After flooding, pandemic, Italian club reopens
First came the flood. In February 2020, three pipes burst at the Italian Community Center, sending 180,000 gallons of water flowing through the building at 302 Rantoul St. By the time the water could be turned off, the interior was completely destroyed. Next up? The COVID-19 pandemic, which arrived in force the following month. Several members of t...
Festa Italiana Taking Place June 10 in Waltham
Come One, Come All! Cheers everyone! The much-acclaimed Festa Italiana, an Italian style festival, is returning to the (Waltham Common): 610 Main St. Waltham, MA 02452. Saturday, June 10, 2023 (10 am – 5m). (Rain date June 11th). Come and enjoy a fun-filled day of live entertainment; music; dancing; food; crafts; children’s amusements; games and ac...
Radio Giant John LaBarca Passes Away, Famed For Italian House Party
John LaBarca, the jovial giant of radio who spread love for his Italian heritage with his flagship Sunday show Italian House Party on several area radio stations most prominently WICC, has passed away, according to posts on his Facebook page. He was 76. Born in Brooklyn, New York, LaBarca landed a captain’s job at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan...
The Yale University Art Gallery Receives Gift of Italian Works on Paper—the Largest Private Collection of 19th-Century Italian Drawings
The Yale University Art Gallery announces the extraordinary gift/purchase of more than 190 late 18th- and 19th-century Italian drawings, watercolors, and sketchbooks from the collection of Roberta J. M. Olson and Alexander B. V. Johnson. Comprising over 400 individual sheets, this superb trove is among the finest in private hands anywhere in the w...
For New Haven's Italian immigrants, the village took care of its own
It was always important for families to keep their personal issues in the family. When something went wrong, or a difficult time was encountered; the family came together to help each other. This attitude of self-reliance was instilled in the cultural practices that many of the immigrants understood from their own family experiences back in the vil...
Johnston adopts Christopher Columbus
Scrap metal or monument? Johnston picks the latter. Removed from its Providence pedestal in 2020 and locked away in storage, a 130-year-old statue depicting Christopher Columbus will be re-erected in Johnston’s War Memorial Park in October. In the 1890s, the same French artist who sculpted the Statue of Liberty — Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi — crafte...
Ermano & Luigi Paolucci: Two Italian Immigrant Potters In Peabody, Mass.
The second book in my New England pottery book series, The Moses B. Paige Company: The Last of the Peabody Potteries (published by Historic Beverly, 2020), told the story of Moses Paige (1847/48-1941), who was born in Weare, N.H., before he moved to Winthrop, Maine, for school, around the age of ten. Once he reached adulthood, Paige became a farmer...
Returning the Columbus Statue to its Pedestal
Hi, the Italian-American Defense League Monument Task Force and IADL members want unity and justice. We believe on June 24, 2020, the City of New Haven illegally removed Wooster Square's Columbus statue. That day the protests of 50 or more people of Italian descent were ignored when the city lifted the statue off its pedestal and placed it face-dow...
Getting to Know Your Neighborhood: The North End
Unofficially known as Boston’s “Little Italy,” the North End is one of the Hub’s smallest neighborhoods—a one-square-mile area jutting into Boston Harbor. But it has played an outsized role in the city’s cultural, historical, and culinary history. Within convenient walking distance of Government Center, it’s Boston’s oldest residential area, with a...
Paolino selects Johnston as new home for Columbus statue
The former Christopher Columbus statue that was vandalized numerous times in Providence before being taken down will find a new home in Johnston. Former Providence Mayor Joe Paolino, who bought the statue in March, announced Johnston will be the new home as a way for the town to celebrate the Italian community. “I am thankful that Mayor Polisena Jr...
Made in Connecticut: Brookfield author Terri-Lynne DeFino talks family, food as inspiration for new book
"Family is at least as important as food," says Brookfield-based author Terri-Lynne DeFino. That's just part of the message behind her latest offering, "Varina Palladino's Jersey Italian Love Story." The book was inspired by her own family experience, growing up in an Italian-American household in New Jersey. "Any get-together we have... everybody...
Anniversary Gala of the Vermont Italian Cultural Association
Anniversary Gala of the Vermont Italian Cultural Association (VICA) celebrating 40 years of service to the community. Outstanding commitment to the preservation of Italian heritage and traditions and to the promotion of Italian culture in Vermont. Discovering Burlington’s “Little Italy”, the two farms Agricola Farm and Shelburne Farm. Productive me...