Sting continues his commitment to humanitarian causes in favor of human rights. In Naples, he will play live for the inmates of the Secondigliano prison.
It’s a promise made some time ago that Sting, historic bassist and frontman of the Police, has decided to keep, organizing a live performance designed for prisoners in the Secondigliano penitentiary facility in Naples. It will be a special performance, not only for the presence of the pop star in the Neapolitan city. To play, Sting will use a very particular guitar, made with the wood of the boats of the migrants who arrived in Italy.
Sting at the Secondigliano prison in Naples
One evening at dinner, Don Antonio Loffredo, former parish priest of the Basilica of the Rione Sanità and founder of La Paranza, the boys’ cooperative that manages the catacombs of San Gennaro, tells none other than Sting about the “Metamorphosis” project. A project aimed at training prisoners through activities and workshops, including woodworking to make musical instruments. The 71-year-old Sting, former face of the Police and soloist since the 1980s, is fascinated by them and promises to visit the prison and play precisely with those instruments. This is how on April 25, as reported by Repubblica, Sting landed in Naples in the company of his wife and producer Trudie Styler, ready to perform at the Secondigliano prison.
The guitars made by the prisoners with the wood of the migrants’ boats
During his stay in Naples, in view of the performance in the Secondigliano penitentiary facility, Sting will receive a guitar made by inmates participating in the “Metamorphosis” project of the non-profit organization Casa dello Spirito e delle Arti. The idea, born of Arnoldo Mosca Mondadori , is to transform the wood of the boats that transport migrants to Italy and which are shipwrecked on the coast of Lampedusa into musical instruments. It was this detail that aroused Sting’s attention, who was immediately interested in a project designed to revive and celebrate the meaning of those pieces of wood, a symbol of people fleeing wars and famines in search of a new life .
Sting and the “busy” life beyond music
17 Grammys and over 100 million records sold are just a part of Sting’s life who, since he embarked on a solo career in the 1980s, also began his career in activism. Among his battles are those for the climate and for human rights. Since the 1980s, the singer has organized event concerts in favor of international associations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Now!, playing for charity and using his platforms to raise public awareness. Even the song that Sting will sing at the Secondigliano prison – “Fragile”, a hit from 1998 – was originally written in memory of Ben Linder, an American civil engineer killed by counter-revolutionaries in Nicaragua for his work on a water project in the country. Sting will sing his own edited prison-themed version of the song.
Sting’s ode to Naples in a documentary film
Sting is a great lover of Italy: the British pop star in fact owns an estate in Tuscany where he spends most of his time. And over time he also fell in love with Naples. Thus the new version of “Fragile” and the performance at the Secondigliano prison, which will be filmed and recorded, will enter the documentary film Sting is working on, “May I enter? An ode to Naples”. An intimate and touching work that, just like the awaited exhibition, wants to renew hope. In this regard, the singer told Repubblica: “I am grateful to Father Antonio for letting us know the work and the team of Arnoldo Mosca Mondadori. I believe that the tools created by the Foundation are a wonderful transformation of the pain of so many, they represent the beauty and dignity inherent in all human beings”.
