Il Bollettino INSTITUTE Dedicated to the History and Culture of Italians in America
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CALANDRA ITALIAN AMERICAN il Bollettino INSTITUTE dedicated to the history and culture of Italians in America VOLUME 3 • ISSUE 2 • SUMMER 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 Dean’s Letter Personaggi: Alfredo Bascetta Symposium: Re-thinking Italian American Studies 3 2010 Conference: Terre Promesse 4 Italics Expands Its Role Italian American Studies Advisory Council 5 Italian Ancestry Mapping Project 6 Teaching Italian American Literature, Film, and Culture Staff News 7 Queens College Italian American Club 8 In Piazza: Association of the Molise Region in America Audience Profile: Claire and Anna Pipolo 9 IAFSAC: Delegate Spotlight on Baruch College Student News 10 Book Reviews 11 Call for Papers: The 3 Fs Save the Date: Hybrid Moments back Calendar of Events Mental Health Conference The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute is a University Institute under the Aegis of Queens College/City University of New York LETER FROM THE DEAN create some form of national dialogue. In ________________________________________________________ early October you can join us again for RE-THINKING ITALIAN-AMERICAN our Italian American Mental Health and Welcome to the sixth issue of the STUDIES, A NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM Wellness Conference. In addition, we have Calandra Institute’s newsletter, il Bollettino! included herein a call for papers for next September 10-11, 2010 Here you will read about our recent activities spring’s fourth annual conference, dedicated COORDINATORS including the 2010 annual conference to food, fashion, and film and how they are dedicated to "Terre Promesse," the Mapping Fred L. Gardaphé, Distinguished Professor articulated within the Italian and Italian/ Project, newly appointed members of the Anthony Julian Tamburri, Dean American cultures. We look forward to Italian American Faculty and Staff Advisory seeing you at these and others events. The Calandra Institute will host a Council, and more. symposium of distinguished professors The verallo task that lies ahead is one We have continued to make progress and holders of endowed chairs whose of a long-term commitment that asks in these initial years of moving the Institute work includes Italian-American studies. us to gather as a community of Italian forward, while maintaining its original goals In light of recent developments—such as Americans at large—and not boast as and overall mission that date back to its those in the state of Arizona—regarding individuals—and investigate the myriad founding in 1979 as the Italian American immigration and ethnic studies and their of topics that others have defined for us. reverberations around the nation, the Institute to Foster Higher Education. This is one of the fundamental goals that Calandra Institute sees the need to gather These past six months proved subtend our many activities and events: our colleagues who, among other tasks, challenging and satisfying, as expected to create a broad-reaching dialogue. That may also develop and direct programs in when new ideas are brought to the table. said, the Calandra Institute shall indeed Italian-American studies, in order to discuss We continued our regular programming their work as it pertains to twenty-first- continue to engage with the greater Italian/ and added a number of special events. The century “ethnic” studies. The symposium American community. So, keep your eyes Italics 2.0 webcasts began well, delivering will examine the definition of Italian- and ears open for future announcements, coverage of a series of issues, one of which American studies and the development of as our activities will continue to explore was the campaign to preserve Brooklyn’s Our the field; new methodologies of examining the multifarious sectors of our extended the various modes of articulation of Lady of Loreto Church. Jeff Dunston and community as we move forward. cultural expression; the building of national Charles Piazza provided us with the history We enjoy great support from all. and international networks, sharing of of the initial negotiations during one of our Our colleagues and friends within CUNY resources, and bridging of gaps; and the webcasts. Our “Documented Italians” series, continue to be supportive, and many relationship between cultural brokers and in turn, revisited the theme of immigration elected officials. of the Italian/American community are with the film Merica (2007), which most encouraging. We continue to benefit FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 investigates the complexities of migration from the unyielding support from both 5:00-6:00 p.m. Press conference and the migrant’s desire for national Chancellor Matthew Goldstein’s Office 6:00-6:30 p.m. Welcome and opening belonging using the parallel stories of Italian of CUNY and President James Muysken’s 6:30-8:00 p.m. Roundtable discussion immigration to Brazil in the 1800s and the Office of Queens College. Dulcis in fundo, What is Italian-American studies and current Italian-Brazilian migration to Italy. what are the responsibilities of a Chair? a most sincere "thank you" to our Italian- Many new events are in the planning. Reception to follow American state officials and their colleagues! In September, we shall host the first SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 gathering of Distinguished Professors of Buon’estate a tutti! 