Cultural Center

Italian American Experience

Hofstra University gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Long Island Regional Chapter of the Italian American Studies Association and the Association of Italian American Educator, Cav. Josephine Maietta, president.

We are pleased to welcome the community, including family members, local schoolchildren, alumni and friends, to athletic and cultural events on campus. All events are free and open to the public. Please register in advance at events.hofstra.edu.

Spring 2024

Renowned Italian American film and television writers
in conversation with Riccardo Costa

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Hofstra University

The screenwriters will talk about their writing experiences and the impact of their heritage on the writing process. The speakers welcome deep conversations with students who aim to become writers and want to learn how to balance their heritage with the final product.

Monday, March 25, 4:20 p.m.
André Aciman - THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED

 Author, Harvard Square, Call Me by Your Name, and Eight White Nights, Aciman wrote a memoir Out of Egypt and Distinguished Professor of French, Comparative Literature, Biography and Memoir at CUNY Graduate Center

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Andre Aciman

Monday, April 22, 4:20 p.m.
Tom Fontana

Emmy Award winning writer and producer, known for Copper (2012),
Borgia (2011), Oz (1997), Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) and St. Elsewhere (1982)

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Tom Fontana

Location for both lectures: Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

Lecture Series Director:
Dr. Stanislao Pugliese, Professor of History
Queensboro Unico Distinguished Professor of Italian and Italian American Studies
Hofstra University

The Italian American Experience Lecture Series is supported in part by the Association of Italian American Educators, Cav. Josephine Maietta, president, and the Long Island Regional Chapter of the Italian American Studies Association, Dr. Anne Romano, president.


See our Virtual Events Calendar for the most up-to-date information.

For More Information

For more information, call the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669, Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-3:45 p.m. or visit events.hofstra.edu for the most up to date information. Programs subject to change.

Past Events

ITALIAN AMERICAN TV and FILM WRITERS
Crafting an Ethnicity:
Italian American TV and Film Writers

A series of three experience lectures with Riccardo Costa,
Adjunct Instructor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Hofstra University
in conversation with renown Italian American film and television writers.

The screenwriters will talk about their experience of writing as Italian Americans and the impact of their heritage in the writing process. The panelists will entertain a deep conversation with students who aim to become writers and how to balance their heritage with the final product.

Thursday, October 12, 6:30 p.m.
Being Italian, being a woman, being a writer for TV

Anna Theresa Cascio Award-winning Television Writer and Playwright
Award-winning writer for the soap operas General Hospital and formerly for All My Children.

WATCH EVENT VIDEO
 

Thursday, November 2, 6:30 p.m.
Breaking down stereotypes

Victor Colicchio, Actor and Screenwriter
Actor, screenwriter, musician, and songwriter. His screenwriting credits include Summer of Sam.

View Event Photos
Watch Event Video
 

Tuesday November 14, 6:30 p.m.
From Script to Shooting: Where the Heritage Comes to Play

Adam Bernstein is an American film director, music video director and television director.  He is known for his work on Breaking Bad and  Better Call Saul. He is a recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series for his work on 30 Rock and an MTV Award (Love Shack), a Peabody Award (Homicide - Life on the Street), and a Good Citizenship Medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution (1973).

WATCH EVENT VIDEO
 

Remembering the Heart: Memoir and Poetry

 

Tuesday, March 7, 6:30 p.m.
The Gift of Thanksgiving
Paula Curci

Nassau County Poet Laureate
Poet In Residence and Host, Calliope’s Corner - The Place Where Poets and Songwriters Meet and What’s the Buzz®, WRHU-88.7 FM, Radio Hofstra University

 

Tuesday, March 28, 6:30 p.m.
Poetry From the Heart: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Rita Monte

Poet and Host, Profumi d’Italia – (Essence of Italy), WHPC-90.3 FM, Nassau Community College
Author, Tapestry Poetry and other Musings (forthcoming 2023.)

