Recent Posts
January 2, 2008
Siamo tutti Italiani? That would be depressing...
Italians are not unique in their malaise, says Chicago blogger Robert P. Baird. At least American graduate students are equally depressed by a sense that one is stuck in an...
January 1, 2008
‘A Precious Patch of Dirt’ - Southern Italians in Mississippi and Rochester, NY
"The Italian is so jealous of every foot of land; he will use a hoe in places too small to be worked with a plough”
December 31, 2007
Peppino Marotto, Poet, Activist, Gramscian
The poetry of Peppino Marotto
Revolutionary poet and activist shot and killed at 82 years.
December 31, 2007
From the “Funk of Disappointment” to the F[l]unking of the Academy
In his NY Times article on the "Funk of Disappointment," Ian Fisher alludes to a most important phenomenon ("brain drain") that, here in the United States, has, and will continue...
December 31, 2007
"Pompeii Awakened": The Dead City that Still Speaks
Pompeii Awakened
Judith Harris
I.B. Tauris
Judith Harris' fascinating new book examines the Western world's varied and shifting interpretations of Pompeii and its civilization since its rediscovery in the 18th century.
December 31, 2007
CALITRI OR BUST!
Laura E. Ruberto
On the road to Calitri (AV)
From Southern Italy to Southern California, rural Italy's turn as the Golden State.
December 26, 2007
Ottava Rima in Bensonhurst
Joseph Sciorra
Antonino Provenzano reciting poetry at the Castel del Golfo Social Club, Brooklyn (December 1, 2007).
In a social club in Brooklyn, the lost poetry of a Sicilian contadino is heard again.
December 26, 2007
The death of the Italian language in America
To speak Italian was to be identified with the very essence of evil – Hitler.
December 26, 2007
Vic Damone’s Italian Cousin
Vinicio Capossela
Italian singer-songwriter Vinicio Capossela returns to the States in January 2008.
December 24, 2007
Gramsci’s Presepio
Joseph Sciorra
Underground Nativity, 2007.
The domestic presepio, an example of living folklore.
