Welcome to the 45th annual celebration of Italian Heritage and Culture Month. Each year, the Board of Directors of the Italian Heritage and Cultural Committee of New York, Inc., (IHCC-NY, Inc.) selects a new theme and then proceeds to publish a theme poster and publish its “Calendar of Events” for the annual October celebration.

We encourage you to discover your heritage with programs that celebrate any facets of the theme as indicated above, i.e., for the past forty-five years! The Board of Directors of the IHCC-NY, Inc. is delighted to announce that for 2021 the selected theme will be: DANTE 700! Celebrating the Genius of Dante; The Great Poet Who Unified Italy Through Language.

Dante’s importance includes his being the first to use the Florentine vernacular in a major literary work, rather than in Latin, which had been accessible to only the well-educated. Dante set a precedent that later Italian writers, such as Boccaccio and Tasso, followed. This was an incredible act, which enabled a wider audience among the populous, and, even more importantly, established his Italian as the accepted national language, unifying the people of Italy across diverse regions and dialects.

His Divina Commedia with Dante’s journey through Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, guided first by Virgil, the ancient Roman poet, and then by Beatrice, his idealized love, takes the reader through his epic philosophical poem, considered to be the greatest poem of all times.

We also take this occasion to emphasize that the mission of the IHCC-NY, Inc., is made possible through the generosity of donations, and we very much need your support. Therefore, we would like to call upon you to help sustain our activities by making a taxdeductible contribution. No dollar amount is too small! Every dollar helps to foster the programmatic offerings that document and preserve the history and culture of Italians in America. Know that we welcome and appreciate your generosity. Due to the impact of COVID-19 this year your gift will be acknowledged in the Italian Culture Month Magazine and the IHCC-NY, Inc. website at www.ITALYCULTUREMONTH.org. Please see our website for updates and instructions for payments for donations and ADs. Please help us in this endeavor.

On behalf of the IHCC-NY, we thank you for your support and participation