Articles by: Anthony j. Tamburri

  • Art & Culture

    Once Upon a Piazza


    My first experience with an Italian piazza was, to my surprise, the only piazza in the town that I had visited back in 1970. Then, that small town in Lazio, Settefrati, at the top of the mountains in the Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo, had a winter population of a few hundred people. Fortunately, I got there in July.

    That piazza became, for me, a meeting place of the town’s citizens, from contadini (yes, there were still genuine contadini at that time) to the town’s pezzi da novanta, which included, first and foremost, the priest, someone I remember as a middle-aged man named Don Antonio. (He took a liking to me because, I guess, we shared the same moniker.) Also included in this group was, naturally, the mayor. (Yes, this little mountain town is its own comune and has its own mayor, as well as a few frazioni!).Then there were a few members of the town, such as a prominent family or two, the barber who, at that time, had the only public phone in town (one of the very few phones at all in those years…), and a relative or two of mine from my home town here in the States. And, of course, my grandfather, who had spent close to two decades, at that time, traveling to and fro because he had retired from Con. Ed. in the 1950s.
     
    That piazza was basically the town’s central nerve system. The only bar/caffè was there; the only alimentare was there; the post office was there; the barbershop/centralino was there; and the municipio and pro loco were also located there. As a consequence, if you needed to take care of business, you could basically go to city hall and get the documents you needed, then proceed to the post office for a stamp, and ultimately mail them. Once that series of tasks was completed, you could then proceed to the barbershop to call whoever was to receive your letter. In the meantime, if so desired, you could even get a coffee for that morning or afternoon pick-me-up. Or, if there were some special event going on, you might get a trim either before or after your phone call, in order to look ever the more dapper for later on.
     
    Yet, that piazza was, and remains, more than just the functional nervous system of the paese. It was where just about everyone ended up after dinner, somewhere between 8 and 9 PM, dressed well, though not necessarily to the nines; that was reserved for those special Sunday events. During these evening promenades, all sorts of other town business took place. Chats were held, for example, about what to do with the laundry fountain, located literally underneath the piazza. Yes, there was still, at that time, a functional public laundry fountain, where the proverbial lavandaie engaged their craft: cleaning clothes and, some would say gossiping, as they shared town news! Depending on the time of year, discussions on the annual feast of the Madonna di Canneto took place; a feast that lasts from the 14th to the 29th of August. Actually, two Madonnas inhabit the area: one ceramic, which spends most of the year in a sort of tabernacle in the church in town that overlooks the piazza; the other, a black Madonna that resides higher up the mountain   in the Sanctuary of Canneto. And, more important, over the years, what to do with the elementary school, whose population changed significantly from time to time, due to all sorts of reasons, most of which were tied to family economics and possible relocation.
     
    I remember so vividly my first time in that piazza. I had traveled close to twenty hours, from New York, to visit my grandfather. From JFK to Fiumicino; then to Roma Termini; then, to my chagrin, a failed attempt to get a train ticket to Settefrati. “Quale linea?”, the ticket man asked. “Boh!”, I replied, thinking, “What the heck did the paesanos back in Stamford mean when they said Settefrati was near Rome?” It took some research, as I dragged my suitcase all over Rome’s train station, but I did make it… I took a third-class train to Cassino, and then a taxi to Settefrati. The piazza, at my arrival, was empty! Well, almost. There was this young boy, sitting idly on a small wall, fiddling. I approached and asked him, in Italian, if he could direct to “la casa di Michele d’Egidio”. “You American?”, he blurted out loud, almost with relief. “Yes,” I replied. And after some introductory conversation, from which I learned he was there for the summer with his family, from a town in Connecticut only a few miles from mine, he knew exactly who my grandfather was and where he was staying. That teenager, who barely knew my grandfather personally, knew exactly where he lived; he habitually hung out in that piazza, even when everyone else was resting after a huge afternoon meal, soaking up not only the sun but, indeed, information about everyone and everything. (Yes, lunch-time meals were still abundant: a mountain of spaghetti al sugo, followed by a roasted piccione, followed by salad, and then either fruit or cheese).
     
