Flower of Tigray

In collaboration with
NYU Department of Italian Studies

Part of the series
Race, Migration, Italy

Flower of Tigray
The Imperialist Echo of Italian Colonial Songs

A talk by
Gianpaolo Chiriacò, University of Innsbruck

In ENGLISH

Italian colonial experience was both chronicled and shaped by a vast number of songs. While adopting up-beat rhythms and catchy melodies, they often conflated exoticism, positive images of the soldier, stereotyped celebrations of the black female beauty, and deprecation of other cultures. How do we listen to these sounds of colonialism today? The talk will discuss a process of deconstruction of its musical and lyrical components, highlighting elements of continuity with present-day Italian society.

Gianpaolo Chiriacò, a music anthropologist and singing researcher, teaches ethnomusicology at the University of Innsbruck. He has worked at the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago, focusing on vocality and Black cultural identities. He conceived and organized the international symposium “Black Vocality” at Columbia College Chicago and created the website www.afrovocality.com.

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Race, Migration, Italy is a series of events (book discussions, theatrical performances, film screenings, lectures) sponsored by Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò in collaboration with NYU’s Department of Italian Studies. It aims to promote conversations on the intersections of race and migration in Italy and in Italian diasporic communities. Conceived in connection with courses taught in the Department of Italian Studies, Race, Migration, Italy revisits the format launched by Casa Italiana’s Virtual Salons: Discourses on Black Italia, held virtually during the pandemic, by bringing together artists and scholars in order to address questions about race and racialization across Italian history and multifaceted geography.