Growing Up In Italy: exploring the new Italian identities In Woolrich latest project four Italians talk about the link between gastronomy and identity
"What was it like growing up in Italy?" For those who were born and raised there in Italy, the question takes on almost obvious connotations, the idea that the one someone is living is the only culture of reference leads people to imagine very simple, sometimes standardized, answers to this question.
However, there are cases in which the answers may be different from those expected, and this is because for someone growing up in Italy could mean having to break down barriers and be the bearer of a positive change that could transform the dominant culture. For Afro-descendants, for people of color, the answer to that question is not always obvious, but it can be surprising: the intention of the project Growing Up in Italy, developed in collaboration with Woolrich, is exactly this one: to investigate the answers to that question, with the goal of bringing out positive stories of integration and success, stories that start from personal experiences but which meet in one of the most characteristic aspects of African culture, food. Recent years have seen the emergence of many African restaurants, a culinary culture in some ways very different from that to which Italy is accustomed, but which, in its essence, has the same function of aggregation and handing down traditions. For this reason, The Good Neighborhood Collective, the collective of Milanese creatives born with the aim of telling the stories of the second generation of Italians, has chosen to set the stories of four protagonists in two very special locations.
Even Havana, passionate about kelewele (a snack based on fried plantains and spices) had to deal with its duality: "often even in my modeling job I happened to be either too white or too little white", she said. . Growing up in Italy also means having to break down barriers, make those barriers fall so that - in all areas of life - we can always do better. «Every day I try to raise awareness among others and make it clear that there are no differences and that in a country as multicultural as Italy, the future can only be positive».