    This past August I returned to that piazza after twenty-two years. It was the same square, significantly redone, with the newly remodeled church still overlooking the piazza. Smack in the middle was a bandstand, where the nightly entertainment played for the few hundred that strolled in and out of that piazza after dinner, during this fortnight of celebrating the “festa della Madonna”! I returned, partly, because my cousins Theresa and Al were there on summer vacation, and we wanted to see their new house; partly, also, because, Italo, another dear cousin of 88 years, wanted once more, as he put it, “dopo più di trent’anni camminare con te a bracetto in piazza ancora una volta.” Yes, in that square he wanted, once more, to walk arm in arm, discussing with me—once more, after more than three decades—so many things, including my grandfather’s escapades over the years, as we had often done since 1971 in his sartoria, in Florence, in Piazza Santa Croce.
     
     

    Anthony J. Tamburri is Professor and Dean at the Calandra Institute

     

     

  • Art & Culture

    A Festival of New Italian American Cinema Opens in New York


    As one rehearses a history of Italians and Italian Americans in three major mediatic forms, what becomes apparent is that Italians and Italian Americans are by no means a lacking entity in cinema, music, or television; nor have they ever been, be it from the perspective of their actual presence or simply their mere representation in films portrayed by others. Be it Rudolph Valentino, Madonna, or Ezio Pinza, Italian Americans have had a conspicuous presence in the movies, in music videos, and on TV, even though, at times, debatable. Indeed, this debate rages on, and, while sympathetic to the cause of Italian anti-defamation, one might very well come to it from different view points.

    The possibility of a monolithic perspective is, to be sure, not the most constructive of manners to carry forward such a debate.


    We may, therefore, indeed question some of the more popular “Italian/American” movies and TV shows that seem to populate both the large and small screens and enjoy, even among Italian Americans, a certain privilege among viewers. One need only think of Friends, a show whose Italian American is not the most ideal of models. A similar question mark might be raised about the ever popular Everybody Loves Raymond, in which mother and father, together with their two sons, might be seen to impute a certain amount of buffoonery and fesseria to Italian Americans.


    One might indeed argue that the negative depiction of Italian Americans, which has so irritated a certain percentage of the ethnic group in this past decade especially, has its origins in the early 20th century, specifically at the beginning of the talkies era, if not even earlier. To be sure, silent films such as F. Dobson’s The Skyscrapers of New York (1905), Edwin Porter’s The Black Hand (1906) and D. W. Griffith’s The Avenging Conscious (1914) may figure as early candidates as the springboard for such stereotyping; the Italian character in this last film – played by a non-Italian, as was often the case – is an ill-reputed blackmailer. Themes such a sex, violence, sentimentality, family relations, and the like will seem to dominate the cinema of and about Italian Americans, generating a most contested debate, within the Italian/ American community at the end of the 20th century about the portrayal of Italians and Italian Americans in United States media in general.


    In fact, even in his earlier film, At The Altar (1909), Griffith seemed to raise concern within the dominant culture by underscoring, in an apparently positive story-line, sexuality and violence as part of the Italian character. To be sure, both aggressive behavior and sexuality will figure as to components of the Italian and Italian/American character as cinema develops in the United States. Be it the gangster films of the 1930s, which laid the foundation for the violent mobster, or the oversexed individuals of the later years, the Italian male will ultimately culminate in a figure such as Tony Soprano, a violent, oversexed capo-regime whose sexual proclivities bring him to the edge of seducing his own nephew’s fiancé, Adriana.


