Thank you to all who contributed and attended the VDSA 2019 fundraiser! As well as helping to fund the association’s ongoing programs, the fundraiser is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the association’s achievements, connect with other members and enjoy an evening of good food, entertainment and maybe even a raffle prize or two! See you all next time, VDSA
(Photos courtesy of Elio Locasino)
The making of this book has been an incredible, generous effort from a number of VDSA members. My many thanks to all those who participated.
The book was shortlisted for Premio Pieve 2013 and has received many praises from some of the most important Italian literary reviewers. It has been written that Valerio’s book is not only a travel journal but the newest adventure story, a love story, a book of initiation, a labyrinthian hypertext.
-Vittoria Pasquini, VDSA President
Valerio’s secondary school, the International Grammar School, hosted a Music Night for its thirtieth anniversary, dedicated to Valerio’s memory. Australian musician Paul Jarman composed a song whose lyrics are the words to one of Valerio’s poems, published in his first book ‘Love for the Turning World’.
ORANGE TREE
By Valerio De Simoni, with Paul Jarman & Bonnie Nilsson
Orange tree
Beneath my window
In the garden
Look at the beauty I see
Orange tree
Beneath my window
In the garden
Blossoming all for me
Grown from a single seed
Orange tree
What beauty
Little orange tree
One can learn much from an orange tree
Purity, mother tree
It’s children sweet and full of love
Oh little orange tree
Grown from a single seed
On the occasion of Vittoria Pasquini and her brother Massimo Pasquini’s visit to the place of the accident, a group consisting of the local community, the Italian ambassador to Zambia, the Italian honorary consul to Malawi, a representative of the Australian ambassador to Zimbabwe and the Oxfam representative to Malawi gathered to commemorate the life of Valerio.
A memorial stone was erected at the site in Valerio’s memory, may it live forever.
This short film by documentary filmmakers Lorenzo Conte and Gabrielle Gianni fuses passages of text from Valerio’s diaries read by Giulio Petushi with footage recorded during the expedition.
On the 17th of September, the VDSA held a press conference at the Auditorium in Rome presenting “Diari di Viaggio – Travel Journals”, the second volume of Valerio’s diaries to be released. A variety of speakers, including literary critic Filippo La Porta, writer and actor Guiseppe Cederna, socio-political and cultural theorist Franco Berrardi Bifo, youth music and culture expert Gino Castaldo, the publisher, Luca Sossella and representatives from Oxfam and Greenpeace Italia explored various elements of the book. The event was hosted by Rai Tre radio presenter Guido Barbieri.
Thanks to Adam we have a video show casing the memories of the night.
Editorial blurb for the book.