Articles by: Samantha Janazzo

On October 6, 2016, the Gracie Mansion hosted the "Italian Heritage Reception," centered on the pride of being Italian-American. The event also recognized growing cultural influences on our country and embraced the diverse ethnicities that comprise the place we call home.

Angelo Vivolo, the president of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, opened the event and proclaimed, “Everyone is going to be Italian tonight in the greatest city in the world!” Speeches given by the Mayor of New York City Bill De Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray followed. Director and actor John Turturro closed the occasion with the fourth speech of the night. All of the speakers’ inspiring words encouraged everyone in attendance to channel their Italian roots.

Mayer Bill De Blasio recounted several examples about how NYC has benefitted from the work of Italian Americans. He cited the creation of the Whitney Museum, the restoration of Ellis Island, the implementation of the new Statue of Liberty Museum, and the building of LaGuardia airport as constant reminders of hardworking Italians. He spoke about how NYC is a testament of the courage of our ancestors who decided to travel across the ocean in order to start a new life. Similarly, De Blasio stated that when Italy is in need, we are here to help them.

Italy and the Italians have done so much for New York, and that he believes it is our duty to keep Italy alive, to preserve its food, its beautiful language, but most of all, to embrace the Italian culture within New York City.

During De Blasio’s closing remarks he recounted an experience he had while looking up at the Statue of Liberty, recognizing that we are a nation of immigrants. We are still trying to understand and to accept that we are a nation made of many different people, cultures, and stories. We must not be ignorant of cultures different than our own, and it is our civil duty to treat immigrants as we would have wanted our ancestors to be treated upon their entrance into the United States years ago.

The Mayor warmly greeted Consul General of Italy, Francesco Genuardi, who was present among the guests. He recalled how Genuardi had decided to visit his hometown in Italy, Sant'Agata dei Goti, before coming to New York.

First Lady McCray's speech focused on improving mental health care in New York City schools. She emphasized that through educating ourselves and working together we can better help the disabled. “If we work together, I am confident that we will succeed. If there is one thing Italian-Americans know, it’s how to create and sustain a culture founded on the best of their family values,” she said.

The crowd was also honored to hear a speech from John Turturro, a New York born actor and director. He accredited his success in the film industry to the work ethic that his grandparents passed down. They constantly encouraged him to find his vocation, to find the one calling that he could see as his life's work.

Turturro also spoke about how he gained a deep love and respect for the Italian-American community. How he recognized the tremendous sacrifice our ancestors made by coming to the United States. Even though being Italian or being American is a “complicated mixture of ingredients,” according to Turturro, it is important to know your center and find pride in it.

From September 15- November 11, 2016 the Ierimonti Gallery is displaying “Materia Prima,” a tri-artist collaboration; El Anatsui of Africa, Claudio Costa of Italy, and Richard Nonas of the United States.

What joins the three together to make a smooth ocular transition through the walls of the gallery demonstration is their similar anthropological approach, the use of a similar color scheme, and fluid ambiance. Each artist has a different history, tradition, and culture but together they pinpoint the message that challenges the origination of mankind.

On display for Anatsui is "Background Stories," a piece that he produced in 1992 composed mostly of African Hardwood.  By piecing together small bits of wood and recycled materials in shades of blue and brown, the wall-mounted display comes together to tell a narrative of African ritual in a modern light, bringing together past traditions with the present day.

The work of the American, Richard Nonas, has a blatant divide. Two of his pieces are three dimensional and composed of steel, while the other two on display are made with paper and canvas. The pieces seem almost as if they have been recovered from an archaeological site. He reaches into the past in attempt to encompass the basic needs of human existence, that which without our primordial ancestors we could not have survived to modern day. His work pieces together a trip through time and innovation of which human beings developed. He seeks to make doubt tangible through his work.

Two pieces done by Claudio Costa are on display; one evokes primitive sensations, while the other is more contemporary.  He plays heavily on the ideas of anti-chronology and simplicity. The Italian term Arte Povera, an Italian minimalist technique found in 1950s art, is found here as he attempts to look back and rediscover our identity as a human civilization with as little material as possible.

Each image comes together with the sense of reflection. It opens a door to previous cultures and in attempt to piece civilization together, as if the artists physically attempt to reconstruct our lives from an archaeological point of view, peering from the future into what we call the present. These anthropological challenges are on display to visit at this Ierimonti gallery.

From the beginning of her extensive writing career in Italy, the internationally recognized author of the four part, Naples based, book saga that includes My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child chose to write under the pseudonym Elena Ferrante since the early ‘90s.

On October 3, 2016 at 1 am an Italian investigative journalist Claudio Gatti (whose name translates to Claudio the cat) released an article to the New York Review of Books stating he had acquired adequate information to prove that Anita Raja, German translator for the Rome based publisher Edizioni E/O and wife of Domenico Starnone, is Elena Ferrante.

Even though Gatti has Italy buzzing about the news, Ferrante’s fan base is not receiving the released information so courteously in the article he entitled “Elena Ferrante: An Answer?” Before delving into Claudio Gatti’s intrusive accusations, we ought to understand the author’s reasons for protecting her identity.

Originally claiming that she chose to write under a pseudonym because of her shyness, Elena Ferrante quickly became a name for sexual liberty and a mother figure for the feminist movement in Italy and around the world. Committed to the choice, the author further explains that she does not stand for competitive writing between authors. She is persistent in her belief that putting a face to a book is unnecessary, and that the book’s power hails from the written word, not the face that promotes it.

Despite consciously rejecting facial recognition, avoiding public promotions, and entrusting her writing to do all the heavy work, Ferrante was betrayed. Claudio Gatti has sleuthed his way into real-estate records, payments from publishers, and literary interpretations. All of these may seem far-fetched, but they are enough for him to connect the translator to the alias.

