Canto per Canto: Conversations with Dante in Our Time

Canto per Canto: Conversations with Dante in Our Time is a collaborative initiative between New York University's Department of Italian Studies and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, and the Dante Society of America. The aim is to produce podcast conversations about all 100 cantos of the Divine Comedy, to be completed within the seventh centenary of Dante's death in 2021.

The podcasts will be available as YouTube videos, hosted and archived by NYU and the Dante Society of America. Episodes are released on Mondays and Wednesdays, though not necessarily in numerical order, with postings to the Twitter and Facebook accounts of the Dante Society, NYU Italian Studies, and NYU Casa Italiana. All episodes to date are available for viewing and listening from the "Canto per Canto" YouTube channel.

Please see further below for guidelines and instructions for contributing to the project:

• The Project
• Guidelines for Contributors
• Sign up to Contribute
• Project Curators

A review on the project appears in the March 18, 2021 issue of The Florentine.

The Project

• Skype, Zoom (or similar) recordings of 15-20 minute conversations between two people on all 100 cantos of the Divine Comedy that highlight how something in a particular canto resonates with us in our time, today, now.
• Filmed individually by members of the Dante Society of America and friends.
• Curated by the Department of Italian Studies and the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU, between Dantedì 2020 and Dantedì 2021, in the 700th anniversary of the poet’s death.
• Episodes to be released regularly beginning in June 2020, publicized via social media of all three sponsoring entities.
• Hosted and archived at NYU and Dante Society of America websites.

Guidelines for Contributors

Each episode/puntata will include:

• A professionally curated 20- to 30-second animated intro, with credits for the project and names of presenters in the specific episode, somewhat different for each of the three cantiche.
• Recommended platform:  Skype with blurred backgrounds.  Self-recorded by one of the speakers.  [Skype records it as a split-screen even though it doesn’t look that way to the recorders.] Other platforms are allowed.
• Very brief self-introduction of the two speakers (one taking the lead).
• Articulation of an aspect of the canto of particular interest to the two speakers at the present time.
• A brief and lively reminder of where we are in the poem and the major events of the canto in question.
• Some quotations of passages of particular interest to the speakers in the original, with spontaneous paraphrase or cited English translation (e.g. “Durling”)
• Some closing thought, and salutations between the speakers.
• Not to exceed 20 minutes in length.
• Video recordings themselves will not be professionally edited.
• There is no obligation to proceed in any particular order in the release of the cantos, although finished recordings will be archived in such a way as to make a complete, searchable set by the end of the project in 2021.
• While English is expected to be the dominant language of these recordings, we will also accept them in Italian. In that case, we might solicit an additional episode for that canto, or provide subtitles.

Sign up to Contribute

Interested in contributing to this project? Great! Here's what you need to do:

• Be a member of the Dante Society of America.
• Consult the sign-up sheet to see which cantos need contributors.
• Write to Dante Society of America president Alison Cornish (alison.cornish@nyu.edu) to reserve a particular canto and provide your planned recording date.
• Find a friend, colleague, or student with whom to converse.
• Exchange a few thoughts ahead of time.
• Make a recording following the above Guidelines for Contributors.
• Upload your video to this Canto per Canto Google Folder. This works best if you have a Google Account (not necessarily a Gmail account). In any case, you can request access through that link. We will notify you if it can be accepted as is, or with changes. If you are a professor conversing with a student or friend, you might consider gifting them a complimentary year of membership to the Dante Society of America as a thank-you.

Project Curators

To date, the organization of this project has engaged the time and talents of Alison Cornish, Eugenio Refini, Katherine Travers, and Maria Zilla of NYU, Leonardo Chiarantini of the University of Michigan, Stefano Albertini and Julian Sachs of Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò of NYU, and AWEN FILMS.