Poetry and music festival in Tuscan-Emilian Apennine villages returns for sixth edition

The sixth edition of L'importanza di essere piccoli, a poetry and music festival organized by the SassiScritti association, will take place from August 2 to 6, 2016, across villages in the Apennine mountains between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. Curated by Azzurra D'Agostino and Daria Balducelli, the festival features singer-songwriters Gnut, Iacampo, Motta, Têtes de Bois, and Erica Mou, alongside poets Nadia Augustoni, Giusi Quarenghi, Matteo Pelliti, and Alessandra Racca. Events will be held in Tresana, Castelluccio di Porretta Terme (Bologna province), the ruins of Castello di Sambuca Pistoiese, the hamlet of Castagno di Piteccio along the Porrettana railway line, the ancient village of La Scola in Grizzana Morandi, and the meadows of the Scaialbengo equestrian cultural circle in Castel di Casio. The festival is dedicated to Giovanni Nadiani (1954–2016), a Romagnolo linguist, poet, editor, and university professor who died shortly before the event and was scheduled to be a featured participant. The festival serves as the summer culmination of SassiScritti's year-round activities, including InRitiro, a residency program with writers, actors, illustrators, and musicians. The common thread is attention to "marginal" places, defined as "not only peripheries, but fragile and minority existential conditions, potentially charged with subversive and innovative beauty."