Retelling stories to tell my story

What unites Rosa Parks and Medea? They are both myths, icons, heroines whose stories deserve to be remembered and retold.

In their latest works, MentiRosa (Rosa, the girl who invented the truth) and Medea, Espérance Hakuzwimana and Rita Petruccioli have retraced these figures, creating connections with our present and giving them new life.

Moderated by copywriter Grace Fainelli, the conversation explored the personal and political motivations behind both books.

The common thread connecting two apparently different works is the idea of cross-pollination: mixing narratives and themes, stimulating exchange to activate a dialogue aimed at collective growth.

Hakuzwimana reveals a personal connection to Rosa Parks: she was her heroine throughout her childhood. In writing about her, she wanted to close the chapter on the little girl she once was. Therefore, dismantling the rigid view of Rosa Parks as a solemn rebel frozen in time, she made her dynamic, sporty, and funny.

The young Rosa at the heart of the book has more than one trait in common with the writer, but what unites them most is their tendency to tell lies. During her own childhood, Hakuzwimana adds, writing became a way to make her lies "innocent", to defuse them and turn them into creative material.

On the other hand, Petruccioli shares a profound rage with Medea. But while the Greek, classical Medea is an abandoned woman, a stranger in a strange land, Petruccioli’s protagonist is never alone. She may be an alien from a far away planet, the most radical stranger anyone can think of. But she has friends. By surrounding Medea with a supportive community, Petruccioli reclaims a narrative that has far too often stripped away her agency.

The two writers have an extraordinary ability to convey complex messages without becoming obscure: the audience, comprised mostly of young people, actively participates in the conversation, answering the authors' questions and raising new ones.

For both women, writing is a political act. These works are not manifesto-novels, but they can become powerful collective tools. Politics, in Petruccioli’s words, is not about parties or fights. It is our way of collectively inhabiting the world.

And it is necessary, now more than ever, to position your narrative, to multiply the points of view and retell the stories.