Articles by: Natasha Lardera

“Re-reading Italian Americana is a brilliant analysis of the status of Italian American studies in America and Italy, a powerful appraisal of critical works in the field, and a literary feast. Enriched by Tamburri's original and informed commentary on major writers and poets from di Donato to Mazziotti Gillan, it persuasively argues for the importance of Italian Americana in the American literary and cultural canon. Tamburri has written an indispensable book that is required reading for anyone who cares about multiethnic writing in the contemporary scene.”

This quote by Josephine Gattuso Hendin, professor of English, New York University sums up in just a few sentences the uniqueness of professor Anthony Julian Tamburri's 198 page compendium that was recently presented at Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimo. The panel consisted of Tamburri himself  (Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of Queens College, CUNY), Professor  Josephine Gattuso Hendin and Professor Martino Marazzi, University of Milan / NYU Tiro a Segno program.

Prof. Anthony Julian Tamburri's research interests lie in literature, cinema, semiotics, 
interpretation theory, and cultural studies. He has divided his intellectual work evenly between Italian and Italian/American studies, authoring more than a dozen books and one hundred essays circa on both subject areas in English and Italian. Tamburri is also the editor of more than thirty volumes and special issues of journals. He is the director of the Calandra Institute, the executive producer of the TV program Italics and a member of the founding directors of i-Italy.org.

Re-Reading Italian Americana: Specificities and Generalities on Literature and Criticism (Fairleigh Dickinson, 2013) is divided into three sections. The first section deals with the general situation of Italian/American literature and its reception both in the United States and in Italy. It also discusses other social and cultural issues that pertain to Italian Americana. Section two consists of six chapters, each discussing a specific author; three dedicated to prose (Pietro di Donato, Mario Puzo, Luigi Barzini), three dedicated to poetry (Joseph Tusiani, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Rina Ferrarelli). Section three examines the current state of criticism dedicated to Italian/American literature, the second part focusing on a number of specific works.

“When I was asked to read this book, I had no idea what I was about to read... but right away Re-Reading Italian Americana: Specificities and Generalities on Literature and Criticism was full of pleasant surprises. It gave me the possibility to explore new ideas and to discover how this culture has deep roots in Italian popular culture,” Professor Marazzi said during the panel presentation.

“This book is a call to action in the creation of a greater sense of community. It is proof of what Italian Americana is, how it got to be this way and what it can become. It explores several aspects of our history (repression, stereotyping) and this history is a departure point to see the interaction between Italian and American cultures,” Professor Hendin added.

The book, which is enhanced with the inclusion of an extensive bibliography and a comprehensive index, is a must read for anyone interested in learning what the Italian American experience is all about. “The title includes the word “re-reading,” because we must read this literature in a different way, a way never applied before,” Tamburri explained when talking about the challenges of writing this book and the work he has performed. “This book came to be because we need to remember the voices of our community but also to show that so much work needs to be done in order to move forward.”
Professor Tamburri touched different topics, from the notion of bilingualism to tribalism and the superficiality of several books that simply “don't cut it.”

Re-Reading Italian Americana: Specificities and Generalities on Literature and Criticism is an extraordinary and highly recommended addition to academic library collections but mostly and invtiation to Italian Americans to get involved and contribute.

“I'm always looking for new projects. I search the web, I ask around; but this one basically fell onto my lap. I went to my usual Buddhist temple and I was talking to this Italian guy who's an actor. He told me he was acting in a video for a friend of his... it was a video about Italians.”


Silvia Forni is an Italian photographer and videographer based in NYC, one of many who participated in Oscar winning director Grabriele Salavtores' latest endeavor: Italy in a Day. The collective/social film portrays a day, a day only (October 26, 2013), in the life of Italians – there are those who are happy, those who are sad, those who are in jail or simply having meal with their family. Life can be so many different things...


Choosing among 44.000 submissions was no easy feat, but that did not scare Salvatores, the team of Indiana Productions and Rai Cinema. Producer Lorenzo Gangarossa adapted a concept developed by Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions that released the film Life in a Day in 2011. The documentary “shot by film-makers all over the world, serves as a time capsule to show future generations what it was like to be alive on the twenty-fourth of July, 2010.”  Italy in a Day's concept is basically very similar but it concentrates on the condition of Italy and its inhabitants.


Producer Lorenzo Gangarossa, whose collaborators were, Fabrizio Donvito, Marco Cohen and Benedetto Habib, told the press: “The film is a sort of first ever audio-visual census. We were stunned by the amount of people who told us about their day and I must say that the material has moved us. The film will be presented at the Mostra di Venezia, on September 2nd.. During those 76 minutes audiences will witness the emotional state of a country.” Gangarossa told that a mixed multitude of people have been captured answering questions such as “how's Italy?” “what scares you?” “are you happy?” The social aspect of the project leads to believe that it was mostly young people who participated but surprisingly there were plenty of older Italians telling their stories, including several octogenarians.


