My Town: Italian American Summer Festival
by Bliss Davis The Italian American Summer Festival is returning to northeast Ohio again this year.The 13th annual festival will be held Friday, June 28, through Sunday, June 30 at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds. The celebration will kick-off at 5 p.m. on Friday. The festival will serve authentic Italian cuisine from more than 25 vendors...
Mosaic impresario Matteo Randi
This we know: Italians and their ancestors claim crucial contributions in just about every classic art form. But the place of mosaics in Italian history is far lesser known to many art lovers. That’s why the Chicago Mosaic School in the city’s North Center neighborhood plays two vital roles: not just as a place to learn the craft, but also to pas...
Italian festival spreads culture through cinema
Films are an important part of Italian culture for Pietro Sarcina. That's the Troy resident became involved with the Italian Film Festival USA Metro Detroit. Running from Wednesday, April 1 to April 26, the festival offers 14 contemporary films in various genres created between 2013 and 2014. A national event taking place simultaneously in...
Festa Italiana Milwaukee
Milwaukee's venerable Festa Italiana will hold forth from July 17 to 19 at Henry W. Maier Festival Park on the city's lakefront. The Flag Throwers of the Florentine will travel from Italy to perform at this year's festa. Headline acts include Dove c'è Musica's Tribute to Eros Ramazzotti and Henry Prego's award-winning tribute to Frank Sinatra....
Calabresi invite all to Festa della Famiglia
The Società San Francesco di Paola together with the Calabresi In America Organization are again honoring the patron saint of Calabria, San Francesco di Paola, by inviting the entire Italian American Community to our 34th "Festa Della Famiglia" at Casa Italia on August 6th through the 9th, 2015. The weekend long festivities begin with a Triduo in...
Retired Police Chief Peter Puleo shares his story
Let me introduce the readers to, as they say, "a guy from the neighborhood," Peter J. Puleo. Peter served as a public servant, a police officer in a suburban community for the best part of his career. He also was a college professor. And now, in addition to these distinguished accomplishments, he became an author — a really talented author. His gr...
Combonis to honor Serpico
The Comboni Mission Center will honor Jo Ann Serpico on Nov. 26 at Porretta's Banquets in Chicago. (708-354-1999). Jo Ann's prominence in the Chicago-area Italian-American community is a testament to her late father, Joseph R. Salerno. One of the founders of the Rosario D. Salerno Sons Funeral Homes, he was an early organizer of the Chicago-area It...
Chrysler Group’s Sergio Marchionne Addresses Industry Leaders at 2013 SAE World Congress Annual Banquet
Chrysler Group LLC's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne addressed more than 1,000 automotive leaders at the 2013 SAE World Congress Annual Banquet today, at COBO Center in Detroit about the need to evolve the industry's business models as well as defining a path that would produce the innovation needed to grow the auto industry...
The “Little Italies” of Michigan
In doing reseach for this post, I was sure that Italian immigrants found their way to Detroit, because it was a major industrial center that offered job opportunities the immigrants were seeking in coming to America. What totally surprised me was the number of immigrants who settled in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A land totally different from...
Italian Heritage Festival honors two longtime Lorain business owners
Two longtime Lorain business owners and members of the Italian-American Veterans Post 1, 4567 Oberlin Ave. in Lorain, will be honored at an upcoming celebration. Marie Bonaminio and Baldo Campana will be spotlighted at the fourth annual Festival of Italian Heritage starting at noon on Oct. 11 with festivities continuing through 6 p.m. at t...
Columbus Italian Festival has aroma, amore
by Lori Kurtzman We'll talk about the sights of the Columbus Italian Festival — the sausage selfies, the BONGRNO license plate, the woman in cherry red heels navigating the brick streets — but, first, can we talk about the smell? It doesn't hit you right away. As you make your way to the festival's 4th Street entrance, there's barely...
"Amore: The Story of Italian American Song" by Mark Rotella
"AMORE: The Story of Italian American Song"By Mark RotellaFarrar, Straus & Giroux, 320 pages, $26.00 1947 was a splendid year for Italian Americans. For decades, Italian immigrants, especially those from the poorer southern regions, were feared, discriminated against, even lynched on occasion. Then suddenly the whole country was going...