Podcast: Hope Cemetery
In this episode of the Atlas Obscura podcast, we visit a graveyard in the “Granite Capital of the World” that pays tribute to the stone cutters and artisans who are buried amongst the sculptures they created. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible si...
Farmington UNICO Donates 702 Pounds of Pasta and Sauce
Farmington UNICO DELIVERED 702 pounds of pasta and sauce to the Farmington Food Pantry . Farmington UNICO, founded in 1970, is a Chapter of UNICO National, the largest Italian-American service organization in the United States. Farmington UNICO members dropped off their donations of pasta and sauce at Franklin Jewelers and Farmington Jewelers. Geno...
No more public Columbus Day celebrations in Wellesley, MA
Regardless of which side they were on, the one thing most people who spoke up at Monday's Select Board discussion of the replacement of Columbus Day could agree on was that it was a difficult and often painful decision. In the end, the board sided 4-1 with the voters who on March 2 supported a non-binding resolution changing the second Monday in Oc...
Saint Margaret Shrine: Bridgeport, CT’s Italian Community’s Dedication to Peace
After the last blog post, I was reminded of another amazing place that I have visited about five years ago during Lent that was also a message of peace. After Easter dinner, I dug up some old photos from my visit to Saint Margaret’s shrine in Bridgeport, Connecticut. There was a significant Italian enclave surrounding Saint Raphael church in downto...
CT Italian Community Leader Pat Tinto Elected NOIAW President!
Maria Tamburri, Chair of the National Organization of Italian American Women announced that Patricia “Pat” Tinto, a long-term Connecticut Region member, has been named President of NOIAW’s National Board of Directors. The daughter of Italian immigrants and first-generation college graduate, Pat has served as the President of NOIAW’s Connecticut Reg...
Frank Stella on his artistic obsessions
Frank Stella's name means star in Italian, and for decades that was the problem, the reason he stopped making them. "When I started out, I didn't really want to hear about, 'My name was Stella and I made a shape painting of a star.'" But then, computer design technology came along, and 3-D printing. Suddenly the star had possibilities. "It's pretty...
‘Imagine new possibilities’: Plan emerging for new Wooster Square monument in New Haven
A year from now, a new monument surrounded by four panels that trace the story of Italian immigration to the city starting in the late 19th century should be in place as a unified reflection on their contributions to New Haven. “We have learned so much about ourselves and each other,” William Iovanne Jr., chairman of the large Wooster Square Monume...
Watertown’s 2021 Bravo Italiano Festival in planning stages, organizers say its ‘likely to happen’
Get your appetites ready, the Bravo Italiano Festival is likely to return to North Country this year. The event that draws thousands to the Watertown fairgrounds arena for fried dough, Italian cookies, pasta, bocce ball and more is now in the planning phases for 2021. This is following the cancellation of the full event for the first time in the f...
Italian Americans: The Progressive Tradition–Reflections on Gerald Meyer’s Presentation at the New Haven Public Library
In contrast to their present-day placement at the conservative end of the political spectrum, Italian Americans once played an under-appreciated role in the “Old Left” progressive movement. Such was the thrust of a recent presentation by Dr. Gerald Meyer, author of Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician (1902-1954) to the New Haven Public Library. Th...
Marlboro writer Vincent Panella has released his new novel, Sicilian Dreams
IMAGINE THIS: In 1840, 37 immigrants came from Italy to the United States. In 1907 — the year in which novelist Vincent Panella’s latest work, Sicilian Dreams, is set, 285,731 did so — the greatest number in history. Such an explosion of dreamers was eager to reboot here in America, among them, Panella’s family. Panella lives up on Augur Hole Road,...
A look back at Saint Anthony's feast in Boston's North End
Before COVID-19, every summer Boston’s North End would show its true colors - green, white and red. 2019 marked 100 years of Saint Anthony’s Feast, a four-day celebration at the end of August said to be the largest in New England, the feast of all feasts. The heart of the feast is a sacred ritual brought here by immigrants from the southern Italy h...
Former Connecticut Sen. Billy Ciotto dies at 91; colorful lawmaker served 68 years in state and federal governments, including 12 in Senate
Biagio “Billy’' Ciotto, a former deputy motor vehicles commissioner who became one of the most colorful state senators in a career that spanned seven decades in the state and federal governments, died Saturday at his home in Wethersfield after an extended illness. He was 91. An old-school Italian Democrat who lived a full life, Ciotto was known for...