Italian American Identity Politics
46th Annual Conference of the Italian American Studies Association
October 3rd-October 5th, 2013
The New Orleans Marriott New Orleans, Louisiana
SPONSORS The National Italian American Foundation The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, CUNY
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Benedicte Deschamps Michael Eula Alan Gravano George Guida Laura Ruberto Joseph Sciorra (Chair)
PROGRAM
Thursday, October 3rd, 2013
3 p. m. - 7 p.m. REGISTRATION FOYER OUTSIDE BACCHUS (4TH FLOOR)
3 p. m. - 6 p. m. EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING NAPOLEON SUITE (41ST FLOOR)
7:30 p. m. - 9:30 p.m. OPENING RECEPTION HORS D’OEUVRES, CASH BAR ST. CHARLES SUITE (41ST FLOOR)
3
Friday, October 4th, 2013
8:30-9 a.m. CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST FOYER OUTSIDE BACCHUS
8:30 a.m.–4:30 p. m. REGISTRATION FOYER OUTSIDE BACCHUS
9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. BOOK TABLE DISPLAYS GALVEZ ROOM (5TH FLOOR)
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
9-10:15 a.m.
SESSION 1A: Politics AUDUBON ROOM (5TH FLOOR) Chair: Stefano Luconi (University of Padua) Stefano Luconi “Fascism and Italian-American Identity Politics” Gil Fagiani (Italian American Writers Association) “Vito Marcantonio: Beloved Son of Italian Harlem, Master of the Multiethnic Coalition” Rodrigo Praino (University of Connecticut) “Do Italian/Americans Contribute to Congressional Polarization? Italian/American Members of Congress and Political Extremism, 1972-2006”
SESSION 1B: Gender BACCHUS ROOM (4TH FLOOR) Chair: Marie Plasse (Merrimack College) Samantha DeMuro (Independent Scholar), “Defining Ourselves, Defining ‘Italian American Women’ Online” Courtney Ruffner Grieneisen (State College of Florida) “Raging Bull: Palooka or Animal?” Marie A. Plasse “‘When You Do Something with Your Hands:’ Reading Female Hands, Touch, and Handwork in the Poetry of Maria Mazziotti Gillan”
4
SESSION 1C: Creative Readings: Memoir JACKSON ROOM (5TH FLOOR) Chair: Gloria Nardini ((University of Illinois at Chicago) Rose De Angelis (Marist College) “Winter Mornings with Nonno” Robert Zweig (Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York) “Return to Naples” Gloria Nardini “My Husband Gave Me Italy”
10:30-11:45 a.m.
SESSION 2A: Media AUDUBON ROOM Chair: Michele Fazio (University of North Carolina at Pembroke) Sarah Salter (Pennsylvania State University) “Il Bambino in Pericolo: Reproductive Futurity and Italian-American Identity” Michele Fazio “Radical Comics: Recovering Women's Voices in Rick Geary’s The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti” Laura E. Ruberto (Berkeley City College) “Italian Films, New York City Televisions, and the Work of Martin Scorsese”
SESSION 2B: Race in Different Contexts BACCHUS ROOM Chair: Nancy Carnevale (Montclair State University) Samuele F. S. Pardini (Elon University) “Italian American Identity in James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room” Nancy Carnevale (Montclair State University) “The Roots of Urban Conflict: African Americans and Italian Americans in 1960s and 1970s Newark” Maria Protti (Independent Scholar, Lawyer and Librarian) “Rodrigo’s Chronicles: Stories of an Italian-American Perspective on Legal Theories about Race”
SESSION 2C: Creative Readings: Writers on Italian American Sexual Politics JACKSON ROOM Chair: Fred Misurella (East Stroudsburg University) Rachel Guido deVries (Author) George Guida (New York City College of Technology, City University of New York) Peter Covino (University of Rhode Island)
5
11:45-1:15 p. m.
LUNCH (ON YOUR OWN)
1:15-2:30 p. m.
