Sebbeto: A River's Tale in Naples

Arriving in all Italian bookstores, from April 11, 2024, "Sebbeto" by Mimmo Grasso, published by Colonnese in a revised edition commented by the author, with an introduction by the philosopher and writer Nino Daniele, and a visual intervention by the artist and photographer Fabio Donato. Impetuous and impulsive like Sepeithos - from the Greek etymology of the mythical river of Naples - the text of Sebbeto has been represented over the years, with various adaptations, at the Teatro Sancarluccio and in various Neapolitan hypogea. "We do not know if Sebbeto exists - writes Nino Daniele in the introduction, - but it appears to us, while remaining invisible, through the poet. We feel it flowing. The memory of the water sings. In the transparent molecules are imprinted vibrations of all the places it has crossed. It speaks to us, not only writes to us. It propagates, but not dispersing. It's a singular language. Migrant, flowing, affluent, whispering, converging, diverging, resurgent, calm, precipitous, leveling, acrobatic language." "When I heard, in one of my dreams, for the first time the underground flow of the river of Naples, - tells Mimmo Grasso - it became for me the dirty conscience and the civil virtues of my city. These virtues have as their arcane, in my imagination, 'the awaited hero' Frederick II, who gave Europe the sense of the State and around whose figure, if re-proposed, internalized, and participated, my city could become, as it once was, a polis with a politeia." Mimmo Grasso, of Calabrian origin, lives in the Phlegraean Fields. Poet and essayist, much of his verse production is in limited edition, in tandem with visual artists. He is part of the team of the historic house of art books and artist books Il laboratorio /le edizioni and collaborates with magazines in print and online.