 

Tuesday, April 11, 6:30 p.m.
Luigi Fontanella, Italian Poet and Novelist
Luigi Fontanella

Professor Emeritus, Stony Brook University
Author, Raccontare la poesia (2021, literary criticism, in Italian); Adolescence and Night (2021, bilingual poetry); and The God of New York (2022, novel, in English)

View Photos from Event
 

Tuesday, May 2, 6:30 p.m.
Walking Amoeba: Memoirs of a Long Island Fat Kid
George Guida

Professor of English, New York City College of Technology/CUNY
Director, The Finger Lakes Arts Series
Author, The Pope Stories and Other Tales of Troubled Times (2012) and the poetry collection Zen of Pop (2020)

 

Books will be available for purchase and signing by the authors.

Location for all lectures:
Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

Admission is FREE and open to the public.
Advance registration required. To RSVP, visit events.hofstra.edu.

For more information, please call the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669 or visit hofstra.edu/culture.

Lecture Series Director:
Dr. Stanislao Pugliese, Professor of History
Queensboro Unico Distinguished Professor of Italian and Italian American Studies
Hofstra University

The Italian American Experience Lecture Series is supported in part by the Association of Italian American Educators, Cav. Josephine Maietta, president, and the Long Island Regional Chapter of the Italian American Studies Association, Dr. Anne Romano, president.

A Century of Antifascism in Italy and America, 1922-2022

Tuesday, October 11, 6:30 p.m. 
The Italian Antifascist Resistance, 1922-1945 

Thursday, October 20, 6:30 p.m. 
Women and Jews in the Italian Resistance 

Thursday, October 27, 6:30 p.m.
Modern Antifascism: Antifa in America and Europe

Presenter: Stanislao Pugliese, Professor of History and the Queensboro-UNICO Foundation Distinguished Professorship in Italian and Italian American Studies, Hofstra University 

Location for all events: 
Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater 
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus 

Advance registration is required

For more information and to RSVP, visit events.hofstra.edu or email hofculctr@hofstra.edu.

 

Wednesday and Thursday November 2 and 3, 2022
ANTI-FASCISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY CONFERENCE

Thursday, October 6, 6:30 p.m.
Film Screening: Made by Immigrants 

For more information visit ANTI-FASCISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY CONFERENCE


Thursday, October 6, 6:30-9 p.m.
Film Screening and Discussion: Made by Immigrants

A Documentary Film by Carlo Gennarelli

Made by Immigrants is an international award-winning documentary written and directed by Hofstra professor and 14-time Emmy Award winner, Carlo Gennarelli. As the American son of Italian immigrants, he has crafted an autobiographical film tracing Italian American heritage through a multi-faceted narrative. Upon screening Made by Immigrant  Italian film historian Ciro Borrelli noted, “Carlo Gennarelli’s documentary is wonderful. An excellent mix between his family history and the migratory flows during the first half of the twentieth century. It is also an intense love story, born in Italy just emerging from the rubble of the Second World War and spanning its reach beyond the vast Atlantic Ocean.” The film’s audiences, both in Italy and America, have been moved by this film’s search for self-discovery, and have identified with its global themes of ancestry and immigration.

Discussion to follow film screening facilitated by the film’s director, Radio, Television, Film (RTVF) Carlo Gennarelli, associate professor and Chairperson, Rodney F. Hill, Radio, Television and Film, Hofstra University.

Co-sponsored by the Hofstra Cultural Center and the Department of Radio, Television and Film in the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication.

Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

 

Monday, November 14, 2022, at 7 p.m. 

VINCE TEMPERA - FROM FELLINI TO TARANTINO

Music, stories and legends of Italian cinema

After the Americans, the Italians are the composers who have received the most Oscars in music in the world. 

This is the common thread of the show, through which the public will be able to listen to the melodies of the authors who have made Italy great in the world. 