“The question I asked the people I filmed,” Silvia Forni tells of her experience, “was 'are you happy?' because I was interested in knowing that. I hear of so many people who are unhappy and I wanted to collect their stories.” Silvia submitted several clips but the one selected to be in a mosaic of images, portrays a friend of hers in a coffee shop telling us that she is happy.


“There are moving but also funny stories,” Gangarossa has said, “the film is a sort of emotional journal that has brought us all together. We didn't know what to expect, and we were a bit surprised by the beauty of these 2200 hours of images that our team, coordinated by editors Massimo Fiocchi e Chiara Griziotti, had to go through.”


Salvatores himself has said, “This experiment has been emotional, instructive and interesting. It was made possible only thanks to the technology we have today. It is a sort of modern version of the “message in a bottle” custom, and thousands of people decided to send their message to me. I was careful, respectful.”


The realities are many: there is an astronaut, Luca Parmitano, a careful doctor and even images shot at the maximum security prison of Bollate. “We talked to the Ministry of Justice and we came to an agreement. We went to the prison and showed some of the prisoners how to use the camera. We left some cameras behind to let them tell their stories. I think it was important to hear their voices too,” Gangarossa added.


How were the videos selected? Co-producer Danvito told the press; “We tagged each video by subject. Then we knew we wanted to cover the entire day, so all different hours, and most cities, from Pantelleria to Bolzano. We also kept in mind the questions we had offered as options and important life events. We made it to 76 minutes but Italy in a Day is an open project, ever growing, and we are planning to develop it further.”


So what about the Italy captured in the film? “It's suffering but it's creative and full of energy,” Gangarossa concluded.

Hailing from Rome, ExtraTeatro, a theater company specialized in bilingual theater introducing a second language to children through music, is in New York presenting two shows, Vagabond$ and My Monster Friend, at the 18th annual New York International Fringe Festival – FringeNYC. These are two children’s musicals that had their North American premieres. Both shows are for English and Italian speaking audiences of all ages and are filled with fun sing along songs and zany comedy. The plays have been put together by the writing team of Arianna De Giorgi from Italy and Jason Goodman from America. Arianna is also the show's director, while Jason composes the music and acts. Completing the team is the talented Sicilian actor and musician Andrea Trovato.

My Monster Friend tells the story of a “Lonely Doctor Science-stein who creates a friend in his lab with a brain he ordered online. “Buongiorno! Oh no! It’s an Italian brain! Don’t worry doctor, this monster makes pasta and knows how to rock.” It's a musical for all ages. As for Vagabond$ “Ciao! Hello! They might not fully understand what the other is talking about… but boy do they know how to put on a show! An American and Italian vagabond form a crazy musical duo.”

i-Italy had a chance to speak with Arianna as soon as the group arrived in NYC, after a pretty adventurous flight! “The main issue was that Norwegian Airways lost our luggage. Obviously part of the scenes and all our puppets were in there... Basically we had to rebuild everything... it was a race against time, it was stressful but we made it work! It was a relief to see that American children laugh the same way the Italians do.”  

Director and Co-writer Arianna De Giorgi was born in Rome, studied acting with Giulio Scarpati and worked as an assistant to Oscar winning set designer Dante Ferretti before studying film and television production at NYU.

Tell us about the importance of making bilingual theater.

 

Our theater group has developed the project of making bilingual theater using the English language with the goal to bring new generations closer to theater arts using an idiom that is pretty much universal right now. English is part of everybody's cultural heritage right now and it is important as our society is becoming more and more multiracial. Back in 2008 we wrote our first show, I Rock, which brought together artists of different backgrounds: Daniela Remiddi, author of children's theater, director and puppeteer with a strong background in classic theater; Jason Goodman, American musician and actor; Arianna De Giorgi, Italian director who's attended NYU. That show and all the ones that followed really captured audiences – from the teachers to the students of all ages. Our theater offers a new and fun way to learn English. This is mostly made possible by our use of actors whose native language is English working together with native Italians (who always act in Italian) thus offering kids an opportunity to identify themselves with the characters in their adventures and misadventures in a foreign context.

How did you decide to do all this in a musical way? 

The use of music in children's theater is pretty much imperative. It's the way to communicate moods, feelings and emotions. Listening to English songs has always favored passion for the English language and the English culture. Jason is a musician whose roots are in the “Americana/Country/Rock’n’ Roll” genres. So he has brought to the shows his own very personal musical key of interpretation that has immediately captured the kids' attention. Seeing the audience sing along his songs always makes us proud.

