NEWS FROM : Art & Heritage  

Our Lady of Mercy church in Baton Rouge presented their St. Joseph's altar Sunday to celebrate his upcoming feast day and encourage the faithful to help feed the poor. In the Catholic Church, followers believe St. Joseph is the foster father to Jesus Christ. Centuries ago, there was a famine in Italy. The people there prayed to St. Joseph to lift t...

You may remember this command. It is considered to be one of the best movie lines of all time: “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.” Those words from “The Godfather” are spoken in a tragic scene that nevertheless generates laughter for its irony. Pauli, Don Vito Carleone’s bodyguard, had mysteriously called in sick on the day of a botched assassinatio...

The city of Dickinson on Saturday celebrated its Italian heritage with the annual Dickinson Little Italy Festival of Galveston County. The festival began with a blessing of the festival at the St. Joseph’s table, honoring the Catholic Feast of St. Joseph, which is March 19. The event honors the immigrants from Sicily and Italy who settled in Gal...

Join co-host John M. Viola, as he broadcasts directly from the vibrant heart of New Orleans, where the Italian American St. Joseph’s Society’s parade and feast ignite the city with cultural pride. Listen in as he sits down with dear friends and prominent figures in the Italian American community—Brendan Young, Tony Mangia, and Chef David Greco of M...

The Italian Irish parade rolled through the streets of Gretna (LA) on Sunday, March 10 and attendees were eager to catch some good throws. “We are going to have a nice time throwing, we got tons of stuff to throw to the kids today,” said parade rider William. Hundreds crowded the streets not only for beads but for some groceries to stock up their p...

Irene Stamm encouraged her husband, Jason, to wander off to look at the nuclear stuff for a while so she could play with the da Vinci toys. She had a lot to choose from: The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History has about 30 of the Italian Renaissance artist's machines on display as part of a traveling interactive exhibition that runs thro...

The Historic BK House & Gardens is set to honor the Patron Saint of Sicily with its annual St. Joseph’s Altar on March 18th and 19th. Located at 1113 Chartres Street, BK House continues the sacred Sicilian tradition, once embraced by the Corrado Giacona Family from the 1890s to 1925. The celebration begins with a private blessing of the altar by Fa...

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at LSU will host Louisiana author Elisa M. Speranza at the Main Library at Goodwood, 7711 Goodwood Blvd., Baton Rouge, at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14. Speranza will discuss the fascinating true back story to her novel, "The Italian Prisoner." The event is free and open to the public. A work of historical ficti...

Santa Fe’s local (yet internationally recognized) contemporary arts mecca SITE Santa Fe hasn’t hosted one of its SITE Santa Fe International (née SITE Santa Fe Biennial) exhibitions since 2018. But let’s fast-forward through the whole pandemic-changed-stuff-for-institutions spiel and get right into the news. The museum is back to doing what it does...

The butteri, or Italian “cowboys” —  hailing from the lands spanning from the plains of northern Lazio up through the coastal Italian region of Maremma into southern Tuscany — have a long-standing connection to Buffalo Bill and the history of America’s Wild West. In 1890, Buffalo Bill brought his Wild West Show to Naples, Italy and proceeded to Rom...

Buses filled with elderly men lumbered down dusty Panhandle roads and rolled to a stop at the edge of a cornfield. Wearing suits and ties, some pinned with Italian military medals, the men stepped onto the reddish dirt and walked toward a small white chapel tucked amid the stalks. They took turns entering the structure to read the inscription engra...

Sixty-Thousand Sicilians were recruited to work in Louisiana's Sugar Cane fields from 1870-1920. We have started fundraising for a 12' high monument to be placed on a 4' pedestal to honor those whose shoulders we stand on. Fundraising Bricks will line the roses around the monument. Brick Prices: 4" x 8" for $200.00; 8" x 8" for $500.00; 12" x 12" f...