The Helene Fortunoff Theater, Monroe Lecture Center
California Avenue, South Campus

 

Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Fifty Years of Commentary and Controversy

Francis Ford Coppola, one of Hofstra’s distinguished alumni, was a controversial choice to direct Paramount’s film The Godfather, based on Mario Puzo’s 1969 blockbuster novel. Winner of the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo), it was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1990, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The American Film Institute ranks the movie the second greatest film in American cinema behind Citizen Kane.

Join us as we revisit the film, its two sequels, attendant controversies, and its enduring hold on the public’s imagination.

 

Tuesday, March 29, 6:30 p.m.
The Enduring Mythos of The Godfather After 50 Years
Stanislao Pugliese, Professor of History, Hofstra University

Tuesday, April 12, 6:30 p.m.
Coppola’s Cinematic Artistry in The Godfather, Parts I and II
Rodney F. Hill, Associate Professor of Radio, Television, Film, Hofstra University

Thursday, April 14, 6:30 p.m.
Deconstructing Dagotude: Rereading “The Godfather Trilogy” by Confronting the Aporias
Through Which Coppola Constructs the Italian American Master Narrative ̶ With Emphasis on The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone

Pellegrino D’Acierno, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, Hofstra University

Location for all events:
Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

For more information and to RSVP, visit events.hofstra.edu or email hofculctr@hofstra.edu.

An American Tragedy:
Remembering the Saga of Sacco and Vanzetti

Marc Blitzstein’s Opera Sacco and Vanzetti

A virtual Retrospective Preview presented on Zoom by composer/conductor Leonard Lehrman and Benjamin Spierman, General Director, Bronx OperaMarc Blitzstein (born 1905) was an opera and theater composer who, at the time of his death was working on Sacco and Vanzetti, commissioned by the Ford Foundation and optioned by the Metropolitan Opera. The work was completed and conducted by Leonard Lehrman at the White Barn Theatre in 2001.

The presentation includes intermission discussions with singers including Hofstra University faculty member Gregory Mercer.

Tuesday, October 19, 6:30 p.m.
Introduction by Professor Mary Anne Trasciatti, Hofstra University
Video of Act I; interview with singers; video of Act II Scenes 1-3; interview with singers.

Thursday, October 21, 6:30 p.m.
Introduction by Professor Stanislao Pugliese, Hofstra University
Video of Act II Scenes 4-5; interview with singers; Act III; interviews on the political issues of the opera.

Virtual; advance registration is required. Registrants will receive an email with the link to join the event.

 

Tuesday, October 26, 6:30 p.m.
In-person Film Screening:  SACCO AND VANZETTI

The tragedy and execution of anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1920-27) came to symbolize the bigotry and intolerance directed at immigrants and dissenters in America. A century later, the story continues to have great resonance, as America once again grapples with issues of civil liberties and the rights of immigrants.

Introduction by Peter Miller, Director
Discussion facilitated by Stanislao Pugliese, Lecture Series Director
Professor of History and Queensboro Unico Distinguished Professor of Italian and Italian American Studies, Hofstra University

Location: Leo A Guthart Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor
South Campus

This project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by Huntington Arts Council.  Support has also come from The Puffin Foundation and The Prof. Edgar H. Lehrman Memorial Foundation for Ethics, Religion, Science and the Arts. 

The Italian American Experience Lecture Series is supported in part, by the Association of Italian American Educators, Cav. Josephine Maietta, President and the Long Island Regional Chapter of the Italian American Studies Association

For more information and to RSVP, visit events.hofstra.edu or email hofculctr@hofstra.edu.

