by Micol Brusaferro
The first Silent Aperitif organized in Muggia will be held on 23 September at 7.30pm at Bar Verdi, next to the Teatro Verdi. The idea came from the municipal councilor Gianna Birnberg, and was immediately embraced with enthusiasm by the manager of the restaurant, Henry Demarco.
The Silent Aperitif was born in 2015 in Trieste, created by Barbara Cova and Francesca Lisjak, which aims to spread the Italian Sign Language, through music, a moment of gathering, during which hearing people can learn a new language, singing with voices and hands, copying the words of the two organizers, and the deaf can interact, communicating in their language.
“Thanks go to the owner of the bar for having decided to host the initiative – explains councilor Birnberg – we hope there will be a great participation in Muggia, for an event that has been successfully proposed in Trieste for some time now, an evening in which , through music and animation, precious opportunities for integration, inclusion and sharing are created.”
Barbara Cova recalls that “in the last year, in addition to the monthly event which takes place in various places in Trieste, we have been invited to some elementary classes to introduce the children to the sign language, we have been guests at the Diving Trieste on the Molo Audace where we sung from the diving platform, at a convivial of the Rotary Club of Trieste Alto Adriatico, at the awarding of diplomas to the smile ambassadors together with the doctor clowns of FVG, on 2 June we were in Piazza Unità to sing the Mameli anthem, we were also called for a special event at the IKEA in Villesse reserved for all employees, we taught a song to the children’s choir of the Il Coriandolo association and we went away to Treviso several times, as guests of the mayors of Veneto”.
In Trieste, Cova further explains, “the Silent Aperitif is organized once a month and is always a moment of great celebration: the atmosphere you breathe is always one of joy, cheerfulness, fun, sharing, integration. It is an enormous emotion to be able to see the emotion of the people who participate for the first time and who let themselves be carried away by a splendid language, LIS, which transmits, through the images given by the movement of the hands, signs, which in reality correspond to words. And it’s wonderful when you realize that many friends of the Silent Aperitif, who never miss a single event, have learned to sign and communicate with the deaf and this is the best gift.”