SESSION 3A: Mother Cabrini Throwdown: A Lit Jam Where All Are Welcome To Add Their Voices AUDUBON ROOM Chair: Annie Rachele Lanzillotto (Author) Rosette Capotorto (Author) Lulu Lolo as Mother Cabrini Sophia Capotorto-Weiss (Author) Annie Lanzillotto New Orleans Poets TBA
SESSION 3B: Race and Culture in Louisiana BACCHUS ROOM Chair: George De Stefano (Independent Scholar) Jessica Barbata (University of California at Santa Cruz) “Before the Lynchings: Revising our Understanding of the Italian Experience in Louisiana (1880s-1890s)” Jamie Digilormo (Louisiana State University) “Three From the Bottom: Examining Racial and Ethnic Identity Among Italian Americans in Bossier City” George De Stefano “‘They Were Just Neighbors’: Cosimo Matassa and the New Orleans Sound”
SESSION 3C: Impressions and Perspectives of Italy’s Intellectual Community Toward the Italian-American Community JACKSON ROOM Chair and Discussant: Anthony J. Tamburri (The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, City University of New York) Paolo Giordano (University of Central Florida) “From Leonardo Sciascia’s ‘La zia d’America’ to ‘Il voto agli italiani all’estero’ and the Question of Italian Identity” Mark Pietralunga (Florida State University) “Amerigo Ruggiero’s Italiani in America and the Question of Italian Identity”
6
2:45 - 4 p.m. SESSION 4A: Visual Art AUDUBON ROOM Chair: Joseph Sciorra (The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, The City University of New York) Joseph Sciorra “Miracles in a Land of Promise: Transmigratory Experiences and Italian-American Ex-Votos” Thomas J MacPherson (State University of New York—Geneseo) “The Italian American Family Album Installation: Grandma's House”
SESSION 4B: Politics and Culture in the South and West BACCHUS ROOM Chair: Teri Ann Bengiveno (Las Positas College) Victor A. Basile “The Political Identity of the Manchin (Mancini) Family of West Virginia – How They Approach the Policies Embraced by the Kennedys of Massachusetts and the Cuomos of New York” Mary Bucci Bush (California State University—Los Angeles) “Silenced Voices, Erased Histories: African Americans and Italians on a Mississippi Delta Cotton Plantation” Gioia Elisa Woods (Northern Arizona University) “Left in the West: Ferlinghetti and Italian-American Identity Politics
SESSION 4C: Creative Readings: What is Italian American Identity Politics? JACKSON ROOM Chair: Alan J. Gravano (Marshall University) Joey Nicoletti (Buffalo State College, State University of New York) Joanne Detore (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) Gerard LaFemina (Frostburg State University)
4:15 – 5:30 p. m.
SESSION 5A: The Role of Food and Foodways in Constructing and Sustaining Italian-American Identities AUDUBON ROOM Chair: Peter Naccarato (Marymount Manhattan College) Peter Naccarato “Taking a Perillo Tour to sit Under the Tuscan Sun: American Consumerism and the Romanticization of Italy” Rocco Marinaccio (Manhattan College) “Cucina Nostra: Italian-American Foodways on Television” Annette Cozzi (University of South Florida) “If it’s Wednesday, It Must be Prince Spaghetti Day: Television Commercials and the Gendering of Italian-American Identity”
7
SESSION 5B: Proclaiming the Good Word: Expressions of Italian-American Spirituality BACCHUS ROOM Chair: Alexandra de Luise (Queens College, City University of New York) Alexandra de Luise “Mission Work, Conversion, and the Italian Immigrant in Turn of-the-Century New York City: The Story of the Anson Phelps Stokes Italian Free Library” Marisa Frasca-Patinella (Independent Scholar) “Ancestral Spirituality in Women of the Sicilian Diaspora” Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum (California Institute of Integral Studies) “The Future has an Ancient Heart: Legacy of Caring, Sharing, Healing, and Vision to Occupy Everywhere”
SESSION 5C: Creative Readings JACKSON ROOM Chair: Mary Bucci Bush (California State University—Los Angeles) Mary Bucci Bush “A Reading from the Novel Sweet Hope” George Guida (New York City College of Technology, CUNY) “Oriskany”
6 - 7 p.m.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Bruce Boyd Raeburn (Tulane University) “Italian Americans in New Orleans Jazz: Bel Canto Meets the Funk”
8 - 11 p.m.
GROUP DINNER (Restaurant TBA)
8
Saturday, October 5th, 2013
8:30 a.m. – 9 a.m. COFFEE BREAK FOYER OUTSIDE BACCHUS
8:30 a.m.–4:30 p. m. REGISTRATION FOYER OUTSIDE BACCHUS
9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. BOOK TABLE DISPLAYS GALVEZ ROOM
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
9 - 10:15 a.m.
