“Diari Multimediali Migranti” (Multimedial Diaries by Migrants) is an Italian life story prize designed to collect and give publicity to stories by people from foreign countries who either live or have lived in Italy or the Republic of San Marino. The award has a double objective. As well as collecting and preserving a cultural heritage in danger of being lost, it aims at contrasting anti-migration stereotypes through the stories of people with a personal experience of migration.
Launched in 2014, DiMMi has produced four editions of the prize. From the beginning, the project was supported by the Region of Tuscany with the aim of raising citizens’ awareness and promoting their involvement in issues such as peace, memory and intercultural dialogue. It has resulted in the creation of a special collection of migrants’ diaries housed in the Archivio Diaristico Nazionale (National Diary Archive) of Pieve Santo Stefano.
The DiMMi migrant stories project
In 2018-2019, following a proposal by Un Ponte Per… and with the support of 47 associations, reception centres and local authorities, the Diari Multimediali Migranti was transformed into a national project, DiMMi di Storie Migranti, financed by the Agenzia Italiana per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo (AICS) (Italian Agency for Cooperation and Development). Its main objective was to develop a new narrative where the approach to issues of migration is based on the migrants’ point of view.
The project acts on three levels. It is designed to address and train a large number of participants; to collect and preserve migrants’ stories; to set up a promotional campaign to valorize the stories and enable them to reach a wider audience.
AMM and the DiMMi project
AMM has participated in the DiMMi project from the start, cooperating in the collection of testimonies and life stories and making available its own experience of collecting, producing and preserving audio and video self-narratives. Within the context of the DiMMi di storie migranti project the Archive’s activities include:
– a series of workshops with the title “Oltre i muri: autonarrazioni da dentro e da fuori” (“Beyond the walls: self-narratives from inside and outside” in schools and centres in Rome (Liceo Ripetta/Pinturicchio; Scuola d’italiano Asinitas; Centro MSNA CivicoZero), Ariccia (Liceo Joyce) and Naples (Maestri di Strada; LESS reception centre at S. Maria Vertecoeli);
– talks and workshops on migration issues for university students at the Università di Roma “La Sapienza” and the Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”;
– the preparation of a document analysing of the material collected for use in schools and universities (DiMMi di storie migranti. Materiali e spunti didattici);
– the production of “Oltre i muri- Beyond the walls ” (AMM, 2019), an animation freely inspired by AMM’s self-narrative workshops and made under commission by the Uruguayan artist Juan Pablo Etcheverry;
– coordinating, together with the Archivio Diaristico Nazionale (National Diaries Archive), the publication of collections of DiMMi stories with the Terre di Mezzo publishing house (Parole oltre le frontiere, 2018; Se il mare finisce, 2019, Il confine tra noi, 2020; Basta un vento lieve, 2021);
– publishing stories in dual-language, parallel text editions, in collaboration with the PartecipAzione (Intersos/Unhcr) project, by Joy Ehikihoya (Certi sogni possono non avverarsi mai, Terre di Mezzo 2019), Dominique Boa (Sogni spezzati, Terre di Mezzo 2019), e Mohamed Reza Hosseini (La vita mi ha insegnato a versare lacrime, forthcoming), Lilith (Le femmine e i cani non possono entrare, Terre di Mezzo 2023) and the anthologies Come Alberi in cammino (2022) e Il diritto di salvarsi (2023).
The Diaries Collection
The fondo DiMMi-Diari Multimediali Migranti was set up as part of the Archivio Diaristico Nazionale at Pieve Santo Stefano. Devoted to the preservation of a cultural heritage that would otherwise be lost, to date it has collected around 330 testimonies nationwide. The collection will enable historians to reconstruct the development of a multicultural society in Italy, allowing the public to use these testimonies to activate intercultural dialogue, something that is becoming more and more crucial.
The 2022 DiMMi Prize (7th edition)
Submissions are once again invited for the DiMMi. Multimedial autobiographical texts and testimonies may be sent to DiMMi 2024 contest by 31 March 2024.
