) and today ITHACA collaborates with it to safeguard an indispensable heritage of memory, as the migrant narratives are.

The future of the ITHACA Diary Contest

The 18 finalist narratives will be published in an e-book, available on this website next December.

This flexible format will allow stories to be stored and disseminated, enriched with links and descriptions of the non-written texts.

Stay tuned!