SESSION 6A: Youth, Families and Politics in New York AUDUBON ROOM Chair: Caroline Pari-Pfisterer (Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York) Caroline Pari-Pfisterer “From Mario Cuomo to Andrew Cuomo: Tracing the Disappearance of Immigrant Rhetoric in Political Speeches” LuLu LoLo Pascale (LuLu LoLo Productions) “Dear Marc: Letters from the People to Congressman Vito Marcantonio: A Dramatic Reading” Rosemary Serra (University of Trieste) “Italian American Identity: First Results from a Study of New York CITY’s Italian-American Youth Population”
SESSION 6B: Italian Women in Chicago: Qui debbo vivere?— Readings from a Forthcoming Anthology BACCHUS ROOM Chair: Gloria Nardini (University of Illinois at Chicago) Dominic Candeloro (Casa Italia Library) Lou Corsino (North Central College) "Gendered Spaces" Kathy Catrambone (Author)
9
SESSION 6C: Roundtable: Writing Threads, in 100 Words or Less: An Exercise in Creative Writing and Reading JACKSON ROOM Moderators: Edvige Giunta and Laura E. Ruberto Nancy Carnevale (Montclair State University) Chloe De Filippis (Author) Margaux Fragoso (Author) Edvige Giunta (New Jersey City University) Laura E. Ruberto (Berkeley City College) Joseph Sciorra (John D. Calandra Italian American Institute) Circe Sturm (University of Texas at Austin)
10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
SESSION 7A: The Italian-American Memoir: Perspectives on the Genre AUDUBON ROOM Chair: Annie Rachele Lanzillotto (Independent Scholar) Respondent: Margaux Fragoso (Author) Lisa Downward (Marist College) “Subversive Mother-Daughter Plots in the Italian American Memoir: Maria Laurino’s Old World Daughter, New World Mother and Domenica Ruta’s With or Without You” Edvige Giunta (New Jersey City University) “City of Feminists” Chloe DeFilippis (New Jersey City University) “Speed Bag Speech: Aggression, Fear, and Vulnerability in Italian-American Masculinity”
SESSION 7B: “Is There a Gangster in the House?”: Seeking Answers to Loaded Questions about Potential Family Ties to Mafioso Figures BACCHUS ROOM Chair: Joey Nicoletti (Buffalo State College, State University of New York) Fred Gardaphé (Queens College, City University of New York) “‘What’s this I Hear You're Writing a Book About Us?’” Denise Scannell-Guida (New York City College of Technology) “The Dream Maker: Family Identity and Organized Crime in Tampa” Joey Nicoletti “‘Don’t Worry, I Know a Guy’: The Fixing of Problems and Owing of Favors” Alan J. Gravano (Marshall University) “‘We only kill ourselves’: Sammy the Bull and Italian-American Identity”
SESSION 7C: Creative Readings: Italian American Women: Coming To and Coming to Voice JACKSON ROOM Chair: Josephine Gattuso Hendin (New York University) Moderator: Rachel Guido deVries (Author) Maria Mazziotti Gillan (Poetry Center, Passaic County Community College)
10
Josephine Gattuso Hendin (New York University) Vittoria Repetto (Author)
12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m
LUNCH (ON YOUR OWN)
1:30 - 2:45 p. m.
SESSION 8A: Performing Books: From the Stage to the Page to the Street Corner to the Schist, the Books of Annie Lanzillotto JACKSON ROOM Chair: Edvige Giunta (New Jersey City University) Anthony Julian Tamburri (The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, City University of New York) “‘Public’ Poetry as “Public” Intellectualism: Annie Lanzillotto and Schistsong” Joanna Clapps Herman (Manhattanville College) “Nonna o Bis Nonna di L is for Lion” Rosette Capotorto (Independent Scholar) “Woman-Writing” Annie Rachele Lanzillotto “L is for Lion and Schistsong: Full Circle to Street Performance”
SESSION 8B: Patterns: Migrations and Demographics AUDUBON ROOM Chair: William Egelman (Iona College) Thierry Rinaldetti (University of Paris 8) “Bringing Distant Communities Together: Italian Birds of Passage in the Mining Districts of the United States” Ashley Zampogna-Krug (Brookdale Community College) “Enhanced Transnationality: How the Johnson-Reed Act Altered European Migration Patterns” William S. Egelman (Iona College) “Italian Americans and Selected Other Ancestry Groups: A Demographic Comparison”
SESSION 8C: Local Stories, Local Histories BACCHUS ROOM Chair: Teri Ann Bengiveno (Las Positas College) Terri Ann Bengiveno “Do you know the way to San Jose and Little Italy? Cultural & Ethnic identity in the Golden State” Joseph V. Ricapito (Louisiana State University) “Italians in Louisiana and Tennessee Williams’s The Rose Tattoo” Christine Zinni (The College at Brockport, State University of New York) “Arrivederci San Anton: Journey in Faith and Grace?”