    It is not until the 1960s, with the onset of a new positive mindset vis-à-vis ethnicity that young directors such as Michael Cimino, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian DePalma, Penny Marshall, and Martin Scorsese, to name the more prominent, make their mark, laying the groundwork for yet another generation of filmmakers to follow. With this second wave of Italian/American directors, the mafia theme begins to dissipate, making room for other issues apparently more immediate to the aesthetic repertoire of these younger directors. Thus, we are privy to insight into family matters and gender issues, all of which is evident in the films of Penny Marshall, Greg Mottola, Nancy Savoca, John Turturro, as well as others. In True Love (1989) and Household Saints (1993), Savoca interrogates the values of the old world and the Italian/ American community and all that it represents (e.g., gender, work, “us vs. them,” etc.). Among these directors who have made at least one featurelength movie, and who are part of this Festival of New Italian American Cinema, we include: Steve Buscemi (Trees Lounge [1996]), Bob Giraldi (Dinner Rush [2001]), Kevin Jordan (Brooklyn Lobster [2005]), Maria Maggenti (Puccini for Beginners [2006]), Joseph Greco (Canvas [2006]), to name a few. The festival then closes with John Turturro’s tragicomical feature Romance e Cigarettes (2005).


    Short films will occupy a good part of the festival’s schedule this week; Tom DeCerchio’s Nunzio’s Second Cousin (1994), Diane Frederick’s Che bella famiglia (1993), Len Guercio’s Tiramisù (2002), and Lucia Grillo’s A pena do pana (2005) each take on various themes that, to date, have not been in the general forefront of Italian/ American cinema. Among the documentaries to be screened are: Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno’s Mother-Tongue: Italian American Sons & Mothers (1999); Tony DeNonno’s It’s One Family: Knock on Wood (1982), and Susan Caverna Lloyd’s Baggage (2001). The final documentary of the festival is Gianfranco Norelli’s featurelength Pane amaro (2007).

     

  • Nuovi registi italiano/americani al John D. Calandra Italian American Institute


     Uno sguardo alla storia degli italiani ed americani italiani (leggasi, italoamericani) nel cinema statunitense rivela immediatamente che ambedue i gruppi non sono affatto una minoranza; né lo sono mai stati in termini di presenza effettiva o semplicemente di rappresentazione in film di non americani italiani. Fin dall'avvento di questa arena cinematograficagli americani italiani sono sempre stati visibili. Basti pensare a Rudolph Valentino, Madonna, o Ezio Pinza per rendersi conto che gli americani italiani hanno sempre goduto di ampia visibilità, per quanto a volte discutibile, non soltanto nel cinema, ma pure in ambiti culturali quali video musicali e TV. I dibattiti a tal proposito imperversano infatti da anni e, pur abbracciando la causa dell'anti-diffamazione italiana, é possibile affrontarli da diversi punti di vista. Una prospettiva monolitica puó infatti rivelarsi controproducente al tentativo di avanzare il dibattito.

     
    Potremmo cioè criticare alcuni dei film e programmi TV "italiano/americani" più seguiti che popolano entrambi il piccolo e il grande schermo e che contemporaneamente riscuotono un alto indice di gradimento tra gli stessi americani italiani. Tra questi, si ricordi il programma Friends, il cui unico personaggio italiano/americano non costituisce per nulla un modello ideale a cui aspirare. Simili critiche potrebbero essere mosse al sempre popolare Everybody Loves Raymond, dove madre e padre insieme ai due figli fanno fare agli americani italiani la parte dei buffoni e dei fessi.
    Negli ultimi dieci anni in particolare il ritratto negativo degli americani italiani ha irritato una discreta percentuale del nostro gruppo etnico, ma l'immagine sfavorevole ha le sue origini agli inizi del ventesimo secolo con l'avvento del sonoro, se non addirittura prima. Film muti quali The Skyscrapers of New York (1905) di F. Dobson, The Black Hand (1906) di Edwin Porter e The Avenging Conscious (1914) di D. W. Griffith sono precoci fonti di tale stereotipizzazione. Non a caso in questi film il personaggio italiano/americano è un ricattatore di cattiva fama. Temi quali il sesso, la violenza, il sentimentalismo, la famiglia e simili hanno finito per dominare il cinema sugli americani italiani e dei registi italiano/americani. Tale tendenza, come ben si sa, ha provocato un acceso dibattito nella nostra comunità, specialmente alla fine del ventesimo secolo, sulle rappresentazioni degli italiani o americani italiani nei media statunitensi.
     
