To Sing and Recount (Canta e Cunta) is a digital storytelling project by Amanda Pascali to translate and revitalize Southern Italian folk songs to highlight their relevance to social issues around the world today.

These songs, which have never been translated into English before, have been performed in collaboration with contemporary Italian musicians in an effort to preserve the melodies and meanings conveyed in Sicilian; declared a “vulnerable” language by UNESCO on the UNESCO endangered languages list. Based on current trends, only a third of the population on the island will speak Sicilian at the end of the 21st century. These songs recount stories about class issues, imprisonment, inequality, war, immigration, national identity, and gender roles. This collaborative storytelling initiative aims to preserve the words of songs that date as far back as hundreds of years ago, as they are still relevant today around the globe.

Pascali has been invited to perform her award-winning song translations all over the world; from the EU Parliament in Brussels, to the Italian embassy in Washington DC, and at universities, concert halls, and listening rooms across the US and Europe. In 2023, she was awarded the Lions Club International award for creativity and social justice in Agrigento Sicily, and the Donna Per Donna songwriting award for her translations in Trieste, Friuli Venezia Giulia. In 2024, she was named a Fulbright Ambassador and currently tours as a professional musician and serves on the board of the music-activism non-profit Music to Life.

Project Collaborators: Affiliated professors and institutions of this project include Professor Mauro Geraci and Professor Francesco Pira at the University of Messina in Sicily and Professor Alessandro Carrera at the University of Houston in Texas. Affiliated associations include the Associazione Culturale Cantastorie Busacca (Busacca Singer-Storyteller Cultural Association of Paternò), and The Rosa Balistreri Foundation