Gianni was many different things. He was born in 1938. His mother gave
birth at home in Mombercelli. He was premature and frail: the harshness
of the war years made it seem that he would not have survived his
childhood. Instead, "Spinacino" made it. Despite the cold, the bombs,
the hunger and the many ailments of those early years, he will make it
to February 5, 2025, when he passed away in his sleep.
Having left the village, from which he will bring back the indelible
memory of the trees, the leaves, the air of the hills, with his parents
and his little brother he moved to Turin. The panorama of the city, in
the first post-war period, is marked by the rubble of the bombed houses
and the trees of the avenues cut down to make firewood. Money is little
and life, in two rooms with a balcony and a toilet outside, is miserable.
School will be a special world for him, which he will love from his
early years.
To the point that he will choose to become a teacher. He will get his
degree, which at the time was not needed to teach in "elementary
school", as they were called then, years later, with a thesis on
libertarian pedagogy.
Between the 1960s and 1970s, the young teacher was removed from teaching
for five long years, during which he was confined to an office. His
ideas were too subversive.
At that time, elementary school was similar to a small barracks. Boys
separated from girls, uniforms, standing at attention, reciting prayers,
standing up when authority entered, remaining still for hours,
"composed" at the desks.
Gianni was nourished by the ideas and experiences of Celestin Freinet,
of the native Canadian Wilfred Peltier, of the American pedagogical school.
Gianni, when he arrives in class, has the children address him
informally, he doesn't lock them in the classroom, he takes them out to
touch things with their own hands: the river, the trees, but also the
social reality, that of the Istrian refugees of Vallette, that of the
Neapolitans who emigrated in large numbers to Cirié, at the entrance to
the Lanzo valleys, where he will teach for a long time after the forced
break imposed by the Ministry. In Cirié, thanks to a mother who knew how
to repair bikes, the children set off to explore the area to understand
the most important thing: the questions to ask, the curiosity that comes
from experience, their own path in life. With their bikes, Gianni and
his children invade the runway of Caselle airport, to see how the planes
were made, with which the luckiest ones left for fabulous countries,
which were barred to the kids of working-class Ciriè. Many enterprises,
many trips, above all trips into the social reality, where they talk
about work and punitive dismissals. Once, he occupied the mayor's office
with the children because it was cold at school.
Stories of the frontier in a school that today is no longer made of
authority and discipline, also thanks to children's partisans like
Gianni Milano.
He said it clearly: "we must give voice to children: they are the ones
who decide how to learn better, and what to do".
He spent his last years at school, where he would work for 40 years, in
Lanzo where he taught future teachers.
When his hair turned all white, he continued to wear long and disheveled
hair, like in the days when he earned the derogatory nickname, but worn
with pride, of "maestro capellone".
He didn't talk about it much, but if you take a look at the books, the
magazines, the history of those special years you will discover that he
was among the protagonists of the beat culture in our country.
He was a cultured hippie, he wrote poems on his letter 32. Poems that
you find scattered here and there, recently many have been collected in
a volume for Fenix editions.
In the summer, when schools were closed, hitchhiking and off to the
world. But then he always returned to Turin, which was no longer the
gray and hard city of his early years, but still the city where he felt
at home, in the shadow of the mountains.
He was a friend of Fernanda Pivano and Allen Ginsberg, he was one of the
protagonists of the beat generation: he published Off Limits (1966),
Guru (1967), Prana (1968), King Kong (1973), Uomo Nudo (Tampax, 1975).
He is among the founders of Pitecantropus Editrice, an attempt to unite
the souls of the Beat culture.
A profoundly libertarian spirit, especially in recent years he linked
himself to the anarchist movement, experiencing its struggles.
He lived at the end of Corso Vercelli, a stone's throw from Balon, where
we often met him at rallies and banquets. He would arrive and talk to
everyone, wearing a red and black handkerchief, peddling ideas and
books. Lively as an elf, never tired, despite the passing years and new
ailments.
We remember him on many April 25s, many May Days, proudly carrying the
red and black flag. Even in the valley he crossed the paths of
processions and struggles many times, because in that popular struggle,
especially in certain years, he was able to recognize the changing
times, when ordinary people, those who are not accustomed to it, raise
their heads.
Everyone knew him. With his fluent way of speaking and his old master
style, you could find him in places where people choose to be
protagonists, to stand up, to build their own path.
Many of us greeted him in the square of the Cimitero Maggiore in Turin,
despite the cold and the persistent drizzle. The Cor'Occhio surrounded
by anarchist flags, with a No Tav banner in the background, sang
anarchist songs and those of those who desert the war. Gianni, who had
known her, was a convinced antimilitarist, without nuances.
We remembered him with music, words, his poems.
In these grim times, with schools at risk of becoming barracks again,
the memory of the long-haired teacher, who raced at the head of his crew
of children freed from their desks through the Piedmont countryside,
will remain an anchor that will strengthen the determination to continue
pedaling to change the intolerable world in which we are forced to live.
In the long journey through the great statues of the monumental we
arrived in a poor area. Gianni, born on earth, chose to return there. On
his coffin a black flag and many red carnations.
A city elf, with a peasant heart, we will continue to see him twirling
in Turin and in the Valley, or at the Balon, where he mingled with
anarchists and the homeless.
Bye Gianni!