    Già con At The Altar (1909), Griffith aveva infatti suscitato preoccupazione nella cultura dominante, quando, in un segmento narrativo apparentemente positivo, aveva insistito su sessualità e violenza come aspetti tipici del carattere italiano. In effetti, aggressività e sessualità diventeranno caratteristiche comuni dei personaggi italiani ed italiano/americani nel cinema statunitense a venire. Fondendo l'immagine del gangster violento, che ha le sue origini nei film gangster degli anni trenta, e i personaggi ipersessuati degli anni successivi, il maschio italiano culminerà nella figura di Tony Soprano, un capofamiglia mafioso violento e ipersessuato che arriva quasi al punto di sedurre la fidanzata del proprio nipote, Adriana.
     
    Con la seconda ondata di registi italiano/americani, il tema mafioso comincia a scemare, lasciando spazio ad altre questioni apparentemente più immediate per il repertorio estetico di questi giovani e/o nuovi registi. Questo ed altri cambiamenti estetico-ideologici ci hanno incentivato ad organizzare questo festival, il quale ha le sue origini in una rassegna cinematografica all'interno del Pesaro Film Festival di 2007, allestita allora insieme a Giuliana Muscio, Joseph Sciorra e Giovanni Spagnoletta.
    Con questo nuovo cinema, veniamo quindi fatti partecipi di affari di famiglia e questioni di genere nei film di Penny Marshall, Greg Mottola, Nancy Savoca, John Turturro, ed altri. Nancy Savoca, ad esempio, in due dei suoi tre film in programma, affronta di petto la sua identità italiano/americana. In True Love (1989) e Household Saints (1993) la regista interroga i valori del vecchio mondo e della comunità italiano/americana e tutto ciò che essa rappresenta (in riferimento a genere, lavoro, noi vs. loro, ecc.). Tra quegli artisti già autori di almeno un lungometraggio, e che faranno parte del Festival of New Italian American Cinema, ricordiamo Steve Buscemi (Trees Lounge [1996]), Bob Giraldi (Dinner Rush [2001]), Kevin Jordan (Brooklyn Lobster [2005]) e Joseph Greco (Canvas [2006]). Si chiude poi questa rassegna del nuovo cinema con Romance e Cigarettes (2005), serio-comico musical dell'ormai rinomato John Turturro.
     
    Tra i cortometraggi ed i documentari che si faranno vedere, ricordiamo Nunzio's Second Cousin (1994) di Tom DeCerchio, Che bella famiglia (1993) di Diane Frederick, Tiramisù (2002) di Len Guercio, 2002), e A pena do pana (2005) di Lucia Grillo. E tra quelli del genere documentaristico, quattro sono i nomi che ci vengono subito in mente: Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno e il suo Mother-Tongue: Italian American Sons & Mothers (1999); altra nota di merito in questo genere documentaristico va certo a Tony DeNonno e il suo It's One Family: Knock on Wood (1982), come pure a Susan Caverna Lloyd con il suo Baggage (2001). L'ultimo documentario del festival, e il penultimo della serie, è Pane amaro (2007) di Gianfranco Norelli.

    (Pubblicato su Oggi7 del 21 settembre 2008)

     

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    WEDNESDAY, September 24

    CONFERENCE

    John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 West 43rd Street, 17th floor, Manhattan

    9:30 AM-11 PM - Italian Americans and Organized Crime

     

    • George DeStefano, "Mobbed Out: Is the Gangster Genre Finished?"
    • Fred Gardaphè, "'You Got a Problem with That?': Cinematic Gangsters and the Italian American Community"
    • Giancarlo Lombardi, "'Don't Stop Believing, Don't Stop': (De)Structuring Expectations in the Final Season of The Sopranos"

    Respondent: Robert Viscusi

    11 AM-12 PM - Roundtable w/ Directors & Actors: Philip Botti, Lucia Grillo, Michael Canzoniero & Marco Ricci

    12-1 PM - Lunch on your own

    1-2:30 PM - Representations of Italian American through the 20th Century

    • Giuliana Muscio, "From The Italian to Tony Soprano: Italians and Immigrants on the US Silver Screen (1895-1940)"
    • Dawn Esposito, "Missing [but] in Action: Cinematic Representation of The World War II Italian-American Soldier"
    • Francesca Canadé Sautman, "Breaking up the Family: Gender, Race, and Italian-American Cinema"

