If there had not been a pandemic, various things would have had to happen in the last year and a half that have not happened or have been postponed. For example, the first edition of the Internazionale Kids festival, the monthly for girls and boys that we have been publishing since 2019. It was scheduled for spring last year and we had to stop it. But now we are and from 17 to 19 September the entire editorial staff of the monthly arrives in Reggio Emilia.
It is to this city – which has always been attentive to pedagogy, childhood, the youngest – that in 1973 Gianni Rodari dedicated Grammar of fantasy, and are the municipal schools of Reggio Emilia that in 1991 the US weekly Newsweek listed among the best in the world. The festival will be strictly live, obviously respecting all safety measures. We think it’s important to go back out and start meeting again. We will occupy the space of the cloisters of San Pietro, in the historic center, for three days of discussions and dialogues, with no one in the chair, because the world is not just for adults.
In building the program we started from the idea that there are no taboo or topics to be avoided, just find the right way to talk about them. There will be a workshop on menstruation aimed mainly at males, a meeting to understand what is happening in Afghanistan, a comparison on digital currency. There will be continuous workshops, book presentations, portfolio and short film screenings, musical meetings. It is the first edition of a festival that we would like to see grow over time. As happened for the one in Ferrara, which this year will be from 1 to 3 October and which is ideally inspired by the Internazionale Kids festival in Reggio Emilia.
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