The comrades of the Turin Anarchist Federation
https://umanitanova.org/il-maestro-e-le-margherite-ricordando-gianni-milano/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
birth at home in Mombercelli. He was premature and frail: the harshness
of the war years made it seem that he would not have survived his
childhood. Instead, "Spinacino" made it. Despite the cold, the bombs,
the hunger and the many ailments of those early years, he will make it
to February 5, 2025, when he passed away in his sleep.
Having left the village, from which he will bring back the indelible
memory of the trees, the leaves, the air of the hills, with his parents
and his little brother he moved to Turin. The panorama of the city, in
the first post-war period, is marked by the rubble of the bombed houses
and the trees of the avenues cut down to make firewood. Money is little
and life, in two rooms with a balcony and a toilet outside, is miserable.
School will be a special world for him, which he will love from his
early years.
To the point that he will choose to become a teacher. He will get his
degree, which at the time was not needed to teach in "elementary
school", as they were called then, years later, with a thesis on
libertarian pedagogy.
Between the 1960s and 1970s, the young teacher was removed from teaching
for five long years, during which he was confined to an office. His
ideas were too subversive.
At that time, elementary school was similar to a small barracks. Boys
separated from girls, uniforms, standing at attention, reciting prayers,
standing up when authority entered, remaining still for hours,
"composed" at the desks.
Gianni was nourished by the ideas and experiences of Celestin Freinet,
of the native Canadian Wilfred Peltier, of the American pedagogical school.
Gianni, when he arrives in class, has the children address him
informally, he doesn't lock them in the classroom, he takes them out to
touch things with their own hands: the river, the trees, but also the
social reality, that of the Istrian refugees of Vallette, that of the
Neapolitans who emigrated in large numbers to Cirié, at the entrance to
the Lanzo valleys, where he will teach for a long time after the forced
break imposed by the Ministry. In Cirié, thanks to a mother who knew how
to repair bikes, the children set off to explore the area to understand
the most important thing: the questions to ask, the curiosity that comes
from experience, their own path in life. With their bikes, Gianni and
his children invade the runway of Caselle airport, to see how the planes
were made, with which the luckiest ones left for fabulous countries,
which were barred to the kids of working-class Ciriè. Many enterprises,
many trips, above all trips into the social reality, where they talk
about work and punitive dismissals. Once, he occupied the mayor's office
with the children because it was cold at school.
Stories of the frontier in a school that today is no longer made of
authority and discipline, also thanks to children's partisans like
Gianni Milano.
He said it clearly: "we must give voice to children: they are the ones
who decide how to learn better, and what to do".
He spent his last years at school, where he would work for 40 years, in
Lanzo where he taught future teachers.
When his hair turned all white, he continued to wear long and disheveled
hair, like in the days when he earned the derogatory nickname, but worn
with pride, of "maestro capellone".
He didn't talk about it much, but if you take a look at the books, the
magazines, the history of those special years you will discover that he
was among the protagonists of the beat culture in our country.
He was a cultured hippie, he wrote poems on his letter 32. Poems that
you find scattered here and there, recently many have been collected in
a volume for Fenix editions.
In the summer, when schools were closed, hitchhiking and off to the
world. But then he always returned to Turin, which was no longer the
gray and hard city of his early years, but still the city where he felt
at home, in the shadow of the mountains.
He was a friend of Fernanda Pivano and Allen Ginsberg, he was one of the
protagonists of the beat generation: he published Off Limits (1966),
Guru (1967), Prana (1968), King Kong (1973), Uomo Nudo (Tampax, 1975).
He is among the founders of Pitecantropus Editrice, an attempt to unite
the souls of the Beat culture.
A profoundly libertarian spirit, especially in recent years he linked
himself to the anarchist movement, experiencing its struggles.
He lived at the end of Corso Vercelli, a stone's throw from Balon, where
we often met him at rallies and banquets. He would arrive and talk to
everyone, wearing a red and black handkerchief, peddling ideas and
books. Lively as an elf, never tired, despite the passing years and new
ailments.
We remember him on many April 25s, many May Days, proudly carrying the
red and black flag. Even in the valley he crossed the paths of
processions and struggles many times, because in that popular struggle,
especially in certain years, he was able to recognize the changing
times, when ordinary people, those who are not accustomed to it, raise
their heads.
Everyone knew him. With his fluent way of speaking and his old master
style, you could find him in places where people choose to be
protagonists, to stand up, to build their own path.
Many of us greeted him in the square of the Cimitero Maggiore in Turin,
despite the cold and the persistent drizzle. The Cor'Occhio surrounded
by anarchist flags, with a No Tav banner in the background, sang
anarchist songs and those of those who desert the war. Gianni, who had
known her, was a convinced antimilitarist, without nuances.
We remembered him with music, words, his poems.
In these grim times, with schools at risk of becoming barracks again,
the memory of the long-haired teacher, who raced at the head of his crew
of children freed from their desks through the Piedmont countryside,
will remain an anchor that will strengthen the determination to continue
pedaling to change the intolerable world in which we are forced to live.
In the long journey through the great statues of the monumental we
arrived in a poor area. Gianni, born on earth, chose to return there. On
his coffin a black flag and many red carnations.
A city elf, with a peasant heart, we will continue to see him twirling
in Turin and in the Valley, or at the Balon, where he mingled with
anarchists and the homeless.
Bye Gianni!
The comrades of the Turin Anarchist Federation
https://umanitanova.org/il-maestro-e-le-margherite-ricordando-gianni-milano/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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