How is writing with a partner and on top of that, how is writing in another language?

Writing with another person is always a challenge but it's also an incredible source of stimuli and ideas. We are not a team only at work but in our private life as well: we have two kids, a three and a five year old. We've worked together for a while now and in the past few years we have developed a working method that's very efficient for us: usually I start by writing down some ideas, then I let Jason review them. He's the one who add the most foolish and fun elements of the story and when he's done we look everything over together. Lately the source of all our ideas is very intimate and real: it comes from our kids! At home we speak both languages. This is a constant in our private life and in the linguistic approach of our writings.

 

Tell us about the origins of the two shows you are presenting at Fringe NYC.

 

My Monster Friend and Vagabond$ are two bilingual musical comedies that we have been traveling with throughout Italy for the past few seasons. On stage, along with Jason Goodman, there is the Sicilian actor Andrea Trovato, an irresistible talent whose energy and humor never fail to capture each and every audience member. In Italy, the viewers learn their first English words and sentences, while here in NYC we want them to get familiar with our language and our culture. The two actors are a real comical pair: one is tall and one is short... and they need to be careful not to exchange their costumes...During My Monster Friend they need to quickly change into an astronaut suit. The suits are identical that's why once they messed up, and Jason came out wearing a tight and short suit, while Andrea was lost in a giant suit... it was not done on purpose but its was a perfect comic skit. 

Future plans?

 

Next season we'll have our own bilingual theater program at Teatro Belli, in Rome. We are working on two new shows: a musical in English from kids age 12-18, titled Hamlet and Ophelia, and a bilingual show for younger kids titled SpaceCrazy. And then... we'll see what comes out of our American adventure.

He has revolutionized the world of fashion, he actually changed the general approach to fashion and has become one of the ambassadors of Italian style in the world. Giorgio Armani, or King Giorgio, as the Italian press has come to call him, is a fashion divinity and only a few names in fashion conjure so distinctive a look of elegant simplicity.

But there's more to Armani than fashion and creativity:he is an active entrepreneur always looking at the future but connected to tradition who has no problem criticizing those who suffocate creativity and good taste (oftentimes these people are his colleagues). Rizzoli has just published a new book on the designer from Piacenza by the title “I cretini non sono mai eleganti: Giorgio Armani in parole sue (Idiots are never elegant: Armani in his own words).” The volume, edited by Paola Pollo, was released to celebrate Armani's 80th birthday, which occurred on July 11th (the book was released two days prior, on the 9th).

In this book Paola Pollo, a journalist at Milan's Corriere della Sera and a renown fashion expert, captures Armani the man first, then the designer and the businessman through his thoughts, statements and lines that marked his long and inimitable career. “For about a year I dove into the maison's archives, with Armani's permission to do so, and went through interviews, public speeches and lectures looking for quotes and anecdotes in order to relate his story and thoughts through his own words, just like the volume's subtitle says.”

Upon completion of her long archival work, Paola Pollo was astonished by the fact that “The Armani we see today is totally consistent with the Armani who started in this business forty years ago, the same man who had specific ideas on fashion and on what he did not like. I thought that his strong and critical statements could have been a consequence of his success, with success people think they can say whatever they want, but he has always been that way... he's always been focused on his work and he dislikes those who don't do it well. It's no coincidence that back in 1977 he used to say 'I hate who sells smoke and cheats, who has nothing true to offer and pretends to be full of creativity.'” He still does.

Paola Pollo, who has known Armani for years and has seen numerous of his fashion shows, has discovered a few new things; “It's incredible to see that he knows how to do everything himself. He does not come from a family of dressmakers, indeed his father was an office clerk and he had no interest in fashion. But from the very beginning, Giorgio has taught himself to do pretty much everything.”

Another great discovery: the effect of Sergio Galeotti's death on the designer's life and the consequent solitude. Back in 2010, Armani himself admitted that the partner's death was the most difficult battle of his life. “Up to 1989, Armani talked about style with lightness,” Pollo recounts, “But after Galeotti's death his words are impregnated with great suffering. In addition he is more focused on the economic side of the business, something he did not care about before as Galeotti was taking care of it. Before his death he was more relaxed and at ease, but things changed. He became more lonesome, melancholic and nostalgic.” To prove that, Pollo tells readers how Armani prefers to go home to his cats rather than attend parties. “Sure he has numerous homes and a lovely life but he is more at ease in his own private world.” Last but not least already back in 1980, Armani could not stand clothes anymore, that's why he has been wearing pants and a navy tee since then.