Ciao a tutti –
MAKE YOUR RESERVATION FOR THE NEXT ENGLISH MEETING of the 2020 DAS PROGRAM YEAR THIS COMING WEDNESDAY, FEB 12
at St. Patrick’s Church – Social Hall, 815 E Edgar Street, Seattle
Our January presenter is Prof. Lloyd Howard, a Dante expert and previous DAS presenter. Professor Howard’s topic this time is The Power of Music on the Shore of Dante’s Purgatory. Professor Howard will begin his talk with a brief description of Dante’s world and how the Commedia was transmitted both in written form and orally by singing Dante’s text. He will then turn to the second canto of the Purgatorio, where Dante introduces the soul of the musician, Casella, who, while living, sang Dante’s love poems. Lastly, Professor Howard will discuss the Paradiso where, by flight through the music enhanced spheres, Dante, a famed writer of worldly love songs, reaches the Celestial Rose.
Lloyd Howard received his PhD from the Johns Hopkins University in 1976, after which he was appointed to a position at the University of Victoria, where he taught until his retirement at the rank of Professor in 2016. His research focused initially on the extant poetry of Guido Cavalcanti, before turning to Dante’s Commedia. Along with numerous articles, he has written two books: Formulas of Repetition in Dante’s Commedia: Signposted Journeys across Textual Space (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001); Virgil the Blind Guide: Marking the Way through the Divine Comedy (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010).
DINNER RESERVATIONS
The presentation starts at 7:30 pm.
As usual, we will have a Pre-Dante Pasta Dinner, prepared by our members, starting at 6:45 pm. (Please note the new time.) If you plan to come for the dinner at 6:45 pm as well as for the presentation at 7:30 pm, please make your reservation by 5:00 pm Monday February 10 by:
- making your DINNER RESERVATION online, or
- calling our Reservation Line at our NEW number, (206) 289-0419 or
- emailing your request to our NEW reservation email, reserve@danteseattle.org.
Let us know how many are in your party. This will help our volunteer cooks know how much pasta to prepare.
The cost of the dinner is $8 per person or $15 per couple. There is no cost to attend only the presentation.
If you are coming to dinner, you are encouraged to bring along an antipasto, dolce or vino to share.
The Hall is open at 5:30 pm for Setup. The Antipasto will be served, starting at 6:00 pm. The new times should give us more time to socialize, have a glass of wine and some antipasti before dinner.
MEETING LOCATION
The meeting as usual will be in the Parish Social Hall at St. Patrick’s Church, 815 E Edgar St., Seattle.
To reach St. Patrick’s from the North, follow I-5 S. Take exit 168A for Boylston Ave toward Roanoke St. Merge onto Boylston, turn left at light onto E Roanoke St. Turn left at the first cross street onto Harvard Ave E.
To reach St. Patrick’s from the South, follow I-5 N. Take exit 168A for Lakeview Blvd E. Turn left onto Lakeview Blvd E, and continue onto Boylston Ave E. Turn right at the light onto E Roanoke St. Turn left at the first cross street onto Harvard Ave E.
The parking lot will be on your right off Harvard. And the stairway down to the door to the Social Hall is located at the parking lot level in back of the Church, off the parking lot.
Feel free to come early to help set up and start visiting. And, in any case, please come.
OTHER DANTE NEWS
If you haven’t renewed your 2020 membership yet, you are now able to renew online on our website: https://danteseattle.org/join-the-dante-alighieri-society-of-washington/ .
You can also renew at the meeting. We’ll have a membership table set up in the Social Hall on Wednesday.
A presto –
Dan DeMatteis,
President, Dante Alighieri Society of Washington
Gabriella Vagnoli was born in Pisa, Tuscany, home of the famous Leaning Tower. She grew up in a multicultural family thanks to her Brazilian mom and remembers teaching Italian for the first time as a child to her Brazilian cousins. She obtained a Laurea in English and Spanish Language and Literature at the Università degli Studi di Pisa and during her college years spent a year in the University of Reading, UK, studying mainly the works of Shakespeare. After obtaining a Certificate as a Teacher of Italian (DITALS II) at the Università per Stranieri di Siena, she has taught in a full immersion school in Florence, a children's full immersion program in Chicago and a Community College in Illinois.
Tiziana was born and raised in Sardinia, a beautiful Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea. She has always been passionate about foreign languages and cultures, and studied French and German at the Scuola Superiore Interpreti e Traduttori in Milan, where she obtained her first Foreign Languages and Interpreter BA degree. She then pursued her MA in English and German Language and Literature at IULM, one of the most prestigious universities in Milan, Italy for Language and Communication studies.
Nicla is a native of Napoli, Italy. She has a Laurea in Materie Letterarie (degree in humanities) and a Laurea in Pedagogia (degree in Education) from the Università degli Studi di Cassino. She earned her M.A in Italian and her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington. She has published articles and book chapters on gender and theater as well as politics and religion in Counter-Reformation Italy and in the last years, has been teaching Italian literature, language, and culture in different institutions. In addition to teaching in our program, Nicla is authorized to cover the role of esaminatrice and intervistatrice in our PLIDA Examination Board.