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Italian Language Meeting – April 28, 2021
April 28, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
When: April 28, 2021
Speaker: Maurizio Igor Meta
Topic: Ellis Island
Location: Online
Participants may find using headphones will enhance the experience of the presentation.
There will be a “social hour” beginning at 7 pm. The presentation will start at 7:30.
About the Speaker:
Author and actor, Maurizio Igor Meta works mainly in theatre and in the last few years in art installations. Drama, poetry, sound, video, light and scenography, are some of the means he uses in a dramaturgical composition to create a symbolocal imagery. In November 2015 he sailed by a cargo ship from Naples to New York to retrace the steps of his great grandfather Domenico, who left Italy in the late 1800s to the United States, where he worked, pick and shovel, for the Pennsylvania Railroad. So he started his multidisciplinary project “Ellis Island”, which includes the Journey, the theater Solo with the same title – opened in the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia in July 2017 – the exhibition “On my great grandfather steps. Toward Ellis Island” – which includes several installations, as “The first ship”, opened in 2018 at the Madre Museum – a documentary and a book.
Maurizio Igor Meta on the Presentation:
“Ellis Island” is the Journey of Life. It is not only a project related to my memory, my identity, and to the deep connection with my land and roots, but it is something that affects every human being: it is a Tribute to the Origin, a tribute to that inborn ability of the human being to challenge the unknown. At the Origin of our lives, when we are born, we face that challenge for the first time. Immigrants face it again, taking a “leap in the dark to leap in Life”.
In the Presentation we will open a time-gate on the late 1800s Italian immigration, we will talk about the origin of the project and how the experience of retracing the steps of my great grandfather turned in artworks, and we will listen to the sound composition of the installation “The first ship” to experience the ocean crossing of our fathers and the many immigrants of that age.

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DANTE ALIGHIERI SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
2022-2023 Season
Live Meeting COVID Guidelines
Even as COVID variants continue to plague the population, we are trying to return to offering live meetings for Dante this season. We’ve all been longing for a return to shared meals, and since this is foundational to Dante activities, we want to make it possible. Following the guidelines and regulations now in place by many workplaces, public venues and community groups, the Dante Board of Directors has agreed to the guidelines listed below as an acceptable plan to keep us as safe as possible when meeting in person.
1) Please do not attend if you have been exposed to COVID, or are experiencing any symptoms of illness. We will make best efforts to record the presentations so that those who cannot attend in person can enjoy them afterwards. There will also be a few meetings presented on ZOOM instead of live this season, for all to enjoy like last year.
2) Masks are encouraged. Although no longer required, we encourage attendees to wear masks when not eating or drinking.
Thank you again for your understanding and observance of these guidelines. Let’s work together to control COVID!!!