May 4

7:30 pm
Center for Fiction
17 E 47th Street

Featuring: Reg. E. Cathey, Emmy Award Winning Actor and Members of Compagnia de' Colombari, Karin Coonrod, Founder and Artistic Director, Compagnia de' Colombari, Shaul Bassi, Ca' Foscari University, Venice and Beit Venezia.

Join us for the only New York preview reading and discussion of The Merchant of Venice which will be performed outdoors in the Campo di Ghetto Nuovo on July 26, 27, 28, 29, and 31. The New York reading of selected scenes by Reg E. Cathey with actors from the prestigious Compagnia de' Colombari will be followed by a conversation with director Karin Coonrod and Shaul Bassi on this unique coproduction that will bring The Merchant of Venice for the first time ever to the Ghetto - investigating the play's poignant exploration of love and hate, avarice and mercy, and of being human. Read more about Venice and the Anniversary in The New York Times.

Co-sponsors: Center for Fiction, Compagnia de' Colombari, Centro Primo Levi NY, Beit Venezia: A Home for Jewish Culture, the Italian Cultural Institute. On the occasion of the 500 Anniversary of the Venice Ghetto.

Venue to be confirmed
Reservations are required

A reading from Primo Levi's Complete Works with Francesco Cassata (University of Genoa), author of the 2015 Lezione Primo Levi. Based on Storie naturali (1966) and Vizio di forma (1971).

Storie naturali, the first collection of Primo Levi's science fiction stories, was published in September 1966, under the pen name Damiano Malabaila, wrapped in a paper band by the Einaudi publishing house proposing an attractive and engaging question: «Science Fiction?». Much has been written about the origin of that pen name, but perhaps it is necessary to pause and reflect on the meaning and ambiguity of that question - reiterated not by chance in the title of this Lecture. Einaudi's paper band in fact alluded to a series of questions that still have not been fully answered: Why did Levi chose science fiction? In which social and cultural context did he write these stories? How do these writings of Levi relate to science fiction as a genre? And how do his science fiction story fit into the rest of his work?

Italian Cultural Institute
686 Park Avenue. Free admission.

Opening remarks by Giorgio Van Straten, director of the ICI, Dalia Sofer (writer), Andrè Naffis-Sahely (poet and translator, TBC), and the writer's daughter, Paola Bassani.

During the 1960s and 1970s Giorgio Bassani spent considerable time in the United States, as president of the ecological association Italia Nostra, overseeing the translation of his works and most notably teaching at American colleges and universities. The lectures and interviews contained in the new volume published by CPL Editions in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute and the support of Fondazione Giorgio Bassani, were originally given at the Italian Cultural Institute on Park Avenue.