Leal-Anzaldúa Fireside Chat: San Diego Decameron Project

The University of San Diego Center for Cultural Development invites all to attend the Leal-Anzaldúa Fireside Chat with Professor Brittany Asaro of Italian Studies on Thursday, November 20 at 4-6pm at Maher Hall, Room 240.

Dr. Asaro's talk will focus on the San Diego Decameron Project, a large-scale community-based storytelling initiative in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron (c. 1353), a collection of short stories written during the Black Death (1346–1353). The project, which produced a print anthology, organized several virtual and in-person events and inspired a short film, documents the pandemic experience in San Diego.  By showcasing the individual strengths and cooperative work of community organizations, affirming the pleasures of coming together in daily life, empowering artists through inclusive practices, and serving as inspiration in the post-pandemic classroom, the San Diego Decameron Project offered its contributors and audiences a set of ways to collectively process the pain of the pandemic. 

Refreshments served. Registration required prior to attending.

Professor Asaro wrote the introduction for the print anthology of the Decameron Project. She’s a specialist of medieval and Renaissance Italian literature with a focus on Boccaccio's The Decameron. 

Following Dr. Asaro's talk there will be a Q&A panel discussion featuring speakers from the four community organizations that sponsored the Decameron Project: Write Out Loud, La Jolla Historical Society, San Diego Writers, INK, and San Diego Public Library.

Copies of Boccaccio’s The Decameron and of the San Diego Decameron Project Anthology may be checked out from the library.