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September 23, 2013

Bill de Blasio: A Progressive Mayor for All New Yorkers Part II

Jerry Krase
Jerry Krase
"Dizzy's A Finer Diner" in Bill De Blasio Country (Park Slope, Brooklyn) where I conducted my thoroughly unreliable voter survey that showed that few patrons can remember the last five Democratic mayoral candidates.

While I, and other self-confessed “Progressives” celebrate the victory of Bill De Blasio in the recent New York City Democratic Mayoral Primary, there is need to pause and...

August 23, 2013

Bill de Blasio: A Progressive Mayor for All New Yorkers

Jerry Krase
anon
Four of seven Krase children (Marie, Teresa, Maryann and John) amid the summer crowd in Red Hook Houses circa 1940.

Bill De Blasio I believe has the best chance among real progressives to win the mayoralty and to take New York City in a different, more hopeful direction. It’s time for New...

July 7, 2013

Gramsci Comes to The Bronx: Too Little and Too Late

Jerry Krase
Jerry Krase
Still waiting for Antonio Gramsci in Belmont.

Whereas Jesus Christ stopped at Eboli on his way elsewhere and has yet to make a confirmed appearance anywhere in the bailiwick of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, I am happy to report...

February 22, 2013

Political Suicide in New York City and Italy: Part I - Italy

Jerry Krase
Jerry Krase
My cat Rosita has a better chance figuring out the New York Times crossword puzzle than the New York Times has figuring out Italian politics.

New York City and Italy have a great deal in common, starting and ending with self-destructive electorates; voters who are intent on putting into office people who, in one way or...

November 5, 2012

Vote for Barack Obama: America's Number One First Responder

Jerry Krase

Why I'm voting for Obama, and so should you.

September 24, 2012

Vedi Napoli e poi Muori 2012

Jerry Krase
Jerry Krase
Breakfast view from the Marriott Renaissance Naples Hotel Mediterraneo

Spending eight days in Naples you learn more about life than death.

June 6, 2012

“Women and the RC Church Misogyny, or Gynophobia? Take your Pick"

Jerry Krase
Jerry Krase
The first prize I ever won was this crucifix from the nun who taught the Holy Communion religious instruction class I took at Visitation RC Church near the Red Hook Houses where I lived as a child. Although I have heard many horror stories about nuns told by people who went to Catholic Schools, my public school Wednesday afternoon released time for religious instruction memories are distinctly fond ones.

A small collection of conservative Roman Catholic Bishops are making it difficult for nuns and other Catholic women to do the work they have been called to do. The disarray in the...

April 27, 2012

The Status of Interpretation in Italian American Studies: Shameless Promotion of My Books, Part II

Jerry Krase
Jerry Krase San Gennaro, Mulberry Street 2006
In the fall of 2006 I gave a walking tour of New York’s Mulberry Street Little Italy for an Elderhostel group. This is one of the sights that greeted us on the trip. I interpret the display to mean that San Gennaro was a cigar smoker.

The First Annual Forum in Italian American Criticism was held in Manhattan in 2008 at which internationally renowned scholars were invited to comment on “The Status of...

April 2, 2012

Seeing Cities Change: Shameless Promotion of My Books Part I

Jerry Krase
Jerry Krase Carroll Street, Brooklyn 1998
Somethings don't change. Here, at the turn of the 21st Century, is an Italian American village on Carroll Street, Brooklyn near the Gowanus Canal. It is not far from where my wife Suzanne's grandparents, the Giordanos, lived at the turn of the 20th Century.

Seeing Cities Change is one of two of my recently published books that deal in large part with Italy and Italian America.

December 21, 2011

Sodom versus Gomorra

Jerry Krase

In the second of a series of commentaries by Italian-American intellectuals on Roberto Saviano's recent talk about Mafia at the New York University, Jerry Krase “agree(s)...

September 20, 2011

(Re)Making Meaning of 9/11: A Decade Later

Jerry Krase
Jerry Krase
When the Twin Towers fell, many New Yorkers felt the need to visually express their grief. Here on 7th Avenue in Park Slope one car owner used his rear window as a canvas.

To try to make meaning out of 9/11, every year since 2001 I have retraced my steps to re-photograph how my neighbors displayed their feelings about the tragedy. As time has passed...

August 5, 2011

From Bensonhurst to Oslo and Beyond

Jerry Krase
Jerry Krase
Last year I walked around in Oslo, and as I have done in so many other places, I tried to visually capture the commonplace aspects of local neighborhoods there. This was a place where migrants from many different places had created a home. Anders Behring Breivik and I probably have different takes on this scene.

Negative, or at least puzzled, reactions to visibly different newcomers is universal. Whether in America, Italy or Norway, learning how to see difference positively as part of all...

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