Through his article he has “outed” an artist who had made a specific and personal career choice for none other than to place her writing and audience on an anonymous level. Gatti has gone beyond speculations to seek tangible evidence to connect Ms. Raja and Ms. Ferrante.

So how, exactly, does Gatti’s article convince English, German, French, and Italian readers (the languages in which he has his article released) that his findings are legitimate? Especially when the audience does not want to know the truth. 

He began with payment records he acquired from Edizioni E/O, the company that publishes both Ferrante and Starnone’s work. In his article, Gatti states that there is a connection with the publishing house’s annual revenue, the number of Ferrante’s books sold, and the income of the husband and wife. Through an anonymous source he obtained information that led him to believe that between the financial patterns of the company and Raja’s income checks, Ferrante and Raja are the same.

He then goes so far as tracing the couple’s real estate expenditures from the early 2000’s to present day. Since Anita Raja is a translator, and her husband is a writer, Gatti claims that the two could not possibly afford their 2,500 square foot apartment in Rome and their Tuscan mansion.

Next, he made reference to previous conspiracy theories that attempted to identify Ferrante. The first one being that Ferrante is actually Domenico Starnone, Raja’s husband. Gatti’s article states that based on evidence obtained from a Sapienza University of Rome student-based side-by-side text analysis, there must have been some sort of “unofficial collaboration” between the husband and wife. This means that his belief, as presented in his article, is that the work of Ferrante is Raja’s with influences from her husband’s writing style.

The theories do not stop here. When Claudio begins to claw through Ferrante’s literature and penname, he claims that the name Elena was chosen after Raja’s aunt. Highly studied literary scholars have already proved that her name is a play on Elsa Morante, an Italian novelist and huge inspiration to the work of Ferrante and feminist literature. Many connections are made to Morante’s life and Ferrante’s new novel Frantumaglia, which is written in autobiographical form; a novel Ferrante has countlessly claimed that it is a work of fiction. Even though Cladio attempts to make incorrect relations between the book’s plot and Raja’s upbringing.

Another interesting connection between Raja and Ferrante is her work with Christa Wolf. Raja translated Wolf’s rendition of the classical tale Medea into German, later Ferrante published "The Days of Abandonment," a modern take on the similar Ancient Greek tragic themes. For Gatti this is enough to prove Ferrante’s connection with Raja, but the themes of the Greek and Roman Classics such as Medea, and many others from mythology/theater have been revamped and recycled for generations.

Gatti finally attempts to make in-text connections between Raja and Ferrante. First being the name Nino, romantic subject of the main character of her four part Neapolitan saga released from 2012-2015, is also the family name of Raja’s husband. He also highlights a significant amount of detail about the importance of libraries, a hot topic in My Brilliant Friend. He claims this is Raja’s personal input being that she has been the head of Rome’s European Library. These are truly just two small details in twenty years of Ferrante’s writing that Gatti clings onto.

In all honesty, his strongest case lies heavily in the financial and real estate records. In an attempt to extract more personal information from Raja, her husband, and those working at Edizioni E/O, Mr. Gatti had countless unrequited phone calls and stark conversations that left him without information as he pried for more tangible evidence. Everyone’s refusal to comment on the previous indignations and his overall lack of concern for privacy and protection of Ferrante’s identity has left Gatti sneaking around for his own answers.

But there is one thing Ferrante has that Gatti will always lack, a loyal fan base. Copies of her work have been sold to forty different countries, and when it comes down to it, Gatti is the only one trying to out her, but disrespect can only get him so far. Ferrante clearly does not want to give up her anonymousness for upstanding reasons that she has been open about. For this reason she prefers to conduct her interviews via email and does not partake in book tours.

So wherever the true Elena Ferrante is, weather she is Anita Raja or someone else, I hope she reads Gatti’s article with a smile, confident in the support base of her present and future readers, and aware that the work she has done is far superior to the work of a sleuth.

I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat. -Edgar Allan Poe

On Monday September 26, Italian film director Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary Fire at Sea or Fuocoammare was submitted for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards on February 26, 2017. Kino Lorber, an art house film distributor, is releasing the documentary in the United States, opening in New York on October 21, 2016.

Based on the European migrant crisis, this documentary unveils the truth about the daily struggle of the inhabitants of Lampedusa, an Italian Mediterranean island with a fishing and agriculture based economy—located just 70 miles from Tunisia and 150 miles from Sicily. Rosi shows the tireless efforts by civilians to accommodate the influx of migrants and refugees escaping Africa and the Middle East almost every week.

He includes actual footage of the conditions both on land and at sea; such as, helicopter rescues, disease, corpses, as well as factual data of the suriviors and deaths since the beginning of the crisis in the early 2000s.

In attempt to access diverse points of view, Rosi follows Samuele, a young Italian local of Lampedusa whose puerile sense of curiosity and love for exploring causes him stress and anxiety as he left unsheltered from whitenessing to the harsh conditions of the foreign people retreating to the island he calls home.

Rosi’s documentary is relentlessly realistic, The Hollywood Reporter states, “Where journalism leaves off, Fire at Sea begins.” Rosi does not skimp on any details of this turbulent time in present day Italy, recording the reactions of locals, doctors who patiently treat these migrants with care, and those who treat the refugees as if they are nothing.

For the past 20 years there has been a rising number of desperate refugees seeking access to Europe to gain a better life. In response, the European Union has given Lampedusa (and other inter-Mediterranean access points to Europe) money to build shelters and hospitals. However, Fire at Sea shows how Lampedusa is operating at its maximum capacity, running low on supplies, and how a local community is unable to account for the growing volume of migrants. Bringing this film to the United States is a push for awareness of this ongoing crisis.