Italomedia is about La Vita Italo-Americana

SCREENING OF THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS

2009-06-02T20:09:00.000-05:00

ITALIAN FILMS TODAY

SCREENING OF THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS

by Vittorio De Sica

Monday, June 8^th 2009

5:30 pm

Italian Cultural Institute

500 North Michigan Ave, Suite 1450

Tel: 1-312-822-9545

Fax: 1-312-822-9622

E-mail: iicchicago@esteri.it

As a part of “Italian Film Today” series that highlights the theme “Film and Literature”, the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago is pleased to present: THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS, a film directed by Vittorio De Sica (1971).

Starring: Dominique Sanda, Lino Capolicchio, Helmut Berger, Fabio Testi.

“Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini” is based on a book by Giorgio Bassani. It takes place in Ferrara at the beginning of WWII, when anti-Semitism was spreading and Mussolini was passing several laws that forbade Jews from going to public schools, joining the army, or marrying non-Jews. While many middle-class Jewish families fled the country, the Finzi-Continis believed it was safe inside their sprawling estate.

As a wealthy, aristocratic family, they thought their luxurious garden walls would protect them from Fascism. Micol Finzi-Contini and her brother invited their Jewish friends to join them in the estate for parties, tennis, and games while the war ravaged on. Middle-class Giorgio attended the parties with his friend Malnate. Giorgio and Micol were childhood sweethearts, but she began to reject him in favor of Malnate. She also refused to accept that there was a war going on. Eventually the Finzi-Contini could not pretend any longer, and the war closed in on them.

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1971 and was nominated for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. It also won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

The film will be presented in Italian by Prof. Paola Morgavi, Northwestern University.

The screening will be in Italian with English subtitles. (DVD, 94 MIN)

Please call (312) 822-9545 x 198 to R.S.V.P.

The Italian Cultural Institute strives to promote the finest Italian cinema, while offering a taste of contemporary productions, exploring also less familiar paths. With this aim in mind, the Institute has created Italian Films Today, a monthly appointment dedicated to the most recent productions, offering to the Chicago public an occasion to reflect different aspects of Italian contemporary society. Details on upcoming films will be announced shortly.

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Italian Government Cultural Institute

500 N Michigan Avenue, Suite 1450

Chicago, IL 60611

312-822-9545

Abruzzo Earthquake Benefit Concert

2009-05-02T16:27:00.000-05:00

We cordially invite you to attend the Abruzzo Earthquake Benefit Concert, featuring Italian singer Giada Valenti performing her new show new show "Tribute To Love", Sunday, May 3 at the Little Theatre at St. John's University in Queens, NY.

Even if you have made already a donation, it is a good event to go to as it gives the opportunity to show that Italian Americans come together when people in Italy need help. And you will see a wonderful show of one of the best Italian singers of our time.

Giada Valenti's new show "Tribute To Love" is truly a unique and entertaining show that appeals to the romantic in all of us. With her great storytelling and emotional vocal skills she take you on a virtual trip through the most romantic places on earth, performing timeless songs as "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Non Dimenticar", "September Morn", "Caruso", "Tell Me When/Quando Quando Quando" and many songs of her new CD "And I Love You So", like "Cinema Paradiso", "It's Impossible", "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me/Io Che Non Vivo Senza Te" and "La Vie En Rose".

It's a show that will make you fall in love with love again.

ABRUZZO EARTHQUAKE BENEFIT CONCERT

Featuring Giada Valenti - Tribute To Love

Sunday, May 3rd at 5 PM (doors open at 4 PM)

Little Theatre at St. John's University

8000 Utopia Pkwy, Queens, NY 11439

Ticket $20

Premium Seating $35 (includes reception following the performance)

For tickets visit www.giadavalenti.com or call Perla Entertainment (347) 934-3219.

Gianni Rodari, il mio teatro

2009-04-28T17:04:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends of the Institute,

Due to the requests we have received from our members, I am pleased to inform you that the presentation on the work and life of Gianni Rodari, renowned author of children’s literature, will be presented in English. I hope you will be able to join us on April 28^th at 5:30 pm as we explore the extraordinary work of one of the most translated Italian authors of the 20^th century.

Dott. Roberto Terribile, Director of the Fondazione Aida Teatro Stabile in Verona, will introduce the event and will present the book "Gianni Rodari, il mio teatro” and other material recently published by Einaudi. This presentation will be followed by the screening of a film dedicated to Gianni Rodari’s life and a reading of a selection of passages from the author’s works, recited by actresses Emanuela Camozzi and Monica Ceccardi.

Gianni Rodari is a journalist and writer renowned for the creative originality of his stories, nursery rhymes, and poems, many of which have now become children’s classics. His work has renewed and redefined children’s literature.

Thank you for calling (312) 822-9545 x 198 to RSVP or responding directly to this email.

Best regards,

Tina Cervone

Director

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

500 N Michigan Avenue

Suite 1450

Chicago, IL 60611

(312) 822-9545

iicchicago@esteri.it

www.iicchicago.esteri.it

8th Annual Gala & Awards Ceremony

2009-04-20T14:26:00.002-05:00

The Italian American Museum
Cordially invites you to our
Eighth Annual

Gala & Awards Ceremony

Cipriani Wall Street
55 Wall Street, New York City

Saturday, May 16, 2009

2009 Honorees

Paul David Pope
Author
Unreasonable Men

Arthur E. Imperatore, Sr.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
NY Waterway

Lou Lamoriello
President / CEO / General Manager
New Jersey Devils

Performances by
Michael Amante & Giada Valenti

Music by
Panorama

Cocktail Reception at 7pm
Dinner & Dancing at 8pm

Black Tie & Decorations
R.S.V.P. (718) 478-3551/3552

On October 8, 2008, the Italian American Museum Board of Trustees held the official ribbon cutting ceremony for our new home at 155 Mulberry Street in the heart of New York City’s Little Italy and opened its permanent exhibit “The Immigrant Experience: Banca Stabile”. This historic location on the corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets once housed Banca Stabile which was founded by Francesco Rosario Stabile in 1882. It has been restored and is now open to the public and will serve as the cornerstone for the Italian American Museum from which we will tell our story in America. The Italian American Museum received its Provisional Charter from the New York State Board of Regents on June 12, 2001 and is a 503(c)(3). The Museum is dedicated to exploring the rich cultural heritage of Italy and Italian Americans by presenting the individual and collective struggles and achievements of Italians and their heirs to the American way of life. By collecting, preserving, and interpreting tangible objects and reminiscences, the Italian American Museum displays notable contributions of Italians and Italian Americans to the American culture. The Italian American Museum is a cultural and educational institution promoting constructive pluralism by educating Americans to the heritage of Italian Americans and their European roots, values, language, and traditions. The Italian American Museum sponsors exhibitions, festivals, lectures, symposia and educational travel programs to Europe with a focus on Italy and its contributions to the world, as well as houses precious collections of objects and memorabilia on the Italian American experience.