11
3 - 4:15 p. m.
SESSION 9A: Reading Women Authors AUDUBON ROOM Chair: Chiara Mazzucchelli (University of Central Florida) Jessica Femiani (Brooklyn College, City University of New York) “Poly-textual Recovery in Immigration Memoir” Clorinda Donato (California State University, Long Beach) “Fashioning a New Identity for Italian American Women: The Media Politics of Adriana Trigiani” Chiara Mazzucchelli (University of Central Florida) “Once Upon a Place: Gioia Timpanelli and the Sicilian Storytelling Tradition”
SESSION 9B: The Legacy of Italian American Literature: The SUNY Press Series in Italian American Culture BACCHUS ROOM Chair: Fred Gardaphe (Queens College, City University of New York) Respondent: Joanna Clapps Herman (Manhattanville College) Annie Lanzillotto (Author) Robert Viscusi (Brooklyn College, CUNY) Rosette Capotorto (Author)
4:30 - 5:45 p.m.
IASA BUSINESS MEETING
12
IASA Officers and Executive Council
President Executive Council George Guida New York City College of Technology Dennis Barone City University of New York University of Saint Joseph
Vice President Joanne Detore Michael Eula Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Buffalo State College State University of New York Marisa Frasca-Patinella Independent Scholar Secretary Alan Gravano Stefano Luconi Marshall University University of Padua
Treasurer Chiara Mazzucchelli Dawn Esposito University of Central Florida St. John’s University Fred Misurella Curator East Stroudsburg University Alexandra de Luise Queens College Robert Oppedisano City University of New York Independent Scholar
Joseph Ricapito Louisiana State University
John Paul Russo University of Miami
Anthony Julian Tamburri The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute The City University of New York
Long Island Chapter President Anne T. Romano
Western Chapter President Laura Ruberto
13
Available from Visit our table in the exhibit hall!
Offering a 20% discount and free shipping on all orders placed at the conference. By the Breath of Their Mouths Join us for the following book signings Narratives of Resistance in Italian America at our table in the exhibit hall. Mary Jo Bona
The Graphic Art Saturday, October 5th, from 4:30 to 5:30 pm of Robert Cimbalo Robert Cimbalo Eugene Paul Nassar, editor L Is for Lion Distributed for the Eugene Paul Nassar An Italian Bronx Butch Ethnic Heritage Studies Center Freedom Memoir Annie Rachele Lanzillotto Bitter Greens Essays on Food, Politics, and Ethnicity A 1960s Bronx tomboy learns how from the Imperial Kitchen to survive her brutal but humorous Italian Anthony Di Renzo family and all the rest that life throws her. The harder you hit the pavement, the Leaving Little Italy Essaying Italian American Culture Fred L. Gardaphe “Annie Rachele Lanzillotto is a vividly talented writer whose coming of age story as a Bronx The Guitar and the New World Italian lesbian creates a superb memoir. A Fugitive History Rollicking with detail, poetic in language Joe Gioia L Is for Lion is the book you read while walking through the house or out to your from Frank Lentricchia mailbox, just not wanting to pause even a moment.” — San Francisco Book Review The Italian Actress A Novel The Sadness of Antonioni A Novel FINALIST – 2011 ForeWord Book oF The YeAr IN The AuToBIogrAphY/MeMoIr CATegorY Corbino From Rubens to Ringling The Anarchist Bastard Janis Londraville and Growing Up Italian in America Richard Londraville Joanna Clapps Herman Foreword by Karal Ann Marling
A tribute to the Italian American family Cooking with Chef Silvio and its trying bonds of love. Stories and Authentic Recipes from Campania “…this unique, deeply personal collection Silvio Suppa of [Herman’s] essays is at once an emotional With Anthony V. Riccio narrative of her memorable family and also an exploration of the ties between past and Buried Caesars, and Other Secrets present, Italy and America. Herman’s situation is unique, and yet any reader who has of Italian American Writing experienced what it means to have family ties Robert Viscusi of any kind can relate to her story.” — Italian American Digest www.sunypress.edu
Notes
BORDIGHERA PRESS
VIA FOLIOS, Voices in Italian Americana, CROSSINGS
Saggistica
THE BORDIGHERA POETRY PRIZE
www.bordigherapress.org