Letters to Italy Sara Marinelli

Writer and radio producer Sara Marinelli introduces the series by sharing some of her Letters to Italy that she has been writing since the onset of the pandemic. Through a collage of voice-memos, phone calls, radio news, journal entries, and music recorded on Italian balconies, Sara explores her sense of belonging and ways to connect from afar with the country she left fourteen years ago.***Since recording this episode, Italy’s vaccination plan has sped up. 13% of the population ha...

The second episode of "Letters to Italy" by Sara Marinelli features Valentina Imbeni, founder and head of La Scuola International, an Italian-American school in San Francisco fostering the Reggio Emilia's approach to education. Valentina grew up in Bologna, and has lived in the Bay Area for twenty years.La Scuola is one of the few schools in San Francisco that offered in-person classes after the first wave of the pandemic. Valentina shares the challenges and efforts to keep the school o...

The third episode of "Letters to Italy" by Sara Marinelli features Lucina Di Meco, gender expert and women’s rights advocate. She is the author of #ShePersisted. Women, Politics & Power in the New Media World, and serves as the Senior Director of Girls’ Education & Gender Equality at "Room to Read." She grew up in Liguria, and has lived in the USA since 2007, and in the Bay Area for the last five years.While in Episode 2, Valentina Imbeni told us about the efforts to keep a loca...

The fourth episode of "Letters to Italy" by Sara Marinelli features Lorenzo Ortona, Consul General of Italy in San Francisco.Lorenzo Ortona recalls some of the most difficult moments the Italian diaspora on the West Coast went through when Italy was first hit by the pandemic, as well as the challenges that he and his team faced in support of the community.As Lorenzo's mandate is set to end this June, he also considers some of the highlights of five years in office in the vast Consulate’...

The fifth episode of "Letters to Italy" by Sara Marinelli features Angelo Greco, principal dancer at San Francisco Ballet.Angelo tells the story of how from the prestigious Opera theater of La Scala in Milano, he relocated to San Francisco in order to perform every night. Until everything changed. When the world of performing arts came to a standstill because of Covid, the 2020 SF Ballet season was cancelled, and the current one was produced in an empty theater.Angelo sh...

The sixth episode of "Letters to Italy" by Sara Marinelli features Laura Inserra, world-renown hang musician, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. Laura tells the story of how from the restrictions of her Sicilian background, she moved to the Bay Area in 2006 to experiment with new professional possibilities in music and technology.Unable to perform, teach, and produce music events during the pandemic, Laura did live streams of what she describes as sound journeys - called "S...