General Gala Chairman
Saverio Giarrusso

Gala Chairman
Louis A. Tallarini

Journal Chairman
Jack Como

Dinner Co-Chairmen
Richard A. Grace
Hon. Frank Guarini
Berardo Paradiso
Kathleen Strozza
Ralph Tramontana
Salvatore J. Zizza

Foundation Patrons
Coalition of Italian American Associations
Little Italy Merchants Association
National Italian American Foundation
UNICO National Foundation

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RSVP
I am delighted to attend. Please reserve the following:

______ Table(s) of 10 @$4,000 per table

______ Individual Tickets @$400 per ticket

______ I am unable to attend, but I am pleased to enclose a donation to the Italian American Museum for $______

For additional information call (718) 478-3551/3552 or fax (718) 478-3553, or email info@italianamericanmuseum.org

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ADVERTISING RATES
Please reserve my advertisement for the Italian American Museum Gala and Awards Ceremony Commemorative Journal:

Contribution Page Size
? $2,500 Back Cover
? $2,000 Inside Cover or Colored Page
? $1,500 Platinum Page
? $1,000 Gold Page
? $750 Silver Page
? $500 Full Page
? $250 Half Page

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

? Gallery Donation Level - $10,000
Inner Circle, One Table (10 Tickets)
Colored Page Journal Advertisement
Full Screen Video Acknowledgment

? Collector's Circle Donation Level - $7,500
Preferred Seating First Tier, One Table (10 Tickets)
Platinum Page Journal Advertisement
Half Screen Video Acknowledgment

? Showcase Donation Level - $5,000
Preferred Seating, One Table (10 Tickets)
Gold Page Journal Advertisement
Quarter Screen Video Acknowledgment

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MECHANICAL REQUIREMENTS
• Please send business card, typed, hand-printed, or camera-ready copy (7 x 9.5)
• .esp or .pdf file may be sent to info@ItalianAmerianMuseum.org

For advertising information call Jack Como (718) 225-6441 or Dolores Jacome (718) 478-3551

Materials Due: May 4th, 2009

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PAYMENT OPTIONS

If paying by check, make payable to Italian American Museum and mail to:
Dr. Joseph V. Scelsa, President
Italian American Museum
155 Mulberry Street
New York, NY 10013-3734

If paying by credit card, call (718) 478-3552 and have credit card information ready,
or mail credit card information to:
Dr. Joseph V. Scelsa, President
Italian American Museum
155 Mulberry Street
New York, NY 10013-3734

All contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. The Italian American Museum is a section 501 (c) (3) corporation. Federal ID# 13-4178050.

For additional information call (718) 478-3551/3552, fax (718) 478-3553, or email info@italianamericanmuseum.org

Link to Italian Red Cross

2009-04-19T09:16:00.001-05:00

Here is where you can make a donation (in Euros) to the Italian earthquake victims.

Tip of the Spear Blog

2009-04-19T09:13:00.001-05:00

For those interested in online media biz, stop by: http://domtassone.blogspot.com

Italian American Museum opens in New York's Little Italy

2008-10-27T22:20:00.001-05:00

Italian American Museum

The Italian American Museum in New York City is housed in a building that was Little Italy's community bank a century ago.

By Carlin Romano

Inquirer Book Critic

NEW YORK - When Italian Americans end today's uptown parade on Fifth Avenue for Columbus Day, Joseph Scelsa hopes they'll keep marching right down to the corner of Mulberry and Grand in Little Italy.

Little Italy, you see, is less little this week. A museum, so to speak, grows in Manhattan. After nearly 10 years devoted to what he calls his "labor of love, a passion," Scelsa, 62, a retired sociologist and professor emeritus at Queens College, presided over the opening Wednesday of the Italian American Museum, the first of its kind in New York or the Northeast.

The new museum's president expects plenty of foot traffic today at his shiny new institution, housed in the former Banca Stabile building near Ferrara's, the famous bakery/cafe, even though this is the first year that New York's Italian Americans have agreed on only one Columbus Day Parade - uptown.

"People have said to me, 'Aren't you afraid that people won't come down here?' " remarks Scelsa, elegant in sports jacket and tie as he welcomes visitors - an Indian couple, an Italian family from Denver, an African American couple.

"The answer is no," Scelsa replies. In other words, what are you crazy?

Scelsa points out that Little Italy is a tourist "destination in itself."

"A tour bus stops on the corner - this very corner - every hour," Scelsa continues. "We're also getting classes from schools, and people finding us through the Web."

Scelsa, born in the Bronx of parents whose roots go back to Sicily, Naples and Calabria, says the idea for the museum came in 1999 after he, as dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at City University of New York, put on an exhibit at the New York Historical Society titled, "The Italians of New York."

"It was the most successful one in modern times at the New York Historical Society," he says proudly. "We realized something was missing. There was no Italian American Museum in New York and, from what we understood, in the Northeast."

San Francisco, he concedes, offers the Museo Italo Americano, but it divides its agenda between Italian American history and Italian culture. New Orleans possesses an American Italian Renaissance Foundation Museum founded by businessman Joseph Maselli. Philadelphia, you might say, chips in with the Mario Lanza Museum.

Scelsa researched the title Italian American Museum and found it available. He won certification as a non-profit educational institution in 2001, then organized exhibitions through the Calandra Institute while looking for a permanent home.

The big break came when he met Jerome Stabile III, 77, a retired surgeon and great-grandson of Francesco Stabile, founder of Little Italy's "community" bank in 1885.

Stabile still owned the old bank's three buildings at 189, 187 and 185 Grand St. (also known as 155 Mulberry), and agreed that an Italian American Museum there made a perfect fit.

Scelsa's board of trustees and honorary chairpersons such as Matilda Cuomo, wife of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, helped him raise $4 million to get a mortgage on the three properties, which cost $9.4 million.

One great attraction of the Banca Stabile building was that almost all its artifacts and papers remained. Scelsa and guest curator Nancy Cataldi decided to shape the Museum's opening exhibition accordingly, as "Banca Stabile - Cornerstone of Little Italy."

From 1880 to 1920, the United States experienced the largest immigration of Italians in its history, some 5 million. Whereas only some 5,000 Italians lived in Little Italy in 1885, it's believed 1 million Italian immigrants did so by the 1920s.

Banca Stabile was "integral to the community," says Scelsa, selling steamship tickets, offering mortgages, wiring money, making loans.

He smiles when reminded that signs on nearby Centre Street announce a forthcoming "Museum of the Chinese in America." Scelsa acknowledges that only perhaps 1,000 or so older Italians still live in the neighborhood, now overwhelmingly Chinese-American. But Little Italy, he adds, is still "structurally an Italian neighborhood" because of its institutions, chiefly "restaurants and churches."

Sometime before next fall, Scelsa says, the museum, with a staff of five (Scelsa volunteers and takes no salary), will break through the wall of 187 Grand St. as part of continuing expansion in its three buildings.

Scelsa won't have trouble filling the space. "We have over 3,000 artifacts in storage," he says. "We have Matteo puppets, those life-sized marionettes - 10 of them. We have pushcarts, wine presses, shovels that dug the New York City subway system, wedding dresses."

Expansion, he feels, will reflect the growing pride in heritage among younger Italian Americans, part of the rise, he agrees, in ethnic pride among all groups in America in recent decades. Will the museum present both positive and negative aspects of Italian American history? Scelsa understandably prefers the positive and hopes to "provide a balance."

In that spirit, next year's big exhibition will be on "Italian Americans and Law Enforcement," marking a century since New York Police Lieutenant Giuseppe Petrosino, who went to Sicily in 1909 to investigate the Black Hand, was killed in Palermo.

"I recently met Frank Serpico," says Scelsa, referring to the New York "good" cop portrayed by Al Pacino. "He has become a big supporter. He's going to be giving us some of his memorabilia-his firearms, his badge, and his uniform."

"The museum's mission," Scelsa promises, "is to present the whole story, the true story, whatever that story is. When you say negative - unfortunately, there is some negative. But there's so little of it that it shouldn't overshadow everything else."

Authors' Night at the italian Cultural Center June 1 at 7 pm

2007-05-30T23:12:00.000-05:00

Dear Dom --- Just a reminder about Authors' Night on Friday. Please help us to spread the word by forwarding this email to your friends and family and please bring someone with you. In this digital age we are having a tough time getting people to come out to old-fashioned face-to-face events. Any help that you can provide in getting us a decent crowd will be appreciated by me and the presenters. Please help us to create a network of IA book lovers. We will set up a book market in the library. We will have basic wine and cheese. Thanks a thousand--Dominic

Dear Friends---I have invited a number of very talented local Italian American writersto the Italian Cultural Center to do presentations of their work on June 1 from 7 to 10 pm.Our purpose is to celebrate the printed and spoken word in both Englishand Italian as it helps us to define ourselves in our multi-culturalworld. We want to create a network of IA book lovers. Our "Authors' Night" will feature readings, networking, and the selling/ signing of books.

Among our presenters are: Paul Giaimo of Highland Community College, Author Anna Clara Ionta, Poet Gino Impellizeri, Novelist Carlo Lombardo, Gloria Nardini (Bella Figura), Pam DeFiglio (journalist Daily Herald), Kathy Catrambone (Taylor St.), several surprise guests and an open mike segment.To help build up the audience for all presenters, we need YOU tobring some book lovers with you. I know that we are a dying breed, butwe must stick together. If you have some special wine or cheese that you would like to sharewith our hardy group, we will add it to the basic light refreshment farethat we ordinarily offer at Cultural Center events.

And They Came to Chicago TV Debut

2007-05-28T20:56:00.000-05:00

Great work on the show; it was too short though! I watched it this evening and thought it was very well done. Actually, watched it with the whole family - it was very educational without being pedantic.

Would have loved to see younger Italian-Americans and what they are experiencing, later immigrants from Italy that have a post WWII viewpoint.

Is there a sequel in the works? Will you be selling it online?

dt

Visit Italy for the Weekend…Immersion Weekend at Casa Italia

2007-04-21T13:32:00.000-05:00

Visit Italy for the Weekend…Immersion Weekend at Casa Italia
April 27 & 28, 2007

Basic Outline:
Friday – 6:00 PM Meet & Greet Dinner with wine, food presentations,
and interactive activities to foster conversation useful when ordering
\meals; followed by Italian Card Games & Ground Rules for Saturday’s events.

Saturday: 9:00 AM
Buongiorno Caffe’ with real espresso and breakfast treats.
Start the day with Italian news and current events in Italian.
Followed by several interactive presentations.

Lunch “Make your own Pizza” Buffet.
Conversation components from Friday’s meal will be repeated
and used while participants create their own pizzas in a friendly
casual atmosphere.

“Una Passeggiata” will follow to help digest lunch on the
grounds and will emphasize nature and directions.
(Useful when trying to get around your favorite city!)

Presentations: Various presentations including a special
operatic performance

Spaghettata Dinner and a movie screening of an
Italian Film with english subtitles.

YOU CAN’T GO OUT TO A NICE RESTAURANT FOR 2 FOR LESS THAN $80
We are offering an experience you WON’T soon forget at an affordable rate with 4 meals included!!
Fees (Per Registrant):
Current ICC Students receive $10 discount on The Total Immersion Experience

Total Immersion Experience $110
Friday Only $50
Saturday Only $75

Add Over Night Accommodations $25/$45/$60
Single/Double/Triple Occupancy
Updated Dormitory Style 2-3 beds per room

Teachers receive 16 units of Continued Professional Development Units (CPDUs) for this program.

SPECIAL EARLY REGISTRATION BONUS 3 DAYS ONLY!!
Call US NOW to register! If you register before April 13th We’ll include FREE overnight accommodations with the Total Immersion Package!! Call 708-338-0723 or email CasaItalia@sbcglobal.net. (This applies to those already registered as well, so don’t worry! We’ve got you covered!!)

The courage of Italians during WWII

2007-03-12T14:04:00.000-05:00

As noted below, I am the author of "The Cielo: A Novel of Wartime Tuscany," and since its publication I've been surprised by the number of people who say they didn't know anything about the suffering of Italians during WWII.

