Naples: Capability Festival III edition, meetings and initiatives for a look at disability outside stereotypes

The Welfare Councilor Luca Fella Trapanese will speak at Maschio Angioino – at the opening of the The third edition di “Capability Festival” the event on disability wanted to put the spotlight on disability and talk about it with a contemporary language, outside of stereotypes.

The festival is a container of initiatives that will be held, until Sunday 20 October, at Maschio Angioino and in other places in the city, to change the perspective of disability by looking at the specific abilities of individuals considering them not a problem, but a resource for the entire community. The first goal of the Festival is to talk to young people, especially students with meetings in schools led by national influencers with thousands of followers capable of capturing the attention of young people with innovative, positive languages ​​in the narration of disability.

"The Capability Festival represents a great opportunity to talk about disability in a modern way, with current tools that reach especially young people, also thanks to the presence of nationally renowned influencers. In this way we try to educate society, explaining that disability is not a problem, but can be a great opportunity. There will be moments of debate, discussion, culture and great science". Thus the Welfare Councilor Luca Fella Trapanese.

Among this year's guests: neurodivergent bookstagrammer Erika Bosello; high-functioning autistic dancer RED; Alessandro Coppola, a Neapolitan model, recently author of the book "My ears speak"; author Francesco Cannadoro, Tommi's caregiver father, animator of the Instagram profile diariodiunpadrefortunato; sibling novelist Giacomo Mazzariol, author of "My brother chases dinosaurs", which was also made into a film, which tells the story of him and his brother Giovanni, who has an extra chromosome; Emanuela Masia, actress, teacher, podcaster (author and voice of Fuori norma) "who happens to be autistic and have a double genetic disability". The topics discussed in the morning in schools will then be explored in depth in the afternoon at Maschio Angioino, with experts, representatives of the third sector, the university, families who are the protagonists of stories, and personalities from the world of culture and communication.

An artistic exhibition will enrich the festival thanks to the project C'è qualcuno lì dentro/Viaggio per immagini e parole oltre l'autismo curated by Caroline Peyron and Cynthia Fiumanò. The exhibition will be hosted in the suggestive Sala dell'Armeria at Maschio Angioino and will continue until September 26.

At the end of each day, aperitifs prepared by people with disabilities who work in the food and restaurant sector, activities for children are also planned, the Capability Kids, animated by the Ludoteca città and by Liberi per crescere. In the courtyard of Castelnuovo various associations and third sector entities will present their initiatives and the products made in their laboratories.

During the weekend, there will be space for cinema and theatre at the Academy Astra cinema, curated by Arci Movie/AstraDOC and at the Teatro dei Piccoli in Fuorigrotta. In parallel, again at the Maschio Angioino, On October 18th and 19th, there will be the national scientific conference (VIII edition) Down syndrome: from research to therapy.

Finally, among this year's novelties, the co-branding of the Capability Festival with Open House Napoli_ The architecture festival www.openhousenapoli.org, which offers thousands of citizens a unique and participatory immersive experience of the city's architectural and urban heritage, from the suburbs to the center, in often inaccessible public and private spaces and guided tours aimed at people with disabilities.

A special visit will be held at MUSAP – Circolo Artistico Politecnico di Piazza Trieste e Trento where the students of the Apple Academy will experience live, for an audience of visitors with visual impairments, the functionality of their app PARTS. The application, previewed at the Capability festival, aims to provide blind people with a tool that can be easily used from their smartphones, to give them a more complete museum experience.

For the program of initiatives https://www.comune.napoli.it/capability-festival-2024