Winners will be announced during the 38th edition of the Saverio Tutino Pieve Prize in September 2020. Prize winning stories will be published by Terre di Mezzo. Whether or not they are awarded a prize, all the stories sent in will be stored in the Diaries collection of the Pieve Santo Stefano Diaries Archive (Archivio Diaristico Nazionale di Pieve Santo Stefano) in the province of Arezzo.
What you can submit:
– a story in writing
– a video
– an audio file
– photographs
– drawings
– e-mails and postcards
– or a narrative including more than one of the above. For example, you could write a story and illustrate it with drawings, or record your experience for us in an audio file and send us photographs as well. It’s up to you how you use your tools, what’s important is that the story is your own, told in the first person, without changing or correcting anything: we want to hear it from you! If you prefer to tell it in another language, remember to include an Italian translation when you send it to us.
How to participate
- Read the rules;
- Download this entry form, fill it in and sign it.
- Send the form online, together with your story, to segreteria@archiviomemoriemigranti.net.
Deadline
The deadline for submission is 31 March 2024.
DIMMI Book presentations
Librerie di Roma and CNR Ismed in collaboration with the Archivio diaristico nazionale, the Archivio Memorie Migranti and Amref present on Facebook the books born from the “Diari Multimediali Migranti” (Multimedial Diaries by Migrants) project competition, national competition for the collection and dissemination of autobiographical testimonies of people of foreign origin or provenance.
On Friday 16 September 2022, readers meet the finalists of the 7th edition of the DiMMi contest In 2022 the DiMMi – Diari Multimediali Migranti project turns 10. The Pieve 2022 Award, as is now customary, hosts the awarding event of the annual DiMMi award dedicated to unpublished autobiographical testimonies of people of foreign origin or origin who live or have lived in Italy or in the Republic of San Marino. The 52 testimonies collected in the context of the seventh edition of the competition amaze again for the richness and heterogeneity of origins, life experiences, languages, cultures and methods of expression.
– Friday 17 September 2021 presentation of the book “Basta un vento lieve, storie migranti (A light wind is enough, migrant stories)”, fourth volume of the DiMMi Diari Multimediali Migranti series, contains the fourteen stories awarded and selected by the reading commissions among the over sixty sent for the DiMMi 2020 competition. Meeting with Antonio Damasco, Paule Roberta Yao and Alessandro Triulzi, Michele Colucci intervenes, Gaia Colombo coordinates.
– Tuesday, April 28 at 4pm: presentation of the book “Parole oltre le frontiere – Dieci storie migranti (Words beyond the borders – Ten migrant stories)” (Terre di Mezzo, 2018), anthology of the ten finalist tales of the DiMMi – Diari Multimediali Migranti (Multimedia Diaries for Migrants) 2017 competition. Speakers: Alessandro Triulzi (Archivio Memorie Migranti), Gaia Colombo (Amref) and, among the authors of the volume, Dominique Boa, Elona Aliko, Hassan Osman Ahmed, moderates Michele Colucci (Institute of Mediterranean Studies – CNR).
https://www.facebook.com/biblioteche.roma/videos/519162275444980/
– Tuesday 5 May at 4pm: second appointment with the presentations of Dimmi’s books, Diari Multimediali Migranti. Presentation of the book “If the sea ends. Migrant multimedia tales” (Terre di Mezzo, 2019), anthology of the finalists of the DiMMi – Diari Multimediali Migranti (Multimedia Diaries by Migrants) 2018 competition. Speakers: Massimiliano Bruni (Archivio dei diari), Alessandro Triulzi (AMM – Archivio memorie migranti), Gaia Colombo (Amref), and the finalists of the 2018 Competition: Clementine Pacmogda, Bakary Jobe, Fernanda Gonzalez, moderates Stefano Gallo (Institute of Mediterranean Studies – CNR).