The Cultural Association "Gennaro Placco"
The activities of the association are inspired by Gennaro Placco’s life and work, a Civitan patriot and former follower of Garibaldi, who was quoted by Luigi Settembrini in his work “Ricordanze”, a symbol of the italian fight to defend the ideals of freedom and civilization.
The Association’s activities
We need to protect the Five centuries of arbëreshë history in Italy, and this is the goal of the cultural association Gennaro Placco that right from its start never decreased the number of their activities, pursued with fervour and dedication. It has always had the aim to sensibilize and promote the arberesh culture and it did so in various ways.
The magazine Katundi Ynë
Ethnographic, anthropological and environmental research
Library and picture gallery
The future of the association of the Arbëresh’s minority
In the last couple years our president Demetrio Emmanuele and the co-director Vincenzo Bruno started to renew the leadership positions of the association. Today new members and new project ideas work together with a common goal: to strengthen our communication tools and adopt new ones to enhance the local remembrance, to reinterpret the values of an ancient culture that is in danger of disappearing, and to spread a new sense of joint responsibility towards the ethnic historical italo- albanian minority, which has to be perceived as a common good.
In the future of the association we can see the development of cultural dialogue with other Italian ethnic minorities and a more effective online presence with our new website, social media profiles and the digitalization of the magazine Katundi Ynë.
“Our wish is to communicate to the world our values and most of all to make universal the sound of an ancient language that can open new scenarious when re-interpreted; because in ancient things reside all of the elements for a new modernity and a new humanism for the Arberia”
Mea Memoria Project
The noble purpose of the project “Mea Memoria” is to regenerate the local remembrance of the Arberia. The association Gennaro Placco has been carrying out the project since 2019.
A communal project that was born in a time of pain for Civita and its inhabitants: the Raganello’s tragedy of 21st August 2019, during which 10 people lost their lives. The profound damage caused a crisis of meaning between the citizens, bringing forth a feeling of discomfort and uncertainty .
The unfortunate event gave life to a profound reflection on the need to deepen the abresh sense of belonging: this is why the association decided to invest the sum that recieved from the football league because of the tragedy in project whose aim is to promote the area of Civita and the Pollino and its resources.
Since May 2019 the association engaged in dialogue with the community, in order to design a shared path of action to make the sense of belonging arise again, a necessary premise to awaken the community.
Being united and feeling part of a proud and rich in tradition community: these are the bases for out chosen actions whose aim is to requalify the vocation to the Arberia, to regenerate the immaterial culture and keep the historical remembrance of a unique minority alive
How are we regenerating the Arberia’s remembrance?
Thanks to the donation we received, the association was able to develop several actions to promote the abereshe culture and to regenerate the remembrance of the Arberia, and those were fundamental steps to consolidate that sense of arbereshe’s belonging, which is key to rebirth. Here are the main actions so far: