On April 24 Calandra’s Dean Anthony Julian Tamburri had a conversation with Italy’s ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Armando Varricchio, about the plan for the gradual reopening of Italy. Click here to see the video.
Author: Sian Gibby
Joseph Tusiani: January 14, 1924—April 11, 2020
With the passing of Joseph Tusiani, we have lost a treasure of a man, a wonderful human being, and a great cultured individual.
Joseph came to the United States in 1947 on what was to be a temporary visit. Instead, he remained and became, over the more than seven decades he spent in New York, a noted polymath. Poet first and foremost, prose writer, essayist, translator, Joseph was the true scholar/intellectual.
The winner of the prestigious Greenwood Prize of the Poetry Society of England in 1956, he was the first “American” to be given the award. He was vice president of the Poetry Society of America and director of the Catholic Poetry Society of America. Joseph was also professor of Italian for many years at Lehman College of The City University of New York.
Through his work as translator, he introduced many Italian writers to the English-speaking world: Machiavelli, Tasso, Pulci, Boccaccio, Pascoli, and Leopardi are just some of those whose work he translated over the years. It was, in turn, his translations of Michelangelo’s poetry that earned him a visit to President Kennedy’s White House! That collection will be reissued in the University of Toronto Press’s Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library Series.
Joseph’s reach was extensive and impactful. In addition to his loving family (Michael, Bea, and their children), Joseph leaves behind a plethora of friends and former students whose lives were influenced to various degrees by his mentoring, friendship, and kindness. I feel privileged to have been among those to whom he opened his home, and along with the many things I shall remember and miss, there is also the Centerba we would share during our conversations.
Once we are free of this terrible pandemic, we shall commemorate Joseph in the manner in which he so deserves.
Book Presentation of Future: il domani narrato dalle voci di oggi
On February 4, 2020, at the Calandra Institute was a presentation of Future: il domani narrato dalle voci di oggi, edited by Igiaba Scego. The evening featured Calandra’s dean Anthony Julian Tamburri giving opening comments and serving as moderator; Candice Whitney, who gave a general presentation of the book; Camilla Hawthorne, who spoke on “The Significance of Future and ‘African Italy’”; and Marie Moise and Angelica Pesarini, who gave readings from the work.
New Episode of Italics: Who Are the “Real” Italians?
Our latest episode of Italics is up now. Click here to watch.
In the studio with us this month are Dr. Stefano Albertini, clinical professor of Italian in New York University’s Department of Italian and director of its Casa Italiana, and Rossella Rago, host of the popular web TV series “Cooking with Nonna.” We will discuss today the notion of what constitutes “Real” and Non-“Real” Italians, a discussion that is long overdue, some might say.
Italics is hosted by Anthony Julian Tamburri, Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of Queens College/CUNY and Distinguished Professor of European Languages and Literatures.
Italics is now in its third decade serving the Italian-American community and those interested in Italian-American history and culture. Italics is co-produced in collaboration with the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute.
Watch more at http://tv.cuny.edu/show/italics
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Calandra Celebrates 40 Years
Frank Serpico Screening in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
On Wednesday night, September 18, 2019, Dr. Joseph Sciorra joined filmmaker Antonino D’Ambrosio to screen D’Ambrosio’s 2017 documentary film Frank Serpico at the Swinging Sixties Senior Center in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Dr. Joseph Sciorra Presented Built With Faith at I Am Books in Boston
Over the weekend, Dr. Joseph Sciorra presented his book Built with Faith: Italian American Imagination and Catholic Material Culture in New York City at the I Am Books bookshop in Boston.
Watch Livestream Recording of “Between Acceptance and Prejudice: One Hundred Years of Italian E/i[m]migration”
The symposium begins at 5:30 pm.
You can see the recorded event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH3LilR6gGI.
Artist John Avelluto’s Exhibition “Goombarooch Resignified”
Visual artist John Avelluto revels in mash-ups of sounds, images, products, and ideas where Italy and the United States converge. His multimedia work plays with Italian American culture and the existing linguistic and visual repertoire of vernacular references that have gone underappreciated and unexamined. It stands at a crossroads of what in Italian is referred to as contaminazione, those hybrid moments and places where ideas and idioms collide across ever-shifting borders to create innovative articulations. As part of the artistic process, this Brooklyn-born and raised artist employs a time-consuming method of layering numerous coats of acrylic paint to create strata of simulacrum imitating salami slices, dripping pizza, and other items that he augments and then applies to a flat surface.
On view May 7–September 13, 2019
GALLERY HOURS: MONDAY–FRIDAY, 9AM–5PM
Exhibition Opening: Tuesday, May 7, 2019, 6pm
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE EXHIBITION CATALOG.
Conference Keynote: “Signing Italian/American Cinema: A More Focused Look”
Dean Anthony J. Tamburri delivers the conference keynote address, “Signing Italian/American Cinema: A More Focused Look,” to an overflow audience of conference attendees.
You can watch all the sessions of this year’s event, Eye-Centricity and the Visual Cultures of Italy and Its Diaspora, via the following links:
1 Architecture and Site-Specific Viewings
2 Signing Italian/American Cinema: A More Focused Look
4 Marketing Politics, Consumerism, and Tourism
5 Procession and Progression in the Mezzogiorno: Illuminating the Many Faces of the Mother
7 Spiritual View(ing)s in Italian American Writing and Visual Arts
Nota bene: Not every session will be livestreamed as some participators have opted out of the livestream.
Click here to read the complete conference program.