In this stirring memoir by a member of the first generation of LGBTQ+ activists in Italy, Porpora Marcasciano tells her story and shares the struggles and accomplishments of her fellow activists who achieved so much in the 1970s yet suffered devastating losses during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. AntoloGaia offers an insider's look at the beginnings of the gay liberation movement in Italy and reveals how it was intimately intertwined with other forms of left-wing activism. At the same time, it powerfully conveys the queer joy of a young person from a small village first encountering the vibrant sexual minority communities of Naples, Bologna, and Rome. As Marcasciano starts to embrace her trans identity, she meets the famous anthropologist Pino Simonelli, who introduces her to Naples's unique femminielli subculture and gives her the name Porporino, which she later shortens to Porpora. In keeping with this story of gender, sexual, and political discovery, AntoloGaia is the first piece of Italian life-writing to use gender-neutral and mixed-gender language.
PORPORA MARCASCIANO is a sociologist, activist, writer, and municipal counselor in the city of Bologna, Italy. She is the honorary president of the Trans Identity Movement (MIT) and author of Dawn of the Bad Transwoman: Stories, Gazes and Experiences of My Transgender Generation. FRANCESCO PASCUZZI is an assistant teaching professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. He is the coeditor of the collection Dreamscapes in Italian Cinema (2015). He lives in Somerset County, New Jersey. SANDRA WATERS is the managing editor of Italian Quarterly and coedits the Other Voices of Italy series for Rutgers University Press. She is the coeditor of The Spaces and Places of Horror. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Foreword: "Giving Voice to the Italian Trans Community," Sara Galli and Mohammad Jamali Translator's Note, Francesco Pascuzzi and Sandra Waters Preface to the Italian edition: "The Unbearable Lightness of Gender in History and Biography," Laura Schettini Chapter One Le dEbut (1973-1976) Somewhere in the West Traces of Dreams The Source of Consciousness Coming Out It Happened Trip Other Dimensions Changing the World The Underground Technical Rehearsals of Resistance The Best of Youth Rebel Music Exodus, Displacement, Transition Escape Chapter Two 1977: Dreaming and Utopia And 1977 Exploded! The First Lesbian We Want Everything! Alice in the City, Transversalism, Situationism, Fantasy Strawberries and Blood Between Class and Gender Consciousness Nomadic Tribes The Crush Continuous The Biggest Piazza Was Too Small The Transvestite Cries Out for Revenge in the Presence of the Phallus Porporino La dolce vita Lud With the Faguettes or With the Chavs Being Overwhelmed Flora and Fauna Good Morning, Night The First of May Distress and Self-Awareness Living in a Dream and Not Dreaming about Living Chapter Three Extravagance (1978-1982) Zanza Valentina Sanna Cortese Narciso The Festival of Poets at Castelporziano Capo Rizzuto and Gay Camping Gay Activism and Its First Conference Mario Mieli Royal Family and Self-Defense Techniques Monte Caprino Extravaganza Pisa Desiring Bologna and the Grand Duchy of Pistoia Lesbians and/or Feminists Punk The '80s Began Valerie Theater 1981 and the First Gay New Year Trans Manifesto for 164 Gay Occupations Beaches The Cassero Chapter Four Transition, Epic Passage (1983...) Then Night Came! The Gay Plague Blows to the Heart Author Acknowledgments Appendices Timelines Key Words Porpora's Publications Notes on Contributors
"Porpora Marcasciano says of this electrifying memoir that, if she could, she would have written it in verse to better capture the wild anarchic energy of the world that fueled her activism. No need. Her life story is poetry enough. What a gift to English speakers for her story to find us now, when we need the inspiration of as much wild anarchic energy as possible." - Susan Stryker (author of Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution) "A fascinating look into Italy's radical queer and trans cultures and their fraught relationship with wider left-wing politics, Marcasciano's AntoloGaia is just as much a guide to how to live one's life with courage, conviction, and creativity." - Juliet Jacques (author of Trans: A Memoir) "This is a book of exploration-of gender, of one's life, of things one has dared to dream. Like the people we meet, the stories Porpora Marcasciano tells are cradled in a radical trans love, and isn't that one of the best kinds of love? As you read, you too will be cradled and never abandoned." - Marquis Bey (author of Black Trans Feminism) "This trans memoir by Porpora Marcasciano, someone who felt born into the wrong world, could not come at a better time. Sexual rights for minorities have been on the map since humans have shared their feelings about being in the world, and what a fitting opportunity that a trans story from 1970s Italy has come to light in this beautiful translation." - Bernadette Wegenstein (coeditor of Radical Equalities and Global Feminist Filmmaking: An Anthology) "Marcasciano's life is a valuable part of trans history, and her account of the queer movement in Italy during the chaotic 1970s is eye-opening." - Diana Goetsch (author of This Body I Wore: A Memoir)
