News of September
September’s new releases explore different approaches and ways of feeling about motherhood and non-motherhood, with a special focus on Gestational Surrogacy plus the impossible Monologue of one of the most beloved icons ever.
The Live Archive sees the addition of two new testimonies:
“I didn’t dream of a family, but a home all to myself”
Emna lives in Tunis with her boyfriend. She works in Amnesty International’s office in Tunis as a research and campaign assistant for Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. She previously collaborated with Al Bawsala, monitoring the work of the Tunisian Constituent Assembly. She has no children; in the past she talked a lot about being Lunàdiga and now she would like to share what she thinks about it.
“You can choose happiness with or without children”
Ornella and Daniela, two young Ecuadorians in their twenties, discuss their respective stories: following an unplanned pregnancy, Daniela is the mother of a child, who represents both happiness and commitment; Ornella has instead decided not to have children because she believes that they would slow down her life path. In their dialogue, the positions of their families of origin emerge, encouraging their daughters to focus on themselves, regardless of whether or not they are mothers.
For the Impossible Monologues series. The exclusive revelations of 35 mythical Lunàdigas, Monica Trettel performs an extract from the pages of Carlo A. Borghi dedicated to the artist Frida Kahlo, forged by pain, voracious of life, elusive to any label.
“Writing is always a political act”
In the Stories section, a review that touches us very closely and addresses a very delicate and urgent issue: Claudia Mazzilli reads In viaggio verso un figlio (Meltemi 2024) by Ramona Onnis, in which the author explores the writings on assisted reproduction and the Lunàdigas docufilm, with an interdisciplinary and inclusive gaze, between medicine, literature, social sciences, reproductive rights of those who wish to generate and those who claim the freedom not to reproduce.
For those who live or are passing through Rome, we would like to invite you to the book’s presentation which will take place on Saturday 28 September at 6.30 pm at the Libreria Antigone (via dei Piceni 1, 00185 Rome; tel: 0627048; roma@libreriantigone.com), we will be there too!
With Claudia Mazzilli’s review our collaboration with Ramona Onnis continues, after our first meeting in Paris. Ramona Onnis, of Sardinian origin, is an associate professor of Italian Studies at the Université Paris Nanterre; her research interests focus on the representation of women’s body and the relationship between motherhood and technique. On the occasion of the Equality Month, at the beginning of March 2024, she wished to organise the screening of the docufilm “Lunàdigas, Or Concerning Childfree Women” along with the presentation of the Live Archive at the university where she teaches. Her generous invitation was greeted with great enthusiasm by the Lunàdigas collective.
