The Department of Italian Studies is proud to present This is What I Live For: an Afro-Italian Hip-Hop Conversation and Workshop with rapper Amir Issaa
The event will include a conversation and a workshop on writing rap lyrics.
Amir Issaa was born and raised in Rome. He is the son of an Egyptian immigrant father and an Italian mother. He initially approached hip-hop culture in the 1990s, first as a b-boy/breaker, and then as a writer for Roma’s graffiti crew The Riot Vandals.
His own experiences during a difficult childhood inspire Amir to help other kids improve their own situation; together with his activity as a rapper, Amir collaborates with several non-profit associations like Save the Children, Centro Astalli, the Community of Sant’Egidio (with which, in 2010, promotes a music workshop in the youth detention center of Casal del Marmo, in the outskirts of Rome), and UNAR, Italy’s National Union for Anti-discrimination and Anti-racism, that chose Amir as a spokesperson for one of its anti-racist campaigns.
Amir has always played a decisive role as an activist in the campaign for the law on citizenship for Italy’s sons of immigrants. Collaborating with Change.org, in 2012 Amir launched an online petition and a song, “Caro Presidente” (“Dear President”), where he invited the President of the Republic to consider the theme of Italy’s law on citizenship. In just a few days, the petition was signed by thousands of people, allowing Amir to further solidify his role as representatives for so-called “New Italians”. Some of Amir’s songs’ lyrics—such as “Straniero nella mia nazione”, “Non sono un immigrato”, or “Ius Music” have been studied and are mentioned in several textbooks. Examples include Cross Generation Marketing (Egea, 2009) and The Narrative and Us (Ritsumeikan University, 2017), which includes a Japanese translation of “Non sono un immigrato”, realized by Satoko Ishida.
Amir is the founder and artistic director of Potere alle parole (beats and rhymes against discriminations), a writing laboratory with the purpose of unpacking stereotypes and prejudices that lead to discrimination, created in collaboration with UNAR and the non-profit association Il Razzismo è una brutta storia. The workshop took place in public schools, and it involved rap artists such as Ghemon, Kiave, Madbuddy, and Mistaman; it was later documented by a story piece broadcasted on Laeffe TV in 2014.
In June 2017, Amir published his first book, Vivo per questo (Chiarelettere). An autobiographical novel that has been well-received by Italian literary critics and was praised by Internazionale as one of the best books for young adults in 2017. He is the author of Educazione Rap (2021) and in 2023 he published This Is What I Live For: An Afro-Italian Hip-Hop Memoir.
Amir is currently working on new songs to be released in the following months, and is on a tour throughout many universities in the United States. As part of his activist work, Amir regularly holds rap writing workshops in schools, prisons, and colleges across the world.
Moderator: Cristina Farronato, Department of Italian Studies
