Italian American Festival staying in Warren
After much conversation and outcry from the community concerning Warren's Italian American Festival, the vote is in. The festival will remain where it's been for 33 years, in Courthouse Square in Warren. The festival committee had approached the Eastwood Mall and the Cafaro Company about moving the three-day event to the mall's property. After mee...
Warren’s Italian festival contemplates move to Niles
Members of the Italian-American Festival committee are considering moving the city’s largest festival out of the downtown to the Eastwood Mall in Niles. A letter to committee members from Carol Ficeti, committee chairwoman, states the Cafaro Co., which operates the shopping complex, is interested in the mall hosting the festival. “Representatives f...
Keeping up with the Etruscans: Dentures, DNA, and Other Recent Discoveries
When: Monday, March 05, 2018 At 6:00 pm - Where: Istituto Italiano di Cultura Chicago - 500 N Michi - Entrance : Free The Etruscans were a vibrant, independent people whose distinct civilization flourished in central Italy for most of the first millennium BCE and whose artistic, social and cultural traditions helped shape the ancient Mediterranean,...
Societies to gather for Good Friday service
For centuries, towns and villages across Italy have marked Good Friday with masses and processions that rival any other on the Catholic calendar. On March 30, this ancient rite will be re-enacted at the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish & Shrine in Melrose Park. That evening, 20 patron saint societies bearing statues and banners will fill the Shrine to...
Gratzi bringing 'modern, fresh' Italian cuisine to Midland in April
Gratzi, which touts a "modern, fresh approach" to Italian cuisine, is opening soon in Midland. The restaurant will open to the public at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 11, inside The H Residence development in downtown Midland at Ashman and Main streets, according to a Mainstreet Ventures Inc. news release. Mainstreet Ventures is the restaurant management...
John Guerriero, chief of Continental Foods, dies
John C. Guerriero, founder of Continental Foods and a leader in the Little Italy neighborhood, died of pneumonia Monday at Mercy Medical Center. He was 86. Born in Kincaid, Ill., he was the son of Pete Guerriero and his wife, Mary, who left Sicily for the United States in the 1920s. His father had a Chester Street grocery store that faced the North...
How Fra Noi helped me find my family
During the past year, I was reunited with my long lost family as a result of an article Leonard Amari wrote about me that was published in Fra Noi. The following describes how this happened. My parents were divorced when I was a baby. My mother and her parents raised me. My father, Denphon (“Danny”) remarried and had three more sons, my half-brothe...
Muti on mission to honor Verdi’s original intent
Riccardo Muti thinks about how an afterlife meeting with Giuseppe Verdi would go after spending decades fighting to perform the works of Italy’s greatest composer exactly as written. “My questions to Verdi would be if I did right,” the 76-year-old conductor said. “And if he says that I was wrong, then I will die for a second time.” During a career...
Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe
The Cleveland Museum of Art - 11150 East Boulevard - Cleveland, Ohio 44106 - Sun, 02/25/2018 to Sun, 05/20/2018. Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe is the first exhibition to exclusively examine view paintings—more or less faithful depictions of a given locale—that also depict contemporary historical events. Throughout th...
Sessions from Studio A - The Vince Chiarelli Band
WNIJ’s Sessions from Studio A recently asked The Vince Chiarelli Band to stop by and give us a taste of some traditional Italian-American styled music. This Rockford-based group is connected through their Sicilian ancestry and influences, while also finding themselves exploring and incorporating increasing amounts of Latin elements. The band includ...
Order of the Star of Italy for Dr. Salvador Salort-Pons
Yesterday, the Director of the prestigious Detroit Institute of Arts, Dr. Salvador Salort-Pons, was awarded the honorific title of Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy for his contribution to the friendship with Italy and his precious collaboration with the Consulate of Italy in Detroit in the promotion of Italian culture and art. Ieri il Dire...
Chicagoland Italian American Professionals presents the 1st annual Bracciole Festival
The Chicagoland Italian American Professionals (www.chicagolanditalians.com) presents the 1st annual Bracciole event held in the Chandelier room at Casa Italia in Stone Park on March 24th from 2pm to 5pm. Home cooks are going to present their version of the famous Italian bracciole for attendees to sample and judge. Prizes awarded to the best bracc...