9:00 a.m. to 5:50 p.m. Italian American Studies in an effort to Anthony Julian Tamburri, Dean PERSONAGGI il Bollettino is published by the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute ________________________________________________________ALFREDO BASCETTA QUEENS COLLEGE/CUNY Joseph Sciorra 25 West 43rd Street, 17th floor New York, NY 10036 In the pantheon of Italian-American singers recording in the Neapolitan PHONE: 212-642-2094 FAX: 212-642-2030 tradition is the versatile tenor Alfredo Bascetta. Born on September 14, 1889 in the town of Pietrastornina (Avellino province), Campania, he EMAIL: [email protected] arrived at Ellis Island on November 6, 1911 and settled in East New York, WEBSITE: qc.cuny.edu/calandra Brooklyn. The singer began recording in 1917 and worked for Columbia, OKEH, Victor, and other noteworthy recording companies. His records DEAN: Anthony Julian Tamburri include “Le ragazze di New York,” “O squarcione,” and “Se n’e’ fuiuto MANAGING EDITOR: Lisa Cicchetti banchiere.” Bascetta was also a prolific composer of comic and sentimental tunes, many recorded by singers EDITOR: Maria La Russo like Nina de Charny and Giuseppe Milano. In 1922, the Italo American Corporation produced a film COVER ART: Vicolo (detail) by Joanne Mattera (now lost) based on his hit “Mamma luntana!” (Distant Mother!) that was filmed in Naples and starred Bascetta. In 1927, Bascetta wrote and recorded the topical song, “Lacrime’e cunndannate” (The Tears of Contact the Calandra Institute to be the Condemned), protesting the arrest, trail, and death sentence given Sacco and Vanzetti. Contemporary included on the email list, or to receive a Italian artists continue to perform this song. The aging Bascetta moved to Port St. Lucie, Florida, to reside printed copy of the newsletter. with his daughter Gemma, where he died on December 6, 1982, at age 93. 2 IL BOLLETTINO •SUMMER 2010 • JOHN D. CALANDRA ITALIAN AMERICAN INSTITUTE • 25 WEST 43RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10036 • 212-642-2094 • [email protected] • QC.CUNY.EDU/CALANDRA/ ANNUAL CONFERENCE In Friday’s closing panel, “Little Italies,” Disaster, the Landscape of Coal, and the TERRE PROMESSE Stefano Luconi examined the features that Making of Transnational Identity in West ________________________________________________________ characterized Italian urban settlements Virginia.” Many victims of the Monongah Rosangela Briscese during the period of mass immigration. tragedy emigrated from San Giovanni in Such neighborhoods were hardly Fiore (Calabria), where popular aphorisms The Calandra nstitute’sI third annual homogenous, with Italian immigrants and using misheard or mispronounced versions conference, “Terre Promesse: Excursions their descendants typically comprising about of “Monongah” emerged to convey irony Towards Italian Topographies,” held from 65% of various Little Italy populations. or cautionary advice: “Te piensi che vado April 22-24, 2010, was dedicated to the Jerry Krase explored how the meanings of a Mironga?”; “Non vado mica a Mironga”; theme of cultural landscapes. Scholars, neighborhood space are changed by their or “È una Minonga.” These sayings “reflect writers, architects, filmmakers, and visual inhabitants. Some of America’s most famous the collective trauma delivered to the town’s artists presented work on issues concerning Little Italies, he pointed out, are preserved psyche when disaster struck so many . place-making in Italy, amongst the Italian as spectacles or “ethnic theme parks.” The dislocated memories are vocalizations diaspora, and in colonial locales. Dana David looked at the questua bread of the forgotten connections between the Dean Anthony Tamburri, President distribution procession by parishioners emigration destination and the home paese.” James Muyskens of Queens College, and of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Luisa Del Giudice gave the closing Consul General Francesco Maria Talò Williamsburg. David described the questua keynote address, “Gastronomic Utopias, opened the event with welcoming remarks. as a “visual map of relationships” that has Promised Land,” in which she discussed the A small sampling of the conference’s thirty- the potential to foster new connections mythic land of plenty known as il paese di nine presentations is outlined below. between long-established