    Respondent: Peter Carravetta

    2:30-3:30 PM - Roundtable w/ Directors & Actors: Kevin Jordan, Matthew Bonifacio (not confirmed)

    3:30-4:30 PM - Documentaries & Shorts

    • Joseph Sciorra, "Documenting Documentaries"
    • Anthony Julian Tamburri, "Italian/American Briefs: The Short Film"

    Respondent: Edvige Giunta

    4:30-5:30 PM - Roundtable w/ Directors & Actors: Susan Caperna Lloyd, Tony DeNonno (not confirmed), Len Guercio

    5:30-6:30 PM - Roundtable w/ Directors & Actors: Carl Capotorto, Bob Giraldi, Maria Maggenti

    7 PM - Reception

     

     

     

     

     

    THURSDAY, September 25

    FILM SCREENINGS

    Borough of Manhattan Community College, Richard Harris Terrace, 199 Chambers Street, Manhattan


    10 AM Trees Lounge (Steve Buscemi, 1996; 95 min.)

    NOON Che bella famiglia (Diane Frederick, 1993; 30 min.); Lena's Spaghetti (Joseph Greco, 1994; 23 min.)

    1 PM Roundtable with directors and actors: Diane Federico, Joe Greco, Dina Fiasconaro

    2 PM Fifty Cents (Philip Botti, 2008,13 min.); Bust A Move (Philip Botti, 2000; 28 min.); True Love Waits (Dina Fiasconaro, 2004; 17 min.)

    3 PM Two Family House (Raymond De Felitta, 2000; 108 min.)

    5 PM Brooklyn Lobster (Kevin Jordan, 2005; 94 min.)

    7 PM True Love (Nancy Savoca, 1989; 104 min.)

    9 PM Roundtable with directors and actors: Nancy Savoca, Vincent Pastore, Kevin Jordan (not confirmed)

     

    FRIDAY, September 26

    FILM SCREENINGS

    CUNY Graduate Center, Proshansky Auditorium, 365 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan


    10 AM The Sweet New (Raymond Rea, 2007; 52 min.); The Blinking Madonna (Beth Harrington, 1994; 56 min.)

    NOON Pishadoo (Michael Canzoniero & Marco Ricci, 1997; 22 min.); Tiramisù (Len Guercio, 2002; 17 min.); Nunzio's Second Cousin (Tom De Cerchio, 1994; 18 min.)

    1 PM Puccini for Beginners (Maria Maggenti, 2006; 82 min.)

    3 PM Dirt (Nancy Savoca, 2004; 91 min.)

    5 PM Dinner Rush (Bob Giraldi, 2001; 99 min.)

    7 PM Canvas (Joseph Greco, 2006; 101 min.)

    9 PM Roundtable with directors and actors: Matthew Bonifacio, Joe Greco

     

    SATURDAY, September 27

    FILM SCREENINGS

    Hunter College, Ida K. Lang Recital Hall, Room 424 Hunter North, East 69th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, Manhattan


    10 AM Goat on Fire and Smiling Fish (Kevin Jordan, 1999; 90 min.)

    NOON A pena do pana (Lucia Grillo, 2005; 19 min.); Touch (Dina Ciraulo, 1995; 17 min.); Mio paese-My Town (Katherine Gulla 1986; 26 min.)

    1 PM Knock on Wood (Tony De Nonno, 1982; 24 min.); Baggage (Susan Caperna Lloyd, 2001; 32 min.); Uncovering (Mariarosy Calleri, 1996; 14 min.); Mother Tongue: Italian American Sons & Mothers (Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno, 1999; 43 min.)

    3 PM Household Saints (Nancy Savoca, 1993; 124 min.)

    5 PM Pane amaro (Gianfranco Norelli, 2007; 104 min.)

    7 PM Romance and Cigarettes (John Turturro, 2005; 105 min.)

    9 PM Roundtable with directors and actors: Gianfranco Norelli, Nancy Savoca, Carl Capotorto, Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno & Jerome Bongiorno

     

    RSVP/INFO: 212-642-2094, [email protected]

  • Op-Eds

    Italian/American Cultural Philanthropy: What is cultural philanthropy and when will it come to Italian America?


