Di Pietrantonio, Terranova and the others at Ju Buk Festival, this year in Peschici and Scanno

The echo of ancient queens, the strength of new warriors. In Peschici (FG) and Scanno (AQ) - charming villages in the Gargano National Park and the Abruzzo National Park - the 'magic' of Ju Buk Festival, a literary review of Authors conceived and directed by journalist Eleonora de Nardis Giansante, will be renewed from 29 to 30 July and from 1 to 3 August. "The future? A journey into the past. Counter-information, participation, comparison. And women's literature" is the title of this 5th edition that makes room for them, starting from the pages of essays and novels that offer opportunities for reflection and new projects.

"The event, which over the years has become a political militancy event for sociologists, political scientists, economists and activists - explains Giansante - has the ambition to break down gender stereotypes and overturn social narratives, critically deconstructing patriarchal power and its dramatic consequences, from the demographic winter to women's unemployment, to the disconcerting numbers of gender violence". An unfortunate decline.

The event enjoys the high patronage of the Ministry of Culture and the Regions of Puglia and Abruzzo, the sponsorship of Fondazione Carispaq, the Regional Council of Abruzzo and the association Equonomics directed by the feminist economist Azzurra Rinaldi and the participation of Stefania Pezzopane. It gives voice to issues that revolve around themes often characterized as 'divisive': women's bodies, motherhood as a free choice, sexuality and education on consent, the power of money, gender violence, women's work, the transition to the third and fourth age, the generational relay, the role of women in the oppressed lands of the world, in the light of old and new global conflicts. (continued)

Witches and bewitched women, but also economists, philosophers and journalists

Ju Buk Festival, which indicates the transhumant shepherd's saddlebag, starts this year from the ancient royal sheep track of Transumanza. An event that 'doubles', with a first two-day stop in Peschici (Fg) where, on July 29, in Piazza S. Antonio, "Una domanda di denaro" (Sonzogno editore '25) by Gabriella Genisi, creator of the successful character of Lolita Lo Bosco, made famous by the TV series played by Luisa Ranieri, and with a reading on the ambivalence of female beauty "Sei troppo figa!" by the playwright Antonella Questa, played by Valentina Melis. The event will continue on July 30th under the stars of Gargano with "Philosophers, 10 women who have rethought the world" (Ponte alle Grazie '25) by Francesca Romana Recchia Luciani, director of the first PhD of national interest in Gender Studies at the University of Bari, a meeting followed by the monologue "Damned Iago", written and performed by Mimmo Padrone, in an intense reinterpretation of the double femicide in Shakespeare's work.

The event then moves to Scanno (Aq) in the Guido Calogero auditorium, where the afternoon of August 1st will be dedicated to the relationship between young people and adults, with the presence of students from the middle and high schools of Scanno. It opens with "Se mi guardo da dentro" (Salani '24) by Ilenia Zedda, continues with "I bambini non nascono sotto i cavoli" (Newton Compton 2025) by Francesca Palazzetti and with Annalisa Cuzzocrea author of "E nonfuggire mai" (Rizzoli 2025), a volume on the public and private life of the unforgettable Miriam Mafai.

The second day of Scanno, dedicated to non-fiction, opens with sociologist Rosalba Belmonte with Senza Stato, il risultato del progetto nazionale palestinese (Meltemi '24), followed by Roberta Scorranese with Fluido, corpi mutevoli e instabili nell'arte (Giunti 2025). Saturday evening features the second performance of Damned Iago. The final day in Scanno will see Rossana Campo on stage with "Libere e un po' bastarde" (Bompiani '25), Francesca Sensini, professor of Italian studies at the Université Cote d'Azur in Nice, with "Afrodite viaggia leggero" (Ponte alle Grazie '24) and the event with Donatella Di Pietrantonio, who brings back to her mountains "L'età fragile" (Einaudi '24), a novel that won the Strega Prize '24: a return to Scanno to which the author is particularly attached, so much so that she has set some of her books on the banks of the famous heart-shaped lake.

On August 6th the first 'outside the show', with the acclaimed "Quello che so di te (Guanda '25) by Nadia Terranova, among the five finalists at Strega '25 with this intense and personal work in which she returns to question her own family mythology, retracing the history of her great-grandmother and crossing generations. A profound reflection on the power of memory and on our ability to transcend it to imagine who we really are.

(by Rossella Guadagnini)