Thu, April 13, 2017. 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM EDT - I AM Books, 189 North Street, Boston, MA 02113 Sissy Castrogiovanni 4et, feat. Andrea Beneventano. A night of fine jazz, with special guest internationally acclaimed, Sicilian pianist, Andrea Beneventano. “Italian vocalist Sissy Castrogiovanni sparked in her Panama Jaz Festival debut performance..” JAZZI...
READ MORE" Travelers have been drawn to Sicily intriguing history,volcanoes & famed cuisine, but somehow the island’s distinctive chocolate - made in the Unesco World Heritage town of Modica and inspired by traditions of the ancient Aztecs - has remained one of the world best-kept secrets. " This is what Lucinda Hawksley says in BBC.com website talking abo...
READ MOREIn this episode of The Italian American Podcast, we talk with Paul “Paulie” Malignaggi, a former two-weight World Champion who currently works as a commentator. Paulie tells the story of how he transitioned from Sicily to Brooklyn and had to learn to adapt to the diverse cultures and lifestyles, and how that led him to start his boxing career, desp...
READ MOREWednesday, April 19, 2017, 6pm Sicily Jass: The World's First Man in Jazz (2015), 73 min. Michele Cinque, dir. - John D. Calandra Italian American Institute - 25 West 43rd Street, 17th Floor. New York, N.Y. 10036 Sicily Jass, an intermingling of fiction and documentary, uses the Sicilian puppets and narrating voice of Mimmo Cuticchio to tell the st...
READ MORETHEN: Starting in 1884 and continuing through to 1924, an estimated 290,000 Italian immigrants -- a great deal of them from Sicily -- arrived in New Orleans, fleeing economic and political turmoil. In short order, their indelible influence would be felt on the city. With the French Quarter no longer a fashionable address, many of the city's more we...
READ MORESpring is in the air and it is that time of year again when lemon trees bloom and the Sicilian air is fragrant with Fiori di Limone which then turn into big juicy lemons. The Sicilian climate and fertile volcanic earth creates a long growing season and the gathering of lemons takes place over three periods. First is the Autumn harvest Primo Fiore f...
READ MOREIt’s a snowy Saturday afternoon in Rockford, Illinois. My grandfather, Ignazio, is all but pressing his ear against the Zenith radio to hear the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of La Boheme, starring Bidú Sayao and Ferruccio Tagliavini. He pleads with me to sit with him and listen to the music of his country, which he deeply misses. No doubt the opera...
READ MOREWhen one thinks of frontier justice or violent lynchings in the United States, it conjures the specter of lawlessness in the old West or the anti-black intolerance of the Deep South. This is inevitable, not only because of the magnitude of such atrocities, but because of the attention brought to them by modern American society, which largely sprung...
READ MORE«Mi chiamo Favola Cinquemani, chista è la mia storia. Una storia siculish. Dicuno chi parru siculish, halfu miricanu e halfu sicilianu». Questo l'incipit del romanzo Zia Favola. Una storia siculish di Cono Cinquemani, appena dato alle stampe dalla neonata casa editrice Aut Aut Edizioni. Protagonista del libro e voce narrante è Zia Favola, un person...
READ MOREI got to do this summer what all Italian Americans dream of. I visited Italy and met for the first time, my Italian relatives. I have talked about this on our blog and the podcast and detail the trip in my forthcoming book 40 Days in Italy con la mia Famiglia – but nothing can explain these moments like a video. So the video above is a glimpse int...
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