Alessandria, “Librinfesta” turns 18 and goes online, it will take place from 11 to 15 May

Alessandria, Librinfesta returns, the literature festival for children and teenagers which for eighteen years has brought the greatest authors of children's literature to Alessandria.
Find a space. Get to know each other and recognize each other. Breathe. Meet and exchange words. It all seems so obvious, yet it is the dream that accompanies everyone, in this difficult moment, where spaces have become smaller and distances are imposed. Yet the spark of vitality is brighter than ever.
Librinfesta – the Children's Literature Festival of Alessandria – turns 18 and could not be missed for such an important birthday. So here we are at the starting line, with the patronage of Unicef, the Municipality of Alessandria, Uisp, Csvaa (Asti and Alessandria Volunteer Service Centre).
Meetings with some of the best-known Italian authors of books for children and teenagers, laboratories and workshops for schools and teachers, live broadcasts and events with great guests. All online, on channels Facebook e YouTube of the Festival between Tuesday 11th and Saturday 15th May. An intense calendar on which the Storyteller Association, which has been driving the magical Librinfesta machine since the first edition, has worked for months, choosing "Team play" as its theme. A tribute to the Olympic year, but above all to the collaboration that our humanity has had to put in place to face this very difficult present.
Fourteen authors were involved in over 30 meetings with primary and secondary schools in Alessandria and its province: Luca Cognolato, Susanna Mattiangeli, Tommaso Percivale, Fabrizio Silei, Anna Lavatelli, Bruno Tognolini, Andrea Valente, Emanuela Nava, Pino Pace, Chiara Valentina Segré, Michele D'Ignazio, Daniela Palumbo, Angela Tognolini, Annalisa Strada.
Many workshops dedicated to classes, in collaboration with associations and professionals in the field of illustration, publishing and children's literature: Associazione LISten, Terra di Pan, Le Rane Interlinea, Nicoletta Costa, Irene Cavalchini, Luisa Foco.
And then the guests and the live broadcasts. To open the festival, as per tradition the evening before the official start of the program, and therefore on Monday 10 May, it will be the turn of the students of the Antonio Vivaldi Conservatory of Alessandria and the volunteers of the YOUth Connect Association of Turin, who will perform a multilingual reading of Pinocchio involving volunteers from all over the world; on May 12th it will be the turn of Silvia Beraldo, nurse and photographer who has touchingly documented the Covid era in the wards of Alessandria Hospital; on May 13th the protagonist will be a sports star, Alessia Maurelli, captain of the National Rhythmic Gymnastics Team, world champion and in preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games. To finish on Saturday 15 May where we will fly virtually to the Storyteller headquarters to get excited with "The Night of the Storyteller", which will have as its protagonists the students of the ON STAGE basic acting course directed by Luca Zilovich.
Alternating with these moments, a series of contributions created in collaboration with the Mimebù publishing house (the reading of the book Valdombra with the storyteller Martina Folena and the webinar by Rosa Tiziana Bruno, author of the book Kairòs. Un giorno in Magna Grecia) , with I Racconti di Genzianella created by Luca Cacciabue, with ICS Onlus which created a pictorial graphic laboratory dedicated to Haiku at the Cantiello and Gaeta prison in San Michele (Alessandria) and the Yamato Association which proposes a video laboratory entitled “Painting the words”. And then the workshops for teachers as per tradition, with Laura Novello, on the theme "Body and movement in relation to children's literature" and Annalisa Capetti, founder of Apedario, who will lead a meeting entitled "At school with books: teach with the beauty of illustrated words”.
An entire day of Librinfesta, Friday 14 May, will also be dedicated to Dante Alighieri, thanks to the "Dedicated to Dante" initiative, which involves four lower secondary schools: Vochieri, Galilei – Vivaldi, Angelo Custode and Felizzano (Felizzano, Fubine and Solero), and thanks to the intervention of Walter Fochesato who will take us on a journey among the illustrators of the Divine Comedy.
An intense program that will be completed every day with fixed appointments: early morning readings, bedtime readings, video interviews with the authors involved in the meetings with the classes, created thanks to the parent committees of the Morando and Morbelli schools of Alessandria and the volunteers of the Storyteller , the famous “yellow t-shirts” that will be active on the web this year.
With his 18 years, Librinfesta has become an adult, but continues to paint his space and his time. He does it accompanied by the dreams of the children and young people who have been asked to make the greatest sacrifices in the last year. With the true spirit of teamwork, a team that stubbornly believes in the power of reading and books, a tool for gaming, escape and culture.
Librinfesta is made possible thanks to the contribution of the CRA Foundation (Cassa di Risparmio Alessandria), the CRT Foundation (Cassa di Risparmio di Torino), the SociAL Foundation, Star, Guala Closures Group, Ecologia Guadagnino, Cartoservi, International Inner Wheel, Docenti Senza Frontiere, and in collaboration with Il Piccolo, La Voce di Alessandria, YOUth Connect, Mimebù, Le Rane Interlinea, LISten Association, Antonio Vivaldi Conservatory of Alessandria, Terra di Pan Association, ICS Onlus Alessandria, Yamato Association.

