Whose Day Is It Anyway?
(September 21, 2011)
Diane di Prima
Poet Diana di Prima offers alternative Italian-American heroes to Columbus.
“Whose Day Is It, Anyway?”
Diane di Prima [4]
The Poet Mulls over Some of the Choices
(from Avanti Popolo: Italian-American Writers Sail Beyond Columbus [5], 2008)
Sacco and Vanzetti [8] Day!
Sacco and Vanzetti [29] Day.
Il Giorno di Leslie Scalapino [41]!
Il Giorno di Ben Gazzara [42]!
Il Giorno di Sacco e Vanzetti [43]!
Il Giorno di Ben Gazzara [42]!
Il Giorno di Sacco e Vanzetti [43]!
Il Giorno di Martino Scorsese [44].
Il Giorno di Tomaso Centolella [45]
Tutti giorni sono giorni di Sacco e Vanzetti [46]
Il Giorno di Tomaso Centolella [45]
Tutti giorni sono giorni di Sacco e Vanzetti [46]
“It was a good fight
I was in good condition
Hello, Ma”
I was in good condition
Hello, Ma”
(I got your autograph at a grocery store on Spring St)
Then a few years later it was
Julie Bovasso [50] Day
Julie doing “The Maids”
in a tiny downtown theatre,
turning gender & theatre around/1952
Whose day is it anyway?
Maybe we could rename it
every year–
Maybe we could rename it
every year–
Carpe Diem, Tony!
You never know, you know?
Jimmy Durante [61]
“Good night, Mrs. Calabash [62]–
(or whatever that name was he said
week after week
I never figured it out–)
Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash
wherever you are”
I never figured it out–)
Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash
wherever you are”
And the grown-ups would turn off the radio
and we’d go to bed
and we’d go to bed
You choose
TAGS
Columbus [75] Columbus Day [76] Diane Di Prima [77] history [78] Italian American culture [79] italianità alternativa [80] poetry [81]