The setting of my story is Tuscany, but it could have been set anywhere in Italy. Italian civilians were forced to endure bombings, murders, massacres, rapes, and horrific atrocities. Not to mention shortages of food, water, electricity. Many were under siege for months as the Germans and Allies and then the Germans and partisans fought all around them.
And yet there was a tremendous amount of courage and endurance.
Somehow they survived.

Anyone who travels to Italy now knows that the war is still present for the older generation. Let's hope the younger generation -- and all of us who are of Itaian descent -- remember it, too.
(I note there is a poem by Aldo Tambellini a little farther below on this site. I have been talking to Aldo since the pubication of the book. The book resonates with him because he was a child in a village not far from my "Sant'Antonio" and witnessed bombings and killings and oher terrible things. He has written a marvelous poem about it.)

Paul Salsini

New Book: The Cielo

2007-03-12T12:59:00.000-05:00

From the author, Paul Salsini:

"The story is about a group of villagers who are trapped in a farmhouse in the hills while the war goes on around them during WWII. It is also the story of the massacre at Sant'Anna di Stazzema on Aug. 12,1944, in which 560 innocent civilians were slaughtered. it was the second-worst massacre by the Nazis in Italy during WWII."

Dom

FW: Is Catholicism the Enemy of Italian American Cultural Identity??

2006-12-10T21:27:00.000-06:00

From: Richard Annotico [mailto:annotico@earthlink.net]
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 8:28 PM
To: Giannotti Franco; Marsili Ercole Italia Mia
Subject: Is Catholicism the Enemy of Italian American Cultural Identity??

The ANNOTICO Report

The one statement that "leaped" out at me, although Church Clergy Abuse is the Central Theme was:

"Growing up in (an) Italian neighborhood... things were always Italian and Catholic. I never saw a separation. I see it now and understand that I can be one without the other. It's taken me a long time to figure that out because I think the Catholic Church has wormed its way into ethnic groups to the point where we came to believe that Catholicism was our cultural identity. We got protective of it. We didn't want to think outside of it. We didn't want to question or criticize because it felt like some sort of betrayal of where we came from - of our ancestors. I now understand that being Italian-American is my cultural identity..."

=============================================================================================

The 'pure experience': Filmmaker documents brother's story to expose Catholic Church's 'blind faith upbringing'

By Gail McCarthy , Staff writer
Gloucester Daily Times December 08, 2006

Editor's note: Gail McCarthy, the Times' arts & entertainment reporter, caught up this week with filmmaker Joe Cultrera and his brother, Paul, the subject of his award-winning film about a priest who sexually abused children. Paul Cultrera, a former Gloucester resident, was abused as a boy by The Rev. Joseph Birmingham at St. James Parish in Salem. Birmingham was also a pastor at St. Ann's Church in Gloucester. The film, the "Hand of God," will be aired Thursday night at the Gloucester Cinema (6:30). Both brothers will attend the screening and take part in audience discussion. The screening serves as a benefit for the local arts group, the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, or seARTS.

Joe Cultrera: 'I can get my God elsewhere'

McCarthy: What was the catalyst for making the film and your desire to create this documentary?

Joe Cultrera: The initial catalyst was watching other media treatments of the clergy abuse crisis and feeling they were all missing the point of origin. They never bothered to look at how we were sucked into the Catholic system from the get-go, how we were watched over by the eyes of those saints and bleeding hearts that lined the walls of our homes and that followed us wherever we went. We were taught fear, shame and embarrassment.

It was those elements of our blind faith upbringing that allowed abuse to happen and go undetected, unspoken about for decades. My brother made me realize that the Catholic Church taught us all these things - in part - as a way of protecting itself. I wanted to make a film from the inside that dug under the fingernails of the situation and walked the viewer step by step through it. A film that was not afraid to criticize the very core of the situation, but that would do so in a very quiet, undramatic way - by simply showing what one survivor and his family went through. The film is pure experience, not gussied up with dramatic music and re-creations.

McCarthy: What was the most difficult part of the filming?

Joe Cultrera: Sitting down and asking questions of my brother, parents and sister that I did not really want to ask was very difficult and scary. Like most families, we do not sit around and have these sorts of deep discussions. They are not comfortable. But if there is anything I have learned from this process it is not to be afraid to talk or to confront your fears. The film created a dialogue and an understanding within our family that was not previously there. We are stronger because of it.

McCarthy: What connection does the film/filmmaker have to Gloucester?

Joe Cultrera: My brother Paul lived in Gloucester from the mid-70's until the breakup of his marriage in the early 90's. He ran the Gloucester Food Co-op. He is still very connected to the town and its people. He has lots of friends there. I worked in Gloucester with local filmmaker Henry Ferrini for a couple years after graduating from film school. Henry and I sort of grew up in the business together and share a way of framing things. Henry shot all the Gloucester footage in the film and supplied invaluable stock footage.

Back in 1976 when I was first playing around with making movies I created some crazy Super-8 films that were screened at various places in Gloucester. The spirit and support of that town pushed me forward with my decision to head to New York, study film and destroy any sense of normalcy I might have had in my life. I am eternally grateful to the spirits of Gloucester.

McCarthy: How has the film and its release affected your life?

Joe Cultrera: I've never lived a more spiritual existence than I have this year. Taking this film from city to city, encountering people and creating dialogue with them, has been like some new type of church. I feel like a missionary man who is trying to dig down to some true sense of God. Making this film and being at screenings has taught me that God is not something you need a priest or a corporate entity to access. It is there in dialogue with your family and within the community you create every day.

McCarthy: Is there humor and warmth infused into what is otherwise a heart-rendering tale?

Joe Cultrera: It's a film about family. My family has a good sense of humor - especially my brother. No matter what this church has dumped on him and us, they cannot steal our smiles. I am incapable of making a film that doesn't have some sense of humor about itself. Whenever bad stuff happens to us, laughter, wisecracks and my mother's smile have always been there to even things out. When I first showed the film to Paul his initial reaction was, "Well that's the funniest film about sexual abuse I've ever seen."

McCarthy: Did your family's Italian heritage and culture influence the film?

Joe Cultrera: I tried to create the detail of our upbringing as a foundation to build the film upon. In creating that specific detail I figured a lot of people from other backgrounds would find some sort of recognition, even if they weren't specifically Italian.

Growing up in the Italian neighborhood of Salem things were always Italian and Catholic. I never saw a separation. I see it now and understand that I can be one without the other. It's taken me a long time to figure that out because I think the Catholic Church has wormed its way into ethnic groups to the point where we came to believe that Catholicism was our cultural identity. We got protective of it. We didn't want to think outside of it. We didn't want to question or criticize because it felt like some sort of betrayal of where we came from - of our ancestors. I now understand that being Italian-American is my cultural identity, but Catholicism is just a corporate product I was sold. I can get my God elsewhere.

Paul Cultrera: Film helps bring family together

McCarthy: What was the catalyst for making the film and your desire to be a part of this documentary?

Paul Cultrera: The catalyst was Joe saying he wanted to do it, and I trust my brother. He's good at whatever he does.

McCarthy: What was the most difficult part of the filming?

Paul Cultrera: The hardest part was thinking about what effect the film would have on my life, the fear of how people would react to me. People who I work with or who I have known for years and know nothing about it are now finding out. I have lifelong friends who don't know and find out through film or the newspaper. ... But similarly to when I told my ex-wife about it, her reaction and that of others was supportive, and the overall reaction to the film is supportive. No one walks out in disgust or throws things at you. They appreciate the intent of it.

McCarthy: What connection do you have to Gloucester?

Paul Cultrera: My mother went into labor when she was at the Fourth of July fireworks celebrated in Gloucester, and she went back to Salem. I was born on July 5. I moved to Gloucester 26 years later, and I thought I was coming home. I just love Gloucester and Cape Ann. It feels oddly like home to me although I've been away for 15 odd years. If they could change the weather I'd still be there. I think about Gloucester all the time, and I'd love to live there, and then I think of those mornings when you have to shovel the snow just to get out of your driveway and then you return home and you have to shovel to get in after the snowplows. (Paul, now 57, lives in California).

McCarthy: How has the film and its release affected your life?

Paul Cultrera: People I have known are now finding out about it, and it has opened up different conversations with them, and I get more calls from newspapers than I ever had before in my life. It has changed my relationship to my family. Joe and I have always been close, and it's created more closeness. My brother is nine years younger. He was born on Thanksgiving. He was the first Thanksgiving baby born in Salem and that was as newsworthy as the big Salem-Beverly football game.

But he was able to ask the tough questions, and I have a much more immense respect for what he does and how he took all these pieces and put it together in a story. He's an amazing editor. With my parents and sister, I think the film has opened up a space that wasn't there before. It helped to start some conversations with all of us about what happened and how we dealt or didn't deal with this.

McCarthy: What about the humor and warmth in the film?

Paul Cultrera: My brother is incapable of making a film without humor. Our family is incapable of having a life without humor. I don't even know where this sense of humor comes from, but it probably helped get me through this. I am still able to laugh, especially when I see the Pope and bishops dressed up.

McCarthy: Did your family's Italian heritage and culture influence the film?

Paul Cultrera: One of the things that spurred Joe on was when my parent's local parish closed down; it was to be sold off and pay off debts to survivors of Joe Birmingham. That pushed Joe over the edge, and he saw that here's the story of how it's affected my mother and father, who are devout Catholics. Their parish church was everything to them, and now it's being taken away. My grandparents came over from Italy in the early 20th century, and we grew up in this tight-knit Italian neighborhood. So being Italian wasn't having a lot of vowels in your name. It was part of us.

In my fantasy world, I live in Rome. I love Italy. I went when I was 23 and spent four months with relatives in Sicily, and I wanted to get back there for the rest of my life. I go there about once a year, to Canicattini Bagni, near Siracusa in Sicily. I probably felt so comfortable in Gloucester because I heard a lot of Sicilian dialects like my grandmother had.

Joe went to Sicily and took footage there, and it's in the film. A lot of the film is about my relationship with my father and how it was harmed and how Father Birmingham took that role, and I wasn't able to tell my father or allow him to protect me. My father had a distant father. There just a lot of father stuff going on.

Seeing seARTS" is an occasional Times feature highlights the work of seARTS members or those who participate in seARTS events. The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to re-establish Cape Ann as a world-class center for working artists in balance with the unique character of Cape Ann as a maritime community.

http://www.gloucestertimes.com/lifestyle/local_story_342120941/resources_printstory

The ANNOTICO Reports

Can be Viewed, and are Archived at:

Italia USA: http://www.ItaliaUSA.com (Formerly Italy at St Louis)

Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com

Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net

A Poem by Aldo Tambellini

2006-07-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

AMERICA
Al Capone died for your sins
died for the privately owned
on the take respected politicians
died for the creative entrepreneurial capitalistic spirit
supplying a need wanted by the people
died as a CEO & Chairman of the board
ruling a powerful highly profitable corporation
& for security
employing hit-men protecting from the competition
exterminating rats with the new law & order

the highly successful soprano hits the high C
performing in the sold-out drama best known as:
THE MOBSTER STEREOTYPED OPERA
receiving artistic awards & endless encores

remember those 2 immigrants Sacco & Vanzetti
one smelling of fish the other a peddler
they were framed & executed
in the historical puritanical Boston
believing that the free America symbolic eagle
with clipped wings was an endangered species

let’s not forget Rocky
the macho italio-stallion
what happened
in the never ending boxing ring saga
did he win/loose/make a come-back/fade away?
or did the downsized intellectual brain
deflate his muscular power

& if the Viking came here
before the navigating controversially adventurous Colombo
they should be represented with an antique museum ship
at that once a year proud marching band parade
notice the political candidates
making the obligatory brief appearance
& disappearance after hustling for votes

who really did & why
they shot a different Colombo
2 bullet slugs in the brain
disrupting the Unity Rally in Manhattan
an FBI well scripted HIT scenario?
the growing Italian American Civil Rights League
was relentlessly under fire from the NY media
they could not tolerate the stereotyping claims
of yet another discriminated group
but you will ask
what the hell is this
all about?

why call that bloody red drink
DEGO WINE
fermenting in the Napa Valley
why not re-baptize it
MAFIOSO WINE
updating the label to a more
popular sellable identification

during this multi-cultural & divided gender time
it seems many discriminated groups
are prominently represented
filling the bookstore shelves/the library & school texts

someone will say:
we have equal representation too
buried below ancient graves
there in the old country
patronized by Lorenzo Il Magnifico de Medici
public TV called him the
RENAISSANCE GODFATHER
(it raised some objection)

I disagree says someone else:
here with the masses we have
achieved high recognition
in this new country we have the famous deceased
notorious TEFLON DON
the network financing his family to grow up on TV
we have an endless list of odd names
playing on the media HIT PARADE:
Jimmy the Clam/ Alley Boy/Anthony Gaspipe/
The Chin/The Snake/Crazy Joe Gallo
the who’s who list too long to mention
the canaries inside cages
sing to the judge at the
FEDERAL COURT HOUSE
while big time legitimate political gangsters
cash in billions from wartime racketeering
devastating nations
destroying lives
as the ecological balance tilts to disaster

we have the best seller
powerful CORLEONE
acted by legendary Brando
sealed lips/secret OMERTA/
COSA NOSTRA affairs/
territorial wars & VENDETTA
we have the ruthless GANGLAND MOBSTERS
killing each other in real life
& on the bigger than life-size Hollywood screen
question:
does a name make one
guilty by association?
we have the grease ball/the wise guy/
the good nature dumb GOOMBA
all well publicized loved & hated by the media
as for the history books
don’t forget the over-achiever
LUCKY LUCIANO
first imprisoned by the government
later released as a useful tool for the Feds

others will say:
pay no attention
it’s all a tempest in a teapot
it will all wash away
& the children of the children
of the struggling back breaking cheap labor
un-welcomed immigrants
do they know
LA STORIA SEGRETA
the disrupted lives of the GUINEA’S WWII internment camps?
& those who have so called “arrived”
with legitimate professions?
well most of them have gone outside dangerous cities
migrating to insulated safe suburbia
inspired by the AMERICAN DREAM
sold by TV commercials
carpet lawn desert/two car garage & shopping mall heaven

some may be renting blockbuster video reruns
featuring well directed & acted
ruthless MOB CAPOS-men of honor
ruling the crime corporation with good old family values
their greedy mouths stuffed with spaghetti or linguini
home made basil tomato sauce simmered in blood
remember the Alka Seltzer commercial
thatsa a spicy meataballa
& those viewers could be judges/doctors/lawyers/teachers/
even proud local politicians or just blue-collar workers
they might say to the growing new generation:
LOOK
finally we have arrived at
a nationally visible representation
question:
is the most acknowledged contribution
food & crime?
somewhere
a writer/an artist/a creative intellectual dreamer
sits in a dark corner at the CAFFE’ PARADISO
staring at Dante’s shrunken head on the wall
next to a puzzled Mona Lisa reproduction
one of them reading lines from a famous poem:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness starving hysterical naked
he sips a bitter espresso
macchiato with chemical creamora
tasting an artificially sweetened cannoli
thinking:
maybe someday there will be a real cultural pride parade
just maybe
is this a wishful dream or something to think about?

St. Joseph's Day Tables

2006-03-08T17:52:00.000-06:00

If you're in the Chicago area!

dt

Italian Restaurants in Chicago

2006-02-12T23:59:00.000-06:00

Alto Adige and Piemonte	Spiaggia 980 North Michigan Avenue Chicago 312.280.2750
Campagna	Luna Caprese 2239 North Clybourn Avenue Chicago 773.281.4825
Puglia	Trattoria Trullo 1700 Central Street Evanston, Illinois 847.570.0093
Tuscany and Emilia Romagna	Coco Pazzo 300 West Hubbard Street Chicago 312.836.0900

2005-11-24T22:57:00.000-06:00

Felice Ringraziemento!

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

Italian American Writers Association

2005-04-09T14:41:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: (718) –777-2726

The Canadian Italians Meet the American Italians

The Italian American Writers Association (IAWA) in collaboration with the Cornelia Street Café will be having a special night of four featured Canadian Italian Writers on Saturday, May 14th, 2005 at 5:45pm to 7:45pm.

The Four Featured Readers:

Salvatore Ala was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. His book, Clay of the Maker, was published by Mosaic Press (1998). He has also published five broadsides of poems, Ten Poems, Thirteen Poems, Fourteen Poems, Keystrokes and Barbershop (Green Alley Press,1994-2003). Salvatore’s poems have appeared in the Fiddlehead and the Literary Review of Canada. Alistair MacLeod wrote of the poems in Clay of the Maker: “They are poems of integrity and clarity, and many of them possess a starling beauty.”
Licia Canton is a Montreal writer, editor and literary critic. She holds a Ph.D. from Université de Montréal and is currently editor-in-chief of Accenti, The Canadian Magazine with an Italian Accent. She has published four books on Italian Canadian writing (as editor) The Dynamics of Cultural Exchange (Cusmano 2002), Adjacencies: Canadian Minority Writing (with Beneventi and Moyes, Guernica 2004), Rebus: Artists and Poets in Correspondence (with Anna Carlevaris, BuschekBooks 2005) and Antonio D'Alfonso: Essays on His Works (Guernica 2006). She has written prize-winning poetry and short stories (in English and Italian). She can be reached at http://www.accenti.ca/
Joseph A. Farina was born in Stanto Stefano di Camastra, Provenza di Messina, Sicily, Italy and immigrated to Canada when he was a child. He practices law in his hometown of Sarnia, Ontario. His poetry has appeared in the Alberta Poetry Yearbook, and in the newsletter of the Association of Italian Canadian Writers. He won second prize in the Sarnia Observer “My Hometown” contest for his essay “My New Home Town.” Several of his poems have been published in Green’s Magazine, Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine, Ascent, and in the Tower Poetry Magazine. He is working on The Cancer Chronicles to be published by Serengeti Press 2006.
Venera Fazio was born in Bafia, Sicily, Italy and immigrated to Canada when she was a child. She has a Master’s Degree in Social Work and for 15 years worked in the Mental Health field. She is co-editor of the anthology Sweet Lemons: Writing with a Sicilian Accent (Legas 2004). Her writing has been read on radio, published in the anthologies The Many Faces of Woman (River City Press 2001) and The Dynamics of Cultural Exchange (Cusmano, 2002) and in a number of magazines in Canada and the United States.

This event will take place on Saturday, May 14th Time: 5:45pm –7:45pm at the Cornelia Street Café,
29 Cornelia Street, New York City 212-989-9319. We will have open mic readings starting at 5:45pm sharp and the four featured readers will start at 6:45pm sharp. Admission: $6.00 which includes one beverage.
Directions: By Subway: A,C, E, B, D, F, V to West 4th Street, 1 & 9 to Christopher St./ Sheridan Sq.

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
The Italian American Writers Association (IAWA) is currently conducting a membership drive to broaden the member base. Membership Rates: $30 (Students and Seniors $15), Associate $100-249, Patron $250-499,
Founder $500-1,000. Kindly make checks payable to: IAWA and Mail to: Treasurer, Italian American Writers Association, PO Box 2011, New York, NY 10013. IAWA is a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit corporation. Donations are tax-deductible.

