When Freedom Sounds Like Jazz in Venice

There are conversations that do not really end when the recording stops.

They stay with me. They remain somewhere in the air, like the last note of a song, waiting to be heard again. This new episode of Venice Talks is one of those conversations.

In 2023, I had already interviewed Women for Freedom on the podcast. Back then, we spoke about the origins of the organisation and about the birth of Women for Freedom in Jazz, the Venetian festival that brings together music, women’s voices and solidarity.

This time, I wanted to take the conversation from there.

My guest is Sara Memo, who is part of Women for Freedom, an organisation dedicated to supporting women, girls and children living in situations of poverty, violence, exploitation and fragility.

Together, we start from the heart of the organisation itself, before moving into one of its most powerful cultural expressions: Women for Freedom in Jazz, the festival founded by Elena Ferrarese, which celebrates ten years of music and solidarity in Venice.

For those discovering Women for Freedom for the first time, this episode is also an introduction to the organisation and to the human mission behind it. For those who already listened to my 2023 conversation, this is a continuation. A way to ask: what has changed? What has grown? What still needs to be said?

Because when I speak about freedom here, I am not speaking about an abstract idea.

I am speaking about safety, dignity, education, opportunity, protection and voice.

I am speaking about women and children whose lives are often marked by circumstances most of us are lucky enough not to face directly. And I am also speaking about the responsibility we have, as listeners, as citizens, as human beings, not to turn away.

Women for Freedom: dignity before everything

At the centre of this conversation is the work of Women for Freedom.

The organisation supports projects that help women, girls and children in vulnerable situations. These may include contexts of poverty, violence, exploitation, social exclusion or emergency. But what struck me most, while talking to Sara, was not only what Women for Freedom does. It was how they do it.

There is a strong sense of respect in the way these stories are told.

When dealing with painful realities, it is easy to fall into pity. It is also easy to use suffering as a way to attract attention. Women for Freedom takes a different path. The focus is not on spectacle, but on dignity. Not on reducing people to their trauma, but on recognising their strength, their rights and their possibility of rebuilding a future.

This is one of the central themes of the episode: how can we speak about difficult situations without taking away the humanity of the people involved?

It is not always easy.

Humanitarian work often requires a very delicate balance. You need to raise awareness, because silence helps no one. But you also need to protect the people whose stories you are sharing. You need to move people emotionally, but you also need to guide that emotion toward real action.

That is why I also wanted to ask Sara about the difference between simply helping someone and giving someone back freedom.

Help can be immediate.

Freedom is deeper.

Freedom means creating the conditions for a person to stand again, choose again, hope again.

From emotion to action

One of the questions I really wanted to ask Sara was about what happens after people feel moved.

Because we all know how this works.

We hear a story, we attend an event, we listen to a testimony, and for a moment something opens in us. We feel touched. We feel concerned. We feel that we want to do something.

Then life continues.

Emails arrive. The phone rings. Dinner must be prepared. The next day begins. The washing machine beeps like it has its own emergency committee.

So how do we transform emotion into action?

This is where the work of Women for Freedom becomes concrete. Awareness is important, of course, but awareness alone is not enough. It needs to become support, participation, donations, volunteering, sharing, showing up, and keeping attention alive even when the spotlight moves elsewhere.

In this episode, Sara helps us understand that solidarity is not a grand gesture reserved for a few extraordinary people.

It can begin with listening properly.

It can begin with asking better questions.

It can begin with choosing not to look away.

And in Venice, one of the most beautiful ways this listening has taken shape is through music.

Women for Freedom in Jazz: when music carries the message

After speaking about the organisation, our conversation moves toward Women for Freedom in Jazz.

This festival was founded by Elena Ferrarese, who has carried the project with passion and vision. Although Elena could not be present for this episode, her work is very much part of the conversation. Through Sara’s words, we explore how the festival became one of the strongest voices of Women for Freedom in Venice.

There is something very powerful about the connection between jazz and freedom.

Jazz is structure and improvisation. It knows rules, but it also knows how to break them. It listens, responds, changes direction, makes space. It allows voices to meet without becoming identical.

In this sense, jazz becomes more than a musical genre.

It becomes a language for resilience, courage and possibility.

Women for Freedom in Jazz places women’s voices at the centre. These voices are not decorative. They are not simply entertainment. They carry memory, resistance, beauty, vulnerability and strength.

Through music, the message of Women for Freedom reaches people in a different way. Not through statistics. Not through slogans. But through sound, emotion and presence.

A concert can sometimes open a door that words alone cannot.

You sit in a room. You listen. Someone sings. Someone plays. Something moves. And suddenly, a distant story feels closer.

Ten years of music and solidarity in Venice

This year, Women for Freedom in Jazz celebrates ten years.

Ten years is not just a number. It means commitment. It means continuity. It means people who believed in the project long enough to keep it alive, year after year.

It means artists, organisers, venues, partners and audiences coming together around something bigger than a single evening of music.

In a city like Venice, where cultural events are many and attention is often scattered, reaching ten years matters. It means the festival has created its own identity. It has become part of the cultural and social fabric of the city.

And Venice is not just a backdrop.

Yes, Venice is beautiful. Of course it is. I say it all the time, and then I say it again, because Venice never gets tired of proving the point.

But in this story, Venice is more than a postcard.

It is a place of listening.

A city that hosts, amplifies and reflects. A fragile city speaking to fragile lives. A city that knows what it means to be admired and misunderstood, celebrated and threatened, loved and consumed.

Perhaps that is why Women for Freedom in Jazz feels so meaningful here.

Because Venice, at its best, is not only a place to visit. It is a place where stories meet. Where voices travel across water. Where beauty can become responsibility.

Why this episode matters to me

This episode is about women, freedom and jazz, but it is also about attention.

In a world full of noise, attention is one of the most precious things we can offer.

To listen carefully is already a form of respect.

To keep listening after the music ends is something even stronger.

Talking with Sara Memo gave me the chance to return to a story that, in my opinion, deserves to be followed, not just introduced once and then forgotten. Since my first conversation in 2023, Women for Freedom has continued its work, and Women for Freedom in Jazz has continued to grow as a space where culture and solidarity meet.

This episode made me think again about what freedom really means.

Not as a beautiful word, not as a slogan, not as something we place on a poster and then leave there.

Freedom can mean protection.

Freedom can mean education.

Freedom can mean a safe place to sleep.

Freedom can mean the possibility of saying no.

Freedom can mean the possibility of starting again.

And sometimes, in Venice, freedom can sound like jazz.

Show keynotes

• What Women for Freedom does and who the organisation supports
• Sara Memo’s personal connection with Women for Freedom
• What has changed since my 2023 Venice Talks interview
• How to speak about poverty, violence and exploitation while protecting dignity
• The difference between charity and true solidarity
• How emotion can become concrete action
• The role of culture in raising awareness
• Women for Freedom in Jazz and the vision of its founder, Elena Ferrarese
• Why jazz is such a powerful language for women, freedom and resilience
• The 10th anniversary of Women for Freedom in Jazz in Venice
• Venice as more than a backdrop: a city that listens, hosts and amplifies stories
• The future of Women for Freedom and the next chapter of the festival

If this conversation moved you, please subscribe to Venice Talks, leave a review and share the episode with someone who believes that culture can still make a difference.

You can follow Venice Talks for more stories about Venice, its people, its voices, its hidden layers and the projects that keep the city alive in ways visitors do not always see.

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