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Welcome to the “The Grid,” the Chicago Sun-Times’ in-depth look at Chicago neighborhoods. Today’s stop: Little Italy. Located four miles west of downtown Chicago, Little Italy was the first stop for many Italian immigrants arriving to the city in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Filled with family-owned shops, restaurants and churches, it was the h...

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Some of Chicago’s best young singers will perform arias and art songs by iconic Italian composers at the Italian Cultural Center’s Vocal Scholarship Awards Dinner and Concert. The event will start at 2 p.m. on Nov. 11 in the Mentesana Weber Chandelier Room of the Community Center at Casa Italia and feature a wine-and-cheese reception, concert and d...

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The Chandelier Room at Casa Italia was transformed into a Milan runway for this year’s Columbus Day Queen Pageant, and event organizers couldn’t be more pleased. “It was like a Versace fashion show!” enthuses Jo Ann Serpico, executive director of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. “We had 22 contestants, the room looked absolutely beau...

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The Italian American Veterans Museum will host a Sept. 15 screening of the acclaimed PBS documentary “A City at War: Chicago” featuring a discussion led by one of the film’s contributors. Retired Navy Commander Joseph Troiani will give a PowerPoint presentation and field questions before the screening. When President Franklin Roosevelt urged the na...

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The Calabresi in America Organization came up aces at last year’s inaugural Casino Royale, inspiring the group to wager on another strong turnout this year. Aimed at raising funds for its scholarship program, this year’s event will take place on June 23 under the Festival Center pavilion at Casa Italia. The evening will kick off with a buffet dinne...

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Tokens are a common replacement for money in modern culture, whether we’re using them to access hotel parking garages or our kids are plunking them into arcade games. But did you know that tokens date back thousands of years? Dr. Antonino Crisà of Warwick University in England will showcase their use in Sicily during the reigns of ancient Greece an...

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If you want to send your kids to Italy this summer while keeping them close to home, Casa Italia has the summer camp for you. The camp is celebrating its 14th year. The Casa’s Italian Language & Culture Summer Camp will introduce children ages 4 to 16 to the best that Italy has to offer through drama, storytelling, arts and crafts, games, sports, d...

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IA Literati 2018 — Casa Italia’s 14th annual celebration of local Italian-American authors — will run from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 12 in the Florentine Room of the Italian Cultural Center in Stone Park. Book sales and signings, raffles, and a meet-and-greet with the authors will take place at 9:30 a.m. Authors will read from their works starting...

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The Italian American Theatre of Chicago presented “Vispetta” in the Community Center at Casa Italia in March. Adapted by Colleen Mraz from traditional 16th-century commedia dell’arte, the farce followed the misadventures of two star-crossed lovers, their clueless parents and their wily servant, Vispetta. True to its commedia roots, the principal ac...

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Casa Italia will depart from its Man of the Year format this year, focusing the spotlight on Italian-American organizations at its 48th annual gala. The event will take place on May 5 at Alta Villa Banquets in Addison. “The Chicago area is blessed with more than six dozen groups that preserve our precious traditions and culture,” says Casa Chairman...

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