    Sunday morning I attended the first annual Italian American “Ambasciatori” Awards, which were presented to a series of Italian/American organizations in the greater New York area, including lower Connecticut. In all, I believe more than forty individuals representing forty institutions of all sorts were celebrated. Among the general public, there were, at a quick count, about 500 people present, since there were fifty-two tables numbered, that I could see, and an additional awardees table of about forty people.


    The event was also, indeed primarily, a fund-raiser for the young Italian American Museum of New York, which has recently acquired property in Little Italy, at the corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets. Where else might we want to see an Italian/American museum housed, if not in Little Italy? I suspect there are those who might want to see it elsewhere, and I am sure there is a rational argument for so doing. Yet, I would submit, there are also excellent reasons for having it in Little Italy.


    Location, however, is not my concern in this edition of my blog. Instead, I would like our readers to consider other things. First, while it is true that we have a couple of so-called “free-standing” museums in places like San Francisco and New Orleans, it is also fair to say, I believe, that these museums are, in some cases, dedicated ,to a certain degree, to the history of Italians in the local area. Second, these few existing museums tend to be limited in size of both venue and personnel, so (a) what they do, they can only do on a limited scale, and (b) because their staff is small, they must rely on volunteers. Third, in light of these initial two issues, where do Italian Americans stack up vis-à-vis other US ethnic groups? Does a similar situation exist, for example, with other ethnic groups? Do they, too, have a sampling of small museums around the country still in search of creating something larger?


    These are, I know, rhetorical questions, and the answers are, I suspect, quite clear. Just about all other “historical” ethnic groups in the United States have not one but, for sure, several large, free-standing museums that preserve their past and, in so doing, impart that knowledge onto the newer generations, and, by natural progression, celebrate their present and future. We Italian Americans have yet to find (read, also, found) such a place in order to do so. As we enter deeper into the 21st century, less than two months shy of a new year (2008), and more than one hundred twenty-five years after the onset of the major wave of immigration from western Europe, we Italian Americans still have no major museum! This is, simply, unacceptable.


    Education is the only way we can change people’s minds. The Italian/American community must step up to the plate and support grand projects such as an Italian/American museum or any other entity and/or institution dedicated to the imparting of knowledge of our history and culture. This, of course, brings me to the other areas I consider to be in dire need of cultural philanthropy that I mention in my abstract to this blog: namely, the lack of Italian/American names on (a) college and university libraries, (b) colleges of arts and humanities, and (c) named (read, privately endowed) professorships, just to name a few areas. And I cannot underscore the humanities aspect of this conversation of mine. The hard sciences and other fields such as business and economics seem to have fared quit well in many places. But in very few places, indeed, do we find the names of our ethnic brethren when we deal with areas such as the arts, the humanities, named professorships, and centers for Italian and/or Italian/American studies.


    A handful of names, literally, comes to mind when I think of philanthropy vis-à-vis Italian and Italian/American studies: Charles and Joan Alberto endowed the Charles and Joan Alberto Italian Studies Institute (Seton Hall University); Joseph M. and Geraldine C. La Motta endowed the Joseph M. and Geraldine C. La Motta Chair in Italian Studies (Seton Hall University); The Valente Family’s funding of the The Valente Family Italian Studies Library (Seton Hall University) has set up a collection of Italian books second to none; the Baroness Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò’s most generous donation funds in perpetuity the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, home of the Department of Italian Studies at New York University; Joseph and Elda Coccia have endowed The Joseph and Elda Coccia Institute for the Italian Experience in America (Montclair State University); and, dulcis in fundo, George L. Graziadio endowed the George L. Graziadio Center for Italian Studies and its George L. Graziadio Chair of Italian Studies at California State University in Long Beach.


