Folk Art/Vernacular Architecture/Cultural Landscapes
Folk Art/Vernacular Architecture/Cultural Landscapes
n/a
October 17, 2012
The Decorated Flowerpots of Brooklyn
Joseph Sciorra
Decorated planter, 1601 81st Street, Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, 2012.
Looking (again) at a little known Italian-American folk art.
February 13, 2013
Visiting Italian-American Ranchers in the West
Joseph Sciorra
Tomera Ranch, Elko county, Nevada, 2013.
Italian-American folklife.
May 24, 2013
Flatlands Flowerpot Find
Joseph Sciorra
1293 and 1297 East 52nd Street, off Avenue J, Flatlands, Brooklyn.
More on the continuing saga of the mysterious planters.
June 14, 2013
Variations on a Theme
Joseph Sciorra
Decorated planter, 1471 East 31st Street, Flatlands, Brooklyn.
Pattern in the Material Folk Culture of Brooklyn’s Decorated Planters
June 20, 2013
Mosaic Flowerpots on Film
Decorated flowerpots from the 1971 film "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight."
A 1971 movie reveals the mother lode of Brooklyn planters.
February 2, 2013
Representing Cowboy Life, Italian/American Style
Chris Moran/Nevada Commission on Tourism
The exhibition “Italian Buckaroos: Old World & New World”
February 21, 2011
Craftsmanship Documented
The Metropolitan Musuem of Art
Mandolins (detail), New York, circa 1900, crafted by Angelo Mannello (1858-1922).
Italian Americans at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
May 5, 2011
Talking Folklore
Over the next several months, I will be presenting the book Italian Folk in venues throughout the New York metropolitan area.
October 19, 2011
A Ph.D. in Basket Weaving
Folklorist Joseph Sciorra, Ph.D. (University of Pennsylvania, 1996), holding Italian-American immigrant Vincenzo Ancona’s Sicilian-style basket made in Castellammare del Golfo (Trapani), Sicily in 1985.
Italian-American anti-intellectualism rears its ugly little head again.
February 23, 2010
Ricordando Vincenzo Ancona
Martha Cooper
Vincenzo Ancona, Castel del Golfo Social Club, Brooklyn, 1987.
Poet, visual artist, raconteur, singer, immigrant laborer, friend.
May 31, 2010
Building Community, the Brooklyn Way
Joseph Sciorra
KAVES, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, April 14, 2010.
Meet KAVES, band leader, tattoo artist, community activist.
December 22, 2008
An Epic of Mediterranean Culture
Joe Milone and his Exhibited Shoe Shine Stand, 1942.
Sixty-six years ago, the Museum of Modern Art exhibited a Sicilian-American bootblack’s decorated shoeshine kit, contributing to the museum director’s eventual dismissal.
September 28, 2008
Backyard Figs from Brooklyn
Joseph Sciorra
Figs
In which this blogger says nothing more profound than he really, really likes figs.
December 24, 2007
Gramsci’s Presepio
Joseph Sciorra
Underground Nativity, 2007.
The domestic presepio, an example of living folklore.
August 28, 2008
Lace in the Crystal City
Joseph Sciorra
The exhibition “Lace, the Spaces Between,” Corning, New York.
An exhibition presents women’s domestic needlework in Corning, New York.
May 26, 2008
The Garden of Earthly Delights in Fresno
Joseph Sciorra
Baldassare Forestiere's "Underground Gardens," Fresno, 2008.
A Brief Visit to California’s Subterranean Marvel, Baldassare Forestiere’s “Underground Gardens.”
May 1, 2008
Holy Land USA, a Religious Vision in Ruins
Joseph Sciorra
Holy Land USA, Waterbury, CT, 2005.
During the 1960s and 1970s, 40,000 people visited Waterbury, CT annually to pray at Holy Land USA, a Catholic theme park created by John Greco. Now it lies in ruins.
March 29, 2008
Gino Vitale, Brooklyn developer and shrine builder.
Joseph Sciorra
Gino Vitale, with one of his Red Hook shrine buildings in the background, March 24, 2008.
Brooklyn developer Gino Vitale adapts the centuries old edicole sacre (devotional shrines) to his newly constructed buildings.
