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Gentle Gazzetta Readers,

Saluti da Roma! Yes, there has been an enormous gap between the last Gazzetta and this one! But, after months preparing for my move to Rome, and then another couple of months getting settled in here, I'm finally writing to you.

Half-way through the third month of my Rome Prize fellowship year, I’m only just getting started making new work, and I'm very anxious to bite into all the juicy ideas that have been simmering on the back burner since I arrived. I also have some events coming up – both here and stateside – so scroll down, if you’re wanting details. Or just read on, and you’ll get to them…

Quando a Roma...
I feel as if I’ve barely scratched the surface of this ancient, deeply layered place. But making the almost daily long, steep, winding, walk down and back up Gianicolo Hill has started to seem more natural to me. Still, I marvel at the narrow, cobblestone sidewalks and streets, and the bizarre way in which the new just gets layered on top of the old (instead of displacing it the way it does at home.) It’s not uncommon to see an ATM machine grafted onto the side of an 11th century building, without a second thought, or a late-model motor vehicle pushing it’s way between pedestrians on a tiny, stone pathway that, a moment before, appeared to clearly be only intended for foot traffic. And unearthed ancient ruins are just everywhere in this city, nestled in and amongst modern life.

Molto occupato
One thing that’s made it tough to get started working is the fact that there’s been so incredibly much going on here. For the first month or so, there were numerous activities scheduled practically every day. Between the meals, orientation sessions, fellow presentations, and talks at the American Academy, and the walking tours, concerts, art openings, and foreign academy visits outside the Academy, my calendar has been frightfully (and delightfully) packed.

Just within the first month, I attended a beautiful staging of Waiting for the Sibyl, a performance work by William Kentridge, paired with a revival of Alexander Calder’s 1968 Work in Progress at the Teatro dell’Opera, saw the Art Ensemble of Chicago and a duo concert with Murcoff and pianist Vanessa Wagner at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, went on two guided walks through Rome lead by the AAR arts and humanities directors (Lynn Lancaster and Elizabeth Rodini), attended a percussion ensemble concert at Palazzo Caetani, and went to art openings at MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts and L’Instituto Nazionale per la Grafica. All of this on top of a steady stream of immigration permit errands and Italian language study!

In October I attended a book-reading by Alvin Curran’s wife, Dottoressa Susan Levenstein. Afterwards, we all went out to dinner, where I sat at a table with no other than esteemed radio journalist Silvia Poggioli! She looked exactly as I had pictured her and was bubbling with engaging conversation and astute political comments. I also attended a number of concerts at Auditorium Parco della Musica, including a performance work Trilogy in Two, performed by the inimitable Helga Davis and ably directed by Andrea Liberovici. And, just this month, I saw Maestro Alvin Curran himself give an amazing and energetic solo concert at Mattatoio, the old Slaughterhouse, which has been converted into a spacious live performance and exhibition center.

Viaggi
I’ve already been on three trips since my September arrival – two in Italy and one back to the States. I traveled by bus, with a large part of the Rome Prize cohort, to Populonia, Bogliasco, Genova, Carrara, Pisa, and Lucca. We saw too many glorious things to even begin to describe here. When we visited the marble quarry in Carrara, I sang opera arias inside the cave to test the incredibly long, cathedralesque reverb. On the way to Pisa, our Academy director, John Ochsendorf, who was departing from the tour at that point, gave us a wonderful account of the history of the

I traveled back to the States for the regional premiere of Ways of Looking, my Eighth Blackbird commission, at the Art Institute of Chicago. I had a wonderful time, but it already felt strange to be away from Rome, and I actually missed taking meals with my new colossal family.

I did manage to visit both of the main exhibition sites (Giardinni and Arsenale), and both were intact and unflooded. I’ve experienced a lot of Acqua Alta in Venice, but this was extreme, and it was heartbreaking to witness all the damage to the city and, at the same time, heartening to see the resilience of the Venetians.

...Fai come fanno i Romani
I’m getting accustomed to the way things are done here. I’m learning to shop in different stores for different things – pharmacies only sell medicine; fabric stores only sell fabric; food markets only sell food – I mean, it only makes sense, right? And I’m finding that many establishments are closed between 1pm and 4pm. I’m also walking much further and much more often than I have in the past – and climbing many more steps!

I think often of my dear friends back home, but I’ve become quite comfortable living in this grand place – sharing lunches and dinners with 30+ fellows and visiting scholars each day here at the American Academy in Rome. For the first month or so, up until the temperatures began to drop a little, we were served lunch and dinner outside at a long table in the cortile. Now we eat indoors in the dining room. I sleep in a room in the main Academy building, and my studio is in the little Casa Rustica, on the precise site where Galeleo demonstrated his first telescope! It's located in the Bass garden – surrounded by olive trees, a persimmon tree, and a vegetable garden – the fruits of which are served to us at meals prepared by the capable, Alice Waters-inspired kitchen staff.

Prossimi concerti
I’ve been concentrating more on getting set up and settled in here, than on booking performance engagements, but I now have quite a few events scheduled in the very near future. The day after Thanksgiving, I’m scheduled to give a solo concert at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, here in Rome and, next month, I head breifly back to the US for a Bay Area premiere of my Eighth Blackbird piece at Zellerbach in Berkeley. I also have more events in Rome and elsewhere in the coming months. Read on for details...

Bacioni per tutti!

PZ

The sweet-faced lion at San Lorenzo Cathedral in Genova

PZ at Teatro di Marcello, Roma

AAR Cortile table set for lunch.

PZ making friends with a French Academy Lion at Villa Medici.

AAR Fellows sitting down to dinner

AAR Visiting artist David Humphrey gives an Open Studio

Alvin Curran performing at Mattaoio

Maria Lai sewn book at MAXXI

Michal Rovner video work at MAXXI

PZ gives gallery talk at Chicago Art Institute

PZ & Eighth Blackbird at Chicago Art Institute

PZ as Janus at Halloween

Gabri, the barrista at AAR

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upcoming event details:

Pamela Z solo concert: OTHER ROOMS
at Palaexpo in Rome
November 29, 2019, 9pm

As the closing event of POESIA ESPANSA | Tre Incontri Prospettici Sulla Poesia Sperimentale, American composer and sound artist Pamela Z will present a program consisting of short works for solo voice, real-time electronic processing, sampled sounds, and wireless gesture controllers, including a 2018 work entitled Other Rooms, which is built around sampled speech sounds at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, in Rome.

.

EXPANDED POETRY | THREE PERSPECTIVES on Experimental Poetry

Schedule:

6.00 pm
Patrizio Peterlini presents "Revolution in Words", Danilo Montanari publisher
with Giovanni Fontana and Lamberto Pignotti

7.30 pm
Eva Macali presents "Four quarters", Zona publisher
with Sara Ventroni

9.00 pm
Pamela Z presents "Other Rooms"

POESIA ESPANSA | Tre Incontri Prospettici Sulla Poesia Sperimentale

PALAZZO DELLE ESPOSIZIONI
Via Nazionale, 194 - 00184 Roma, Italia

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