May of Books: Francesco Lotoro presents his new book in Barletta

On Wednesday, May 14 , at 5:30 p.m. , in Barletta , at the Conference Room of the Community Library , located in Palazzo San Domenico (Corso Cavour) , as part of the national event "Il Maggio dei Libri," promoted by the Ministry of Culture and the Center for Books and Reading, musician Francesco Lotoro , president of the Foundation Institute of Concentrationary Musical Literature, will present his book "Manifesto for a Musical Humanism," published by ILMC Edizioni, the publishing house of the ILMC Foundation. The meeting with the author will be moderated by journalist Nunzia Saccotelli.

The volume, which includes a preface by semiologist and philosopher Ugo Volli , represents an important culmination of the author's thirty-year research into the music written in concentration and extermination camps, and other places of civil and military imprisonment around the world during the Second World War. The theme—also explored in his previous book, "Un canto salverà il mondo" (Feltrinelli)—is approached from a different perspective, that of the human values that the music rescued from oblivion by Lotoro can convey to the contemporary world and to future generations. The book offers a profoundly alternative reading of the most dramatic events of the twentieth century, less political and more humanistic, demonstrating how ghettos, concentration camps, and Gulags, in addition to being places of suffering and death, were—thanks to human resilience—centers of intellect and heart, laboratories for a new Vitruvian Man. What Francesco Lotoro invites us to consider, as Ugo Volli emphasizes, "is the emancipatory role of musical creation in captivity and deportation."

Beyond being a work on concentration camp music, created in conditions of deprivation of fundamental human rights, it is also an invitation to rethink a strongly anthropocentric Europe in which culture and art in general are drivers of social well-being and the economy.

The presentation of Lotoro's book is part of the 15th edition of "Il Maggio dei Libri," whose theme— Intelleg(g)o —underscores the irreplaceable value of reading as a tool that shapes and refines thought, molds intelligence, and inspires ideals.

The Barletta municipal administration has once again joined the event to reemphasize the social value of books as a key element of personal, cultural, and civic growth, aiming to engage those who don't usually read.