Thursday, February 18, 6:30 p.m.
Whaddyacall the Wind? Comesichiamail Vento?
With Author and performance Artist Annie Lanzillotto

Annie Lanzillotto reads new works – creative nonfiction and poetry yielded from a sojourn in southern Italy. The art of yelling, Pulcinella, the secret to why laundry doesn’t drip on your head in Napoli, alleyways, and accordions, how a New Yorker learns to walk on the San Pietrini, standing on the spot at the Madonina where Grandma left the motherland, finding the gay community in the paese, gaps in the family tree – an LGBTQ Perspective, a meditation on women who sell wind to sailors. Lanzillotto bunks heads with time, journeying through the heel of the boot where she meets ancestors, gravediggers, grape growers, a saint who sees ecstasies in stirring fava beans, and a lady in red walking a long hot road of figs, olive trees, and stone walls. Lanzillotto asks of the coin-op parking meter: Does an hour cost a quarter, or does it cost you your life? Some clocks can’t be re-set. Bronx street metaphors abound.

 

Tuesday, March 16, 2:30 p.m.
Visual Presentation: An American Integration into Italy Through Painting
Naples and the Amalfi Coast - the Horizons and Colors of Identity with Artist William Papaleo

New York-born artist, William Papaleo has spent the last 35 years living and painting the beauty of Naples and Southern Italy and has given attention to the new wave of immigrants and their voyage and integration into Italian society. He will present his paintings and his personal history – from his father Joseph Papaleo's writing of the Italian American experience to the development of his own paintings and his interviews with the new immigrants coming to Italy. Southern Italy's complexity as a land of myth, landscape, struggle, and transformation will be explored through his painting.

 

Tuesday, April 13, 6:30 p.m.
Film Screening and Commentary:
"Arrangiarsi (Pizza...and the Art of Living)"
with Director Matteo Troncone

Join us for a screening of Matteo Troncone's love letter to Naples from olive oil to street artists, to the making of his eight-years-long project. This inspiring film combines a healthy smattering of foodie passion, little-known Italian history, and quirky Neapolitans to tell the tale of one man's journey to find himself...and his search for the "greatest pizza on earth."

A Q&A discussion will follow the film screening.
"The movie's energy, ebullience, vivid scenery, and pizza porn keep us watching. — The Los Angeles Times

 

Reflections on a Past Darkness and Present Hope in Italy

Tuesday, October 20, 7 p.m.
The Books of the Roman Ghetto Under the Nazi Occupation

In September 1943, the Nazis occupied Rome. A month later, a special unit of the SS paid a visit to the Synagogue and Rabbinical College. Returning the next day, they confiscated thousands of valuable and irreplaceable books and manuscripts, some dating back to the Middle Ages, and sent the collections to Frankfurt. The fate of the libraries is one of the lesser-known stories of World War II.

Speaker: Stanislao Pugliese, professor of modern European history and the Queensboro UNICO Distinguished Professor of Italian and Italian American Studies

This is a Virtual Event. Advance registration is required.


Italy's Third Golden Age
Thursday, November 12, 7 p.m.

Italy is the only country to give the world not just one, but three Golden Ages. A fascinating exploration of how Italy rose from the ashes and devastation of WWII to usher in its unprecedented third Golden Age. You will discover how Italy morphed from the face of Il Duce to the face of La Dolce Vita and how “Brand Italy” came to conquer the world through passion and excellence in the realms of film, fashion and design, gastronomy, and viticulture.

Speaker: Carla Gambescia, lecturer and author, La Dolce Vita University: An Unconventional Guide to Italian Culture From A-Z

This is a virtual event. Advance registration is required.

 

Tuesday, February 11
The Alchemy of Italy

What is it about Italy? Cultural superpower yet merely a mountainous Mediterranean peninsula, Italy has exerted an outsized force in the world, Western civilization, and the popular imagination over the course of the millennia. Explore the special alchemy of Italy and the “cultural DNA” that has made Italy not only influential, but also so beloved. An inspiring lecture in which you will discover fascinating insights about the “Boot’s” long history of substance over size.


Tuesday, March 10
Leading Ladies of the Renaissance

Discover the lives and legacies of Italy's “Renaissance Women” and those of several unheralded women who inspired some of the greatest artwork of all time. An uplifting and illuminating program examining the evolution of the perceptions of women from Roman and Medieval times through the Renaissance, the inflection point when our concept of today’s modern woman began to take shape. You will discover the stories of women such as Isabella D’Este, Vittoria Colonna, and Artemisia Gentileschi whose lives and accomplishments still inspire us today while you also gain fresh perspectives on some of the Renaissance’s most beloved artists and paintings. 