“The Contastorie association, which I thank – comments the councilor for Educational and School Services Silvia Straneo -, has cheered our city for 18 years with its Librinfesta reading festival. The books will be celebrated with children and teenagers and will give the joy of immersing the mind in another dimension, a sort of parallel world, transported to another realm with the possibility of having new and incredible knowledge. Even online, this 'Librinfesta' journey will always be fascinating and worth exploring in all its forms."

“Librinfesta, the literature festival for children and young people, has preserved over time, even the complex and bitter one of the pandemic, its peculiarity and its specific trait of the culture, in the widest possible scope, of young people – declares the councilor for Youth Politics Cherima Fteita -. Above all, our constant thoughts go out to them, with the Il Contastorie Cultural Association, with all the organizers and participants of our certified event which has reached its eighteenth birthday: worried thoughts, but vigilant and at the same time confident. We are certain that the recent stoppage, both in school and in life, may have produced an answer, although not simple, but important and meritorious. Best wishes from my Department for the days of the festival, for the interaction today still entrusted to the web and above all best wishes for your presence tomorrow".

“Alessandria and Librinfesta is a combination that has now fully entered into the identifying and representative elements of the cultural liveliness of our city – states the Mayor Gianfranco Cuttica of Revigliasco –. The reason lies not only in the relevance of the "coming of age" that this important event celebrates on the occasion of the 2021 edition with its eighteen years of activity, but also in that "maturity" immediately expressed and in that exemplary sensitivity in intercepting the better the interests and expectations of a truly vast audience of users in the field of literature for children and teenagers.
Can we therefore think of Alexandria as a "capital" of this kind of literature in the coming days? I really think so and I am convinced of this considering, on the one hand, the significance of this festival proposal at a time, the current one, still strongly characterized by the pandemic emergency also on the school front and the quality of relationships in the world of children and teenagers, with reduced meeting spaces and imposed interpersonal distances.
On the other hand, I cannot help but note with interest the choice of contents that the promoters intended to give to this 2021 edition.
They are diversified contents, but always of high quality, in which the educational and cultural value combines positively with the wide spectrum of thematic options and in-depth analysis and in which the proposal, to cite just one example, of an "online team game with the world” represents an effective choice of title-slogan that expresses well the overall mission of Librinfesta 2021.
Yes, because there has been a lot of talk about "network" and "networks" (and digital connections) in recent months: but in this case, the network is the one which, through culture, makes us feel (at any age) as citizens of the world.
All with an objective added value: our "being connected" with Librinfesta will not be an individual act but a real "team game" experienced in a climate of sharing and growth, in the awareness of the centrality of reading: for educational and scholastic fields and, in general, for the life of our community.
In this lies the strength and the reason for the success of Librinfesta and for this reason I can only wish, on behalf of the entire citizenry, long life for Librinfesta!”.