    While what I have listed above tends more toward Italian than Italian/American Studies, the majority of these programs does include Italian Americana as a valid field of intellectual inquiry under their respective umbrellas of Italian Studies. But these are just the beginning. Italian/American Studies has progressed magnificently over the past thirty years at the college and university levels. There are numerous programs or parts thereof at both the undergraduate and graduate levels nationwide. Indeed, for this to filter down to the public school system (where it is most needed in order to create future thinkers in this regard), access to Italian/American Studies for more graduate students needs greater facilitation. This, simply, will not happen through public funding alone. There needs to be a significant articulation between the academic world and those of Italian America who can readily underwrite any and all of the above-mentioned entities, centers and institutes. This includes also graduate fellowships so that those graduate students in, for example, history, sociology, literature, cinema, and the like, can dedicate themselves fulltime in graduate school to earning their degrees, and not be distracted by having to work part-time. Because many of us have had to follow this second path, it does not mean our children and grandchildren should do the same. Anzi!


    It is a great challenge that lies ahead of us, but it is a feasible accomplishment, to be sure. The six above-mentioned centers and professorships are proof positive. We need to talk, and talk, and talk in order to do, and do, and do…

    Alla riscossa!

  • Op-Eds

    "An Italian/American State of Mind" - A Rejoinder


    As I said briefly in response to his post on i-Italy.org which can be found below, I believe what Tom Verso brings to the fore is all part of the same issue/problem within the Italian/American community. Even those involved in the various struggles against all sorts of anti-Italianism, as it is sometimes called, do not take notice of the situations he described in his post. It, too – indeed, especially – needs to be addressed with the same vigor as one addresses the negative imaginary.


    With regard to comprehensive sociological studies on Italian Americans, I would join Verso in adding political science studies to a list of priorities. Italian Americana in these two fields seem not to have a crop of "younger scholars" as do, for example, history, literature, and cinema; and until all fields are on equal ground, we remain at a disadvantage both within our community as well as beyond.


    All this, I believe we agree, is part of what Verso calls a "high level of Italian American humanities literacy," something that Italian/American philanthropists (save four that come to mind) have yet to target. This, too, could readily be part of his comparison with other ethnic groups. The rhetorical question, of course, is how many "Italian" names are on libraries and other humanities buildings on college and university campuses throughout the US? How many "Italian" names are behind "think tanks" that deal with Italian Americana?


    Tom Verso has begin (re-ignited?) a crucial discussion that others should not ignore. We need for academics in both undergraduate and graduate programs to think in terms of a cultural and intellectual legacy. It is not enough for Italian/American studies to be an intellectual space we visit every once in a while, as some have done, abandoning it, so to speak, for other projects, as some might say, "more serious."


    Let’s hope others join in on this conversation with both words and actions.


    Alla riscossa,

    AJT

     

  • Art & Culture

    The Immigrants’ Hardships and Good Fortune as Told through Song, Photos, and Narration


    Friday night, at NYU’s Casa Italiana, I was fortunate to attend the multi-media performance of Compagnie delle Acque, a socially committed musical quartet of piano, guitar, accordion, and vocals, interspersed with a sensitively accurate, historical narrative written by Gian Antonio Stella. Based on Stella’s ODISSEE, Italiani sulle rotte del sogno e del dolore (2004), the various songs and narration detailed the many hopes as well as disappointments that Italian emigrants experienced during the historical period of the Italian diaspora from the late nineteenth century through to the early twentieth.

     

    Songs, slides, and narration served as the foundation for the group’s telling of such a dramatic and, in some cases, still overlooked story. The songs derived from a long tradition of folk music that originated from those experiences. The many slides that accompanied the singing exposed the audience to innumerable street scenes of the era, photos of the traveling conditions of third-class steerage the immigrants had to endure, original documents, and, in some cases, samples of intelligence tests these same immigrants were to surpass in order to enter their host countries. Stella’s narration, in turn, was, at the same time, powerful in content and tone and equally perceptive of the trials and tribulations our ancestors had to bear.

     

    The combination of these three different media was perfectly coordinated so that the spectator remained constantly engaged by one if not two of his/her five senses simultaneously; it was impossible to lose interest at any time during this slightly more than one hour and thirty minutes of constant vocal, visual, and narrative performances.