For further information about attending this event or joining the Italian American Writers Association (IAWA), contact Program Coordinator: MariaLisella@aol.com

NEW NIAF LEADERSHIP ELECTED

2005-03-20T12:45:00.000-06:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Elissa Ruffino at 202/387-0600 or elissa@niaf.org

(WASHINGTON, DC – March 14, 2005) The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) elected new board officers for the 2005-2009 term during the Foundation's March 11 board meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.

Dr. A. Kenneth Ciongoli was elected chairman. He succeeds Hon. Frank J. Guarini, who was elected chairman emeritus. Joseph R. Cerrell, founder and chairman of Cerrell Associates; Jerry Colangelo, chair and CEO of the Phoenix Suns; and Vincent Viola, senior strategic advisor at the New York Mercantile Exchange, were elected vice chairmen. Salvatore J. Zizza, chairman of HallMark Electrical Supplies Corporation, is the new NIAF president. Joseph V. Del Raso, Esq., a partner with Pepper Hamilton LLP, is the executive vice president. Salvatore Salibello, founder and managing partner of the international assurance, accounting, tax and consulting firm Salibello & Broder LLP, was elected treasurer. Nancy Chistolini, senior vice president of fashion and public relations for Hecht's and Strawbridge's, was re-elected secretary. Hon. Louis Freeh, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and senior vice chairman of administration and legal affairs at MBNA America Inc., was elected general counsel.

The NIAF board also elected five new members: Lucio Caputo, president, International Trade Center of New York; Hon. Charles Gargano, vice chairman, the Board of Commissioners of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; Joseph Moglia, CEO, Ameritrade Holding Corporation; Joseph J. Plumeri, chairman and CEO, The Willis Group; and Ronald L. Zarrella, chairman and CEO, Bausch & Lomb.

The NIAF is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC dedicated to preserving the heritage of an estimated 25 million Americans of Italian descent. Visit our website at: http://www.blogger.com/www.niaf.org

EVENT: NIAF EAST COAST GALA

2005-03-12T09:44:00.000-06:00

SPONSOR: The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF)
WHEN: Wednesday evening, April 13, 2005
6:00 PM Reception & Silent Auction
7:00 PM Dinner
WHERE: The Waldorf-Astoria
301 Park Avenue
New York, NY
Contact: Elissa Ruffino at 202/939-3106 or elissa@niaf.org

The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) will host its annual East Coast Gala, on April 13 in New York City, to benefit the NIAF Scholarship and Education Programs.
NIAF will salute the following prominent industry leaders for their outstanding leadership in medicine, business, and entertainment.
· Dr. Michael Brescia, executive medical director, Calvary Hospital, will receive the NIAF Special Achievement Award for Humanitarian Service
· Joseph Moglia, CEO, Ameritrade Holding Corporation, will receive the NIAF Special Achievement Award in Business
· Stanley Tucci, award-winning actor, will receive the NIAF Special Achievement Award in Entertainment

The gala is chaired by Frank Petrilli, NIAF board member and retired CEO of TD Waterhouse USA. Emmy Award-winning actress Susan Lucci will present a NIAF scholarship to a young Italian American during the gala. CNBC's Maria Bartiromo and Ron Insana are some of the prominent Italian Americans attending the gala.

Dinner tickets start at $300 per person. Attire: Business. To purchase, contact, Bonni Cellini at 202/939-3114 or bonni@niaf.org. You can also register on line at www.niaf.org
The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC and dedicated to preserving the heritage of Italian Americans. Learn more about our programs and events by visiting www.niaf.org

MULTI CULTURAL 'BUNK" WHEN PRIDE BECOMES INTIMIDATION

2005-02-10T06:42:00.000-06:00

Baltimore Sun
Gregory Kane
February 9, 2005
THINK OF IT as the down side of multiculturalism. Or is it the "bunk"
side?

...Last Oct. 12 some Italian-Americans in Denver got the funny idea that they could have a parade in honor of that famous Italian explorer named Christopher Columbus. Believing they lived in a country where the First Amendment applied to them, the Italian-Americans got a permit.

A group of "activists" - many of them American Indians - blocked the parade route. After ignoring police orders to disperse, more than 200 were arrested and charged with loitering and disobeying a police order. Eight went to trial.

At the trial, these "activists" said that celebrating Columbus Day was "hate speech" and that the parade was "ethnic intimidation" targeting American Americans. One of the "activist" leaders was Ward Churchill, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder...
A little more about this Churchill guy: He claims to be one-sixteenth Keetoowah, a branch of the Cherokee tribe that lives in Oklahoma.

But members of that tribe dispute Churchill's claim.

Oh, it gets worse.

Within days of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that left more than 3,000 people dead, Churchill wrote an essay called "Some People Push Back: On The Justice of Roosting Chickens," in which he called the victims "little Eichmanns." Don't reach for the tar and feathers and take that next jet to Colorado just yet. There's more.

Last year, in a magazine interview, Churchill told readers how he really feels about America when the interviewer asked him what should happen to the good old US of A.
"I want the state gone," Churchill said. "Transform the situation to U.S. out of North America. U.S. off the planet. Out of existence altogether."

Churchill's defenders - among them those folks who no doubt feel our national anthem is a song called "America the Guilty" - were quick to defend his First Amendment rights. And the six-member jury that acquitted Churchill and seven co-defendants last month in the Columbus Day incident figure that when it comes to the First Amendment, Italian-Americans need not apply.
It looks like open season on Italian-Americans starts early this year, courtesy of that Denver jury whose members have probably voted Democratic way too often. Needless to say, some Italian-Americans aren't happy.

"It's people like Ward Churchill that give multiculturalism a bad name," said Dona De Sanctis, the deputy executive director of the Order Sons of Italy in America. The bad name would be promoting the rights of select victim groups and violating the rights of others, in this case Italian-Americans, who are still the targets of ruthless and relentless stereotyping in television and films.

"What is the United States if not multicultural?" De Sanctis asked, no doubt thinking of multiculturalism at its most ideal, not as the bunk Ehrlich and others feel it has become, probably because of guys like Churchill. "Italian-Americans are for multiculturalism. We are who we are today because of multiculturalism. We just don't think one culture is better than another."

And what about the claim of Churchill and his co-defendants that a Columbus Day parade is "hate speech" and "ethnic intimidation"?

"Italian-Americans marching in a parade waving flags?" De Sanctis, a Bowie resident, asked. "That's intimidation? We found [the] charge of ethnic intimidation ridiculous. If anybody was [attempted to be] intimidated that day, it was Italian-Americans."

