Florence Chamber of Poets Honors Vanna Bonta

    (New York - November 3, 1996)  Vanna Bonta, poet and artist who debuted as a novelist with the critically acclaimed FLIGHT: A Quantum Fiction Novel, was presented in the legendary city of Florence, Italy by the Chamber of Poets, a committee established in the 15th century as part of city government for poetic standards.

Photo credit: Massimo Benevenuti, Florence Italy Florentine Cassa Di Risparmio Hall was full.

      Italian Minister of Culture Guido Clementi and board directors of the Florentine Chamber of Poets selected Bonta for official presentation. The Chamber of Poets, steeped in tradition dating back to the Renaissance, convened the public ceremony on October 24 in the Cassa Di Risparmio convention hall of Florence, Italy. The event was by special invitation but also open to the public. Chamber President Otello Pagliai presided over a full hall.
      Among the panel of presentors of Vanna Bonta's poetry, essays and fiction was Professor Gabriella Fiori, award-winning author of books on Simone Weil published in France, Italy and the USA. Professor Fiori's focus was Bonta's newly released novel, FLIGHT. Fiori presented FLIGHT with unusual enthusiasm to a conservative full house. Fiori read Italian translations of Bonta's prologue and final chapter. She concluded by pronouncing the novel "genius," "revolutionary" and "a masterpiece."

Photo credit: Massimo Benevenuti, Florence Italy From L to R: Lydia Ugolini, Otello Pagliai, Vanna Bonta, Prof. Gabriella Fiori

     

Fiori read a telegram from Mr. Katsumi Miwa, representing Japan in the celebration. Directors of the Cultural Association of Firenze, Marcello Fabbri, and professor Giuseppe Antonio Brunelli, whose poetry Bonta translated from Italian into English for Oxford, were among distinguished attendees. Also represented was the office of reknowned poet Luzzi, Paola Lucharini and other members of the Florentine liteary community.
     Vanna Bonta’s poetry has won medals in Europe; her work has been translated into Japanese and Italian. Bonta’s second collection of poetry, Shades of the World, was awarded an Italian cultural prize in 1987 when Margherita Guidacci, poet laureate and Professor of English Literature, introduced the poet as "an important discovery." At the Palazzo Vecchio awards ceremony, Guidacci described that when reading Bonta, she was "overtaken by chills" the likes of which she had not experienced since discovering Sylvia Plath.
       Bonta thanked those who nominated her in her address to the attendees. She cited the city of Florence and the Renaissance as evidence of what is within human capability if people "venerate and learn to recognize the divine spark of creativity which is their essence." She urged electing world leaders who revere Art "with a capital A." Vanna Bonta said she felt particularly honored receiving acknowledgment from the city of Florence, whose artists she described as her "heroes and saints,". Bonta gave an emotional thank you to her mother, artist Maria Luisa Bonta, who sat in the front row. Bonta described herself as a "servant of Poetry." She was initiated a Chamber member and appointed as "US ambassador."
       The Chamber of Poets of Florence maintains the tradition of other cultural Chambers, such as the Chamber of Music, which Florence established in the 15th century and through which Galileo Galilei's father and other notables discussed and set standards for Music and other arts. Notably, Plato's standard that music should be less cerebral and must first move and uplift the emotions and soul was recorded and perpetuated as a standard in the first convenings of the Chamber.

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The Vanna Bonta essay "State of the Art" was selected from a call for papers by the American Society for Aesthetics. Bonta was invited to present the essay at the July 2000 Annual meeting at St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The essay traces how the focus of Art has shifted from inspiration to profit-motivation over the course of seven centuries. Bonta presents the socioeconomic factors of this shift in a "comparative study of literary customs of authors and publishers from the 14th century to current corporate-fabricated product." Bonta's dissertation explores contemporary manipulation of the public which lacks regard to talent, and compares these techniques to the origin of creative ability and function of Art in social systems that once quantified inspiration as tangible and vital commodity. (author description listing)
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