Occhio contro occhio
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Cultural Politics/Reimagining Italian
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July 11, 2008
Una malia contro il malocchio dei prominenti.
Eliza Putnam Heaton, "By-Paths in Sicily"
"Door Charms for the Evil Eye" (detail), Sicily, circa 1910.
Iettature, malie, & la lingua a strascinuni in the 21st century.
July 2, 2008
Watching “Serpico” with my Thirteen-Year-Old Son
Musings on heroes, role models, and the Italian-American imaginative.
January 12, 2008
Poet Vincent Ferrini, 1913-2007
Vincent Ferrini reciting "Forge Plant."
Poet Vincent Ferrini, 1913-2007
January 9, 2008
The Cost of Freedom: The Rascals' Struggle for Change
Photo courtesy of Joe Russo/TheRascalsArchives.com
"Good Lovin'" (1966), The Young Rascals
"In 1967-68, The Rascals were on top of the pop charts. So they decided to use their power to take a stand on Civil Rights. That’s when the problems started."
December 25, 2007
Gramsci’s Presepio
Joseph Sciorra
Underground Nativity, 2007.
The domestic presepio, an example of living folklore.
December 7, 2007
Sal Paradise was an Italophobe.
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/kerouac-spontaneous.html
Jack Kerouac
A little piece of drivel by Jack Kerouac begs the question, What's Italian-American about On The Road?
December 6, 2007
Salve
Dina Gerasia/The Malìa Collective website
La Società di Sant'Anna, Villa Avenue, Bronx, New York, c. 1940.
First post.
September 2, 2008
La Madonna Nera of New York City
Smiljana Peros
Drawing la Madonna Nera in chalk, Manhattan, September 8, 2006.
Italian Americans gather at a gay bar in Manhattan in celebration of the Black Madonna.
September 20, 2008
What’s So Funny about the Virgin Mary?
Luca Enrico Fantini
St. Mother Cabrini (LuLu LoLo) and me.
Ludic and hybridic reworkings of Catholic imagery and ritual are part of recent reimagining of Italian-American culture and identity.
March 25, 2009
Chalking Memory
Joseph Sciorra
Chalk memorial to Triangle Factory Fire victims, 509 East 13th Street, New York, March 25, 2009.
Remembering the victims of the Triangle Factory Fire victims.
March 8, 2008
Tony Soprano Made Me Do It!
Turncoat mafioso’s statement about media depictions of Italian Americans is “smoking gun” say some Italian-Americans. No kidding.
January 20, 2010
Real Italians
Joseph Sciorra, circa 1980.
A social scientist’s take on guidos, prominenti, and intellectual inquiry.
February 4, 2010
Fear and (Self-)Loathing in Italian America
The Specter of the Gavon Haunts the Prominenti.
February 24, 2010
Return of the Italian-American Voldemort
An update from Rita Skeeter, gossipy reporter for the Daily Prophet.
October 1, 2009
The Italian-American Political & Moral Bocce Club of Paradise's Inaugural Annual Reception, Gala, and Dinner Dance
A blog post about a real event parodying very surreal events.
January 3, 2010
Wise Men Melchior and Balthazar banned in northern Italian city.
A story about racism in contemporary Italy so absurd it could be true.
June 1, 2010
Building Community, the Brooklyn Way
Joseph Sciorra
KAVES, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, April 14, 2010.
Meet KAVES, band leader, tattoo artist, community activist.
January 27, 2008
The Cultural Politics of Coffee
Joseph Sciorra
Mimmo Lepore, Sal’s Pizzeria, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. January 26, 2008.
In Search of a Decent Espresso in New York City.
September 16, 2010
Mr. Piccolo’s Peculiar Obsession
Joseph Scelsa/Arthur Piccolo
Tracing a “fool’s path” to power.
April 12, 2010
The Italian-American Political & Moral Bocce Club of Paradise’s Inaugural Annual May Day Dinner Dance, Gala, and Reception
Another blog post about a very real event parodying ongoing surreal phenomena.
February 4, 2010
Fear and (Self-)Loathing in Italian America
The Specter of the Gavon Haunts the Prominenti.
December 14, 2009
An entry from The Encyclopedia of Imagined Italian-Americana
Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) in front of a presepio.
The lost Christmas special of "The Honeymooners" with an Italian-American theme, from the Imaginarium of Joey Skee.
September 15, 2008
The Sound of Italian-American Cultural Philanthropy
What happens when a PBS station targets Italian Americans as donors?
March 17, 2011
Rethinking 150 Years
Garibaldi's cold shoulder.
The living links between Italian unification and Italian emigration.
July 29, 2008
Watching Mob Movies with my Fourteen-Year-Old Son
Don Homer
A “teachable moment” about mafia realities and representations.
May 26, 2008
Brigand or Emigrant, but Ultimately Film Protagonist
Michelina De Cesare (1841-1868)
Representations of brigands have shaped and continue to reshape perceptions of Italy and its people throughout the world.
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.
September 29, 2011
The Agita Theory of Italian-American Identity
Dyspepsia and Italian-American Condition.
September 21, 2011
Whose Day Is It Anyway?
Diane di Prima
Poet Diana di Prima offers alternative Italian-American heroes to Columbus.
October 20, 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.
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This Blog
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
My Menu
Most Commented
- Sal Paradise was an Italophobe.
- Francesco Pepe, My Dutch Paisan
- Sinatra, a Morality Tale.
- A Ph.D. in Basket Weaving
- Linking the Diaspora Musically
- A Tourist Visits Italian in California
- The Vergognosi of Staten Island
- "C'è la luna": Anatomy of an Italian-American "Folk" Song
- Lace in the Crystal City
- Talkin’ Hybrid Moments
- The Cultural Politics of Coffee
- St. Joseph's Altar, Barese Style
- Mr. Piccolo’s Peculiar Obsession
- An entry from The Encyclopedia of Imagined Italian-Americana
- Una malia contro il malocchio dei prominenti.
- Bologna 1977
- Whose Day Is It Anyway?
- Fear and (Self-)Loathing in Italian America
- Remembering James Groppi
- The Italian-American Political & Moral Bocce Club of Paradise's Inaugural Annual Spring Fling Dinner Dance, Gala, and Reception
- What’s his name?! What’s his name?!
- The Sound of Italian-American Cultural Philanthropy
- Italianità alternativa
- Backyard Figs from Brooklyn
- La Madonna Nera of New York City
- The Garden of Earthly Delights in Fresno
- Serendipitous Encounters of an Italian-American Kind
- Chi è Pete Panto?
- Rethinking 150 Years
- My Italian American Museum
- An American Folklorist in Italy
- Tony Soprano Made Me Do It!
- Benefit Concert for Calandra Institute, June 10th
- Thinking Neapolitan
- An Ex-W.O.P. Casts His Vote
- Vittoria Pietropaoli, An Appreciation
- Folk Performances of the Italian-American Prominenti
- Poet Vincent Ferrini, 1913-2007
- Watching Mob Movies with my Fourteen-Year-Old Son
- Ricordando Vincenzo Ancona
- The Italian-American Political & Moral Bocce Club of Paradise Funds the Documentary Film Baci Bocce!!!
- Talking Folklore
- Wise Men Melchior and Balthazar banned in northern Italian city.
- What’s So Funny about the Virgin Mary?
- Chalking Memory
- Gino Vitale, Brooklyn developer and shrine builder.
- Sacred Space, Real Estate, and the Enacted Environment
- The Cost of Freedom: The Rascals' Struggle for Change
- Pippa Bacca, performance artist, is murdered during "Brides on Tour."
- Brigand or Emigrant, but Ultimately Film Protagonist