March 19, 2008
St. Joseph's Altar, Barese Style
Joseph Sciorra
Antonietta Vitucci's St. Joseph's altar, March 18, 2008.
Celebrating St. Joseph in Brooklyn and some thoughts on lived religion.
March 9, 2015
Andrea Cuomo, Immigrant Pebble Artisan
A still from "Castle," Governor Andrew Cuomo's 2014 election campaign ad.
My on-going research on the Italian-American art of pebble decoration leads me to the father and grandfather of two New York State governors.
October 23, 2015
Innovation in Tradition: The Columbus Day Giglio Party
Joseph Sciorra
Dancing the giglio on Lorimer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, October 12, 2015.
Italian Americans are active agents in the re-imagining and recreation of Italian-American culture.
November 19, 2015
Giovanni Crozzoli, Immigrant Tower Builder
Joseph Sciorra
Detail of Giovanni Crozzoli's tower with creator's name and birth year.
On encountering the creative work of immigrant mason Giovanni Crozzoli of College Point, Queens.
August 24, 2016
Discovering the Black Madonna Right Before My Very Eyes
Joseph Sciorra
Phoenix Bar, 447 East 13th Street, Manhattan
Learning something new about the historical devotion to the Madonna Nera del Tindari in Manhattan’s East Village.
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This Blog
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
My Menu
Most Commented
- italianrap è morto! Viva Italian Rap!
- Sal Paradise was an Italophobe.
- A Ph.D. in Basket Weaving
- A Tourist Visits Italian in California
- Operation Rescue Flowerpot
- The Vergognosi of Staten Island
- The Decorated Flowerpots of Brooklyn
- Linking the Diaspora Musically
- "C'è la luna": Anatomy of an Italian-American "Folk" Song
- The New Negative Image of Italian Americans
- Why I’m Boycotting This Year’s Italian American Studies Association Conference
- A moribund italianità.
- The Cultural Politics of Coffee
- Mr. Piccolo’s Peculiar Obsession
- St. Joseph's Altar, Barese Style
- Lace in the Crystal City
- Remembering James Groppi
- Chi è Pete Panto?
- Bologna 1977
- Whose Day Is It Anyway?
- Fear and (Self-)Loathing in Italian America
- Williamsburg Radicale
- An entry from The Encyclopedia of Imagined Italian-Americana
- Real Italians
- The Italian-American Political & Moral Bocce Club of Paradise's Inaugural Annual Spring Fling Dinner Dance, Gala, and Reception
- Una malia contro il malocchio dei prominenti.
- Serendipitous Encounters of an Italian-American Kind
- Rethinking 150 Years
- Thinking Neapolitan
- Giovanni Crozzoli, Immigrant Tower Builder
- Routes of Return
- Talkin’ Hybrid Moments
- Mapping Flowerpots
- An American Folklorist in Italy
- Return of the Italian-American Voldemort
- Andrea Cuomo, Immigrant Pebble Artisan
- The Wacky World of Arthur Piccolo
- WOV-AM’s La Grande Famiglia
- Flatlands Flowerpot Find
- Tony Soprano Made Me Do It!
- What’s his name?! What’s his name?!
- Giovanni Indelicato, Bootblack Artist, Rediscovered and Reclaimed
- My Italian American Museum
- Vittoria Pietropaoli, An Appreciation
- Giovanni Crozzoli, Pebble Flowerpot Artisan
- The Italian-American Political & Moral Bocce Club of Paradise Funds the Documentary Film Baci Bocce!!!
- Folk Performances of the Italian-American Prominenti
- Talking Folklore
- Innovation in Tradition: The Columbus Day Giglio Party
- Backyard Figs from Brooklyn
- Wise Men Melchior and Balthazar banned in northern Italian city.
- Chalking Memory
- Watching Mob Movies with my Fourteen-Year-Old Son
- An Ex-W.O.P. Casts His Vote
- The Man Who Played Judas
- The Sound of Italian-American Cultural Philanthropy
- Francesco Pepe, My Dutch Paisan
- Benefit Concert for Calandra Institute, June 10th