In recognition of International Women’s Month.


Thursday, April 16, 7 p.m.
Italy’s Third Golden Age - CANCELLED

Italy is the only country to give the world not just one, but three Golden Ages. A fascinating exploration of how Italy rose from the ashes and devastation of WWII to usher in its unprecedented third Golden Age. You will discover how Italy morphed from the face of Il Duce to the face of La Dolce Vita and how “Brand Italy” came to conquer the world through passion and excellence in the realms of film, fashion and design, gastronomy, and viticulture. 

Speaker: Carla Gambescia, lecturer and award-winning author, La Dolce Vita University: An Unconventional Guide to Italian Culture from A-Z

Location for all events: Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library

For more information, call the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669 or visit hofstra.edu/culture.

ITALIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE LECTURE SERIES
presents
LOOK AGAIN: Old and New Films in Italian Studies 

Tuesday, September 24, 7 p.m.
Film Screening: Assunta Spina (1915)

Live musical score performed by John T. LaBarbera, guitar, and Susan Aquila, violin
A silent black and white film classic from Naples, based on the play by Salvatore DiGiacomo, starring the queen and diva of the Italian silent cinema, Francesca Bertini. The operatic tale of love and sacrifice in working-class, turn-of-the-century Naples is considered one of the first films of Italian neorealism. Bertini’s performance sets a new standard for Italian cinema. The new musical film score created by LaBarbera creates an intimate atmosphere by keeping an accompaniment of emotions found in the melodic themes of the characters in a leitmotif style that highlights the melodramatic and picturesque style of the film.
Presented in collaboration with Hofstra University Professor Rodney Hill’s History of Film class. 


Thursday, October 24, 7 p.m.
Film Screening: War Cellar

Directed by Giovanni Pugliese, writer, producer
Set in Rome during the end of World War II, an American soldier and an Italian woman must find a way to trust one another to survive. A German attack on the city forces a wounded American soldier to seek shelter in a cellar. There, he realizes that he is not alone. He is accompanied by Lucrezia, an Italian woman in her early 30s, who happens to be the daughter of the king of Italy. Both have one thing in common: The guilt that is bearing on their souls. 


Wednesday, November 20, 7 p.m. 
Film Screening: Il Signor Jackson

Directed by Anton Evangelista, Comprehensive Films
Award-winning filmmaker Anton Evangelista travels from the Bronx to Perugia, Italy, in presenting the documentary Il Signor Jackson. It is the unique American story of Edward Jackson, an African American man raised in a predominantly Italian American Bronx neighborhood in the 1950s. Jackson went on to become an educator in the New York City Public School system and prominent cultural figure of Italian biculturalism and bilingualism.

The Italian American Lecture Series is supported, in part, by the Association of Italian American Educators.

Location for all events: Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library

For more information, please call the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669 or visit hofstra.edu/culture.

Hofstra University gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Long Island Regional Chapter of the Italian American Studies Association and the Association of Italian American Educator, Cav. Josephine Maietta, president.

All events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise indicated.
Advance registration is requested.

Reservations will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please contact the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669.


Tuesday, March 26, 7 p.m.
Italian Literature in the United States

This presentation is based on research that led to the book Un biculturalismo negato: la letteratura “italiana” negli Stati Uniti (Franco Cesati Editore, 2018). Anthony J. Tamburri examines five writers who live in the United States and write prose and poetry in Italian. Questions posed include: Where does “Italian” end and “Italian American” begin? What are the issues raised by language? What relationship exists between literature in Italian written in Italy and literature in Italian written elsewhere?

Speaker:
Anthony J. Tamburri
Dean, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute
Queens College, CUNY
Distinguished Professor of European Languages and Literatures


Thursday, April 18, 7 p