January 11, 2024 ~ 4:00pm PT ~ 7:00pm ET

GIFTS OF THE BLACK MADONNA FOR THE NEW YEAR

 Featuring special talk by Dr. Rev. Matthew Fox, the  foremost proponent of creation spirituality (based on mystical teachings of Hildegard von Bingen, Meister Eckhart and Saint Thomas, among others)

Alessandra Belloni and John La Barbera offering sacred chants & music in Honor of the Black Madonna from Belloni’s  book "HEALING JOURNEYS WITH THE BLACK MADONNA”

 Published by Inner Traditions - Bear & Company presently No. 1 on Amazon in the category of Folk dances-

with Foreword by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox.

 & The Opera ‘THE VOYAGE OF THE BLACK MADONNA”

With music by composer/guitarist John La Barbera

& Alessandra Belloni

 Special video screening:

This concert will be presented together with a  lecture by Matthew  Fox & the Directors of I Giullari di Piazza who will provide a full immersion into the ancient drumming traditions and devotional chants in honor of the Black Madonna from the region of Campania, Calabria & Sicily.

 This powerful journey will introduce and transport the audience to a time and place where an unbroken and ancient tradition continues today with folk music, processions, devotional drumming, and dance.

 It will feature a short video with Alessandra Belloni's field research taken during her most recent pilgrimage in Campania in August, 2022, with her students. It will provide a panoramic view of the sacred sites of the Black Madonna in this region, known in the Italian folk tradition as "the Seven Sisters." 

 According to the local legend, there were seven Madonnas, all of them sisters. The last one was believed to be the ugliest so she ran away to a high mountain, Mount Partenio, so that the pilgrims would have to search very hard in order to find her. Having found her, they discovered that she was the most beautiful of the sisters, was Black, and they called her “Mamma Schiavona,” the nurturing, serving mother, that can now be found in Montevergine. These Madonnas are connected to the seven Goddesses that are part of the ancient worship of Mother Earth and the Moon Goddesses, and the archetype of the African Mother, especially Isis from Egypt and Cybele from Anatolia (Turkey).    Mamma Schiavona is especially sacred to the femminielli -- a community of third-gender people and transgender women who have worshipped Her since the rites of Cybele and Attis.  According to legend, in the year 1256 two gay men were expelled from a nearby town and were left to die, tied to a tree on the side of the sacred mountain, only to be saved by Mamma Schiavona herself.

Now, on the Feast of Candelora, celebrated February 2nd, the femminielli and LGBTQ people around the world make an annual pilgrimage to Mamma Schiavona, coming to sing, dance, and heal at the feet of the Great Mother who loves and accepts everyone.