Indeed they were, but the Denver sapsucker jury of six didn't see it that way. Using their logic - and believe me, I'm using that word guardedly - I could claim Irish-Americans celebrating St. Patrick's Day constitutes "hate speech" and "ethnic intimidation" on the grounds that Irish immigrants were the primary purveyors of violence against black New Yorkers in the draft riots of 1863.

As it is, whenever March 17 rolls around, I let Irish-Americans be their Gaelic selves and mind my own business. It'd be nice if some American Indians in Denver tried the same thing on Oct. 12.

Italian American Political Action Committee

2005-02-04T15:07:00.000-06:00

I AM PAC Italian American Political Action Committee 48-08 111th Street Corona, NY 11368 February 3, 2005 A Call

This Notice is to inform all Italian American Organizations that on February 8, 2005 at 12:00 Noon on the steps of City Hall the twelve members of the NYC Council Italian American Caucus and the Italian American Political Action Committee (I AM PAC) will join together to Boycott the DVD of Sharks Tale. "Sharks Tale" made by Dream Works is a children's movie that depicts all those of Italian heritage as gangsters. This movie teaches the children of the world to view Italians in a negative way. This is the first time a protest of this magnitude is being formed to stop the stereotyping of all those of Italian heritage. You must attend. For further information, call 718-592-2196. Join Tony Avella, Chairman of the NYC Council Italian American Caucus and the twelve NYC Council Caucus members along with I AM PAC Chairman Jack Como, I AM PAC President Mario D'Elia and I AM PAC Board Member James C. Lisa and Robert Fonti on the steps of City Hall. To make a change all Italian Americans must rally together; join the Italian American "Stop the Stereotyping movement".

VICTORY FOR POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

2005-01-23T09:40:00.000-06:00

Denver PostEditorialBy Bob Ewegen
Deputy Editorial Page Editor Saturday, January 22, 2005 Political correctness won a victory in Denver Thursday, but your rights under the First Amendment were defiled. That travesty occurred when a Denver jury, in a blatant act of jury nullification*, decided that the U.S. Constitution doesn't apply to anyone whose views offend Glenn Morris.

Morris was a leader of the protesters who illegally blocked the 2004 Columbus Day parade, thereby depriving parade participants in particular and Italian-Americans generally of the rights of free speech and freedom of assembly.In all, 239 protesters were arrested for disobeying police orders to stop blocking the parade. Morris and seven of his fellow Thought Police responded by arguing in court that they had a right to block the Italian-Americans because a celebration of Columbus was "hate speech."

In a staggering display of chutzpah, this PC goon squad described themselves as "human rights activists" while labeling their victims, the Italian-Americans, as practitioners of "ethnic intimidation."Such Orwellian logic in and of itself isn't surprising. The Thought Police have never been distinguished by logic or consistency. And it isn't even too shocking to find a jury dumb enough to buy their argument.

We've had juries fly in the face of evidence before, as O.J. Simpson can testify.But what is most troubling about this particular travesty is that the foreman of the runaway jury, Eric Ruderman, was himself a lawyer. And by his own admission, lawyer Ruderman believed that the anti-Italian goon squad had a right to silence viewpoints they disagreed with."All we heard was that Native Americans definitely felt there was a strong element of ethnic intimidation," Ruderman said, adding that if such intimidation continues to exist, the parade should no longer be held.Jury nullification is foul enough when it comes from ignorant yahoos like the hundreds of racist juries who acquitted Ku Klux Klan murderers for the lynching of black Americans in a century- long reign of terror.

But when a lawyer sitting as a juror openly refuses to punish criminals because he dislikes the victims of the crimes in question, then our civil liberties are indeed in peril.Newly empowered as the city's Thought Cop, Morris bloviated: "It is time for the mayor and city attorney to drop all the charges. We call on the people of Denver to demand that all the charges be dropped."Actually, we the people of Denver call upon our mayor and city attorney to enforce the law and protect our rights - as they have already promised to do. That means that prosecution of the 231 remaining law-breakers will proceed with full vigor.

And this time, let's select a jury that doesn't blame the victims.Reasonable people can disagree about Christopher Columbus. The definitive biography of the great navigator remains Samuel Eliot Morison's "Admiral of the Ocean Sea." A revisionist view can be read in Kirkpatrick Sale's "Conquest of Paradise."In truth, both Morison and Sale have valid points. Columbus' vision, courage and steadfastness remain an inspiration more than five centuries after his epic voyage changed the world. Sale is right in noting that many of those changes weren't good, especially from the point of view of the dominant native cultures that the subsequent European conquests displaced. But the point is that in the pre-Glenn Morris era, Denver residents had the right to read both Morison and Sale and draw their own conclusions.

The Rudermans of the world want you to see only Morris' point of view.Why should you care about the rights of Italian-Americans? Well, consider what Martin Niemöller wrote after the holocaust:"First they came for the Communists but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. ... And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left who could stand up for me."Bob Ewegen is deputy editorial page editor of The Denver Post.

He has written on state and local government since 1963. *Jury Nullification-Since the Supreme Court's 1895 decision in Sparf v. United States,(1) it has been a commonplace understanding that criminal juries have the Power but Not the Right to nullify the law before them,(2) either choosing to acquit or convict when they believe the law as presented by the judge to require otherwise. DenverPost.com - Bob Ewegen

Would a Cleaned-Up 'Sopranos' Be Too Naughty for Sponsors?

2005-01-15T13:39:00.000-06:00

By STUART ELLIOTT Published: January 11, 2005

S HBO moves ahead with plans to sell edited episodes of "The Sopranos" to a cable television network that runs commercials, the reaction of many advertisers asked to be sponsors will likely be "Fuhgeddaboudit."

REAL STORIES: A Conference about Discrimination and Stereotyping in the U.S. from the Perspective of Italian Americans

2004-11-06T08:36:00.000-06:00

PR Web via Yahoo! News Fri, 05 Nov 2004 4:00 AM PSTSouth Orange, NJ (PRWEB) November 5, 2004 -- The Charles and Joan Alberto Italian Studies Institute at Seton Hall University hosts the conference " REAL STORIES: Discrimination and Defamation in the History of Italian Americans" to be held on Saturday, December 4, 2004, from 9:30 am to 7:30 pm at Seton Hall University (Kozlowski Auditorium), 400 South Orange Ave., South Orange, New Jersey.