     

    Gualtiero Bertelli (accordion, guitar, vocals), Giuseppina Casarin (vocals), Rachele Colombo (vocals and guitar), and Paolo Favorido (piano) make up the Compagnie delle Acque. Their repertoire consisted not only of traditional folk songs, as I mentioned earlier, but also of a number of pieces composed by Bertelli himself, which fit perfectly, in content and form, into the historical repertoire. Stella, in turn, complemented the vocal and the visual with his detailed and nicely articulated narrative of the Italian emigrant’s diasporic experience to northern Europe, the Americas, and Australia. All of this was brought to a most powerful conclusion that contrasted Italy’s historic “emigration” to its current “immigration,” a strikingly unforgettable, visual ending.

     

    A most successful tour de force indeed! And who better to tell this story from an Italian perspective than Gian Antonio Stella, author of at least four important books on the subject at hand and, among Italian intellectuals writing on the topic today, the most cognizant of the immigrant’s plight. Let us not forget that his historical book L’orda, quando gli albanesi eravamo noi (2002) was a wakeup call, to be sure, for all those in Italy, especially for those who suffered from historical amnesia. This Friday night’s performance put together by Stella and the Compagnie delle Acque is, for sure, that second alarm once the snooze bar goes off!

     


     

     

  • Op-Eds

    An Italian/American State of Mind


    ... Namely, what are the duties and/or responsibilities of someone involved in Italian Americana? Must we take on that Gramscian role of “organic intellectual,” or can we just go about our business as the individuals we are? How do we create an Italian/American State of Mind?



    This is one of the most important issues that impacts our community, deserving of greater attention as required by our individual and collective sense of amor proprio. We must, for sure, ponder the issue of the group versus the individual, especially that person similar to any famous Italian American who has the ability (read, cultural currency) to further the group’s cause. This is an age-old question that we need to tackle, since we can now readily say that we have – literally and metaphorically – arrived.



    Allow me to pose a series of questions in this regard. First, why is there no section in bookstores, especially in a city like New York, dedicated to Italian/American writing? Given the thousands of square feet a bookstore occupies, what impact could one bookshelf of Italian/American books have? Second, why is it that of the six or seven forthcoming books on a publisher’s home page, the one dedicated to Italian Americana does not appear? Third, why is it that a book dedicated to United States poetry, one that seems to present itself as historically analytical and prescriptive, does not include a chapter on any Italian American, not even John Ciardi?



    We need to be sure that our progeny is aware of our culture. They can access it in two ways: (1) Teachers and professors on all levels need to be trained to impart the information necessary for such cultural awareness. The strategy for its success is binate: (a) lessons on significant Italian Americans need to be integrated into the various K-12 curricula; (b) professors at the college level need to include Italian Americana in their various courses, especially in their graduate seminars. Now, with the creation of i-Italy, a virtual network connecting Italy and Italian America, the promulgation of such information becomes easier with each click of a button. (2) All of this leads to a second way of access — where “push comes to shove.” This is where cultural philanthropy comes into play; professorships in Italian Americana should be established; centers for Italian/American Studies should be formed. Both, clearly, can be done through endowments of approximately $2,000,000 and $1,000,000 respectively. Professorships and centers run the gamut for other United States ethnic groups, funded by individuals and/or their foundations. Very few individuals among the Italian/American community have engaged in such cultural philanthropy; we can count the number on one hand.



    Ultimately, we need to take our culture more seriously. We simply cannot continue to engage in a series of reminiscences that lead primarily to nostalgic recall. Instead, we need to revisit our past, reclaim its pros and cons, and reconcile it with our present. We need to figure out where we came from, ask those unpopular questions of both ourselves and the dominant culture, and champion our many Italian/American cultural brokers — artists and intellectuals — so that they can engage productively in an Italian/American state of mind.



    Ultimately, all of this is dependent upon our recapturing our sense of amor proprio, combining it with our abilities — financial, performative, aesthetic, intellectual — in order to engender, document, maintain, and transmit our Italian/American culture; anything short of such activity is tantamount to failure.

     

    Dean, J.D.Calandra Italian American Institute Queens College (CUNY)

     

     

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