Writing residency in Italy (2nd edition)
From September to October 2023, authors Maryline Chery and Christopher DiRaddo took part in the second edition of the Espace de la diversité – Dentro la Terra writing residency in Italy’s Abruzzo region.
The residents
A Haitian-born actress, playwright and improviser, in 2021 Maryline staged her first solo “AFRODISIAQUE” at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, then at the Zoofest festival (OFF Juste Pour rire) at the Monument National, where she won the Show of the Year award (2022), and finally as part of the Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée, where she performed the show to a sold-out audience (2022-2023 season). A woman of the world, in 2018 she was invited to the 17th Francophonie Summit in Yerevan, Armenia, where she performed and gave workshops in writing and acting. Chery also dabbles in directing, co-directing the second edition of “Projet Racines” at Théâtre Espace Libre (2021). She has appeared in such notable series as Doute Raisonnable (2023) and District 31 (2020). In 2022, she was the proud recipient of the Gloria Mitchell Aleong Award from the Black Theatre Workshop for artistic excellence, community spirit and initiative in the arts.
Christopher DiRaddo is the author of the novels The Family Way (2021), shortlisted for the F.G Bressani Literary Award, and The Geography of Pluto (2014). His essays and short stories have appeared in First Person Queer: Who We Are (So Far), Here & Now: An Anthology of Queer Italian-Canadian Writing and The Globe and Mail. He has also written for several publications, including Elle Canada, Xtra magazine and enRoute magazine, for which he won a National Magazine Award. In 2014, he founded the Violet Hour Reading Series & Book Club, which to date has provided a platform for over 250 LGBTQ+ writers in Canada.
The stay
Here are a few images and words from their experience:
“Unlike my other trips to Italy, I feel like I am really getting the sense of what it must be like to live here through my daily interactions with townsfolk. The village is so beautiful that sometimes I’m in denial about where I am. I’ll look out the window and feel like I must be on a film set, but then I’ll go for a walk and be reminded about where I am living—a tiny town of about 1,100 people in the mountainous region of Abruzzo that still shows signs of the Second World War.
It’s too early to say what will come from this experience, but I am forever grateful to Dentro La Terra and Espace de la Diversité for this opportunity. These days, I’m often conflicted about my desire to travel, given its impact on the environment, but then in moments like this I am reminded about how essential it is for us to see how other people live to understand our humanity. Again, super grateful.”
“What an experience it was to write during the whole month of September in the small village of Arielli in the Italian Abruzzi. We ended on a high note with a short reading of excerpts at the magnificent Santa Maria di Piedi theater (Crecchio), no less. I am forever immensely grateful. A thousand thanks to Espace de la diversité and Dentro la Terra for this creative uprooting, I came away inspired, touched and with a complete script.“
