euskalkultura.eus

Rome, Italy.  The “@roma vasco-euskara” festival will conclude today and tomorrow, organized by the Associazione Culturale Euskara (ACE) and the Basque Language Department at the UPTER University, also in Rome.  The festival is a new edition of an initiative that initially began as a week-long showcase of Basque culture, traditional and more modern, even avant-garde and contemporary, for the local public to enjoy.  This year it has been expanded to nearly a month of activities.

 The festival, in its final stretch, includes a poetic-musical show entitled “Intermezzi/Interludes at the Baffo della Gioconda room.  It will feature musician and writer Xabier Montoia, the Italian poet David Santoro, the singer/musician from Eibar Mursego, and musician Ibon Rodriguez among others, who will put Basque and Italian verse to music.  The closing acts will take place tomorrow at the Il Cantiere center with a concert by Xabier Montoia, Mursego and Ibon Rodriguez along with the local band Jorona.

Bertsolaris and poets

Artists, creators, and various disciplines have come together during the festival.  It began on November 30^th with a presentation and food tasting in the Giufá library.  The next day, American singer Laurie Amaty and the group Ckoroma gave a concert at the Circolo ARCI Dal Verma (CKoroma is a Basque-Roman group that sings in Euskera).  On Saturday December 3^rd, Myriam Aizager, director from Hendaia, presented a documentary “Ni Nuzu, Mur(s).”

Another interesting activity was the “Bertsolari/Poet” night that took place on December 9^th at the Circolo Gianni Bosio.  There was an interesting round table on improvisation and bertsolaritza, with berstolari and sociolinguist Jon Sarasua, the poet Giampiero Giamogant and the ethnomusicologist Serena Salvatori.  Following the discussion, the documentary “Bertsolari” by Asier Altuna was screened with subtitles in Italian, translated by the ACE.

An extract from the “Bertsolari/Poet” night:

Pintxo!

Last Saturday, the festival united gastronomy and poetry with “Pintxo!” at the Dome Rock Café.  On the one hand, Asier Oyarzabal, chef from Donostia, displayed his art, preparing pintxos, to which they sang “bertsos” (in Basque, according to the Basque tradition and in Italian, according to the Italian one) the improvisers included: Donato De Acutis, Giampiero Giamogante, Matteo Mencattini  and the Basque  Jon Sarasua.

[A “pintxo” tasting performed by Asier Oyarzabal and seasoned with bertsos and wine (photo Euskara.it)]

For more information and photos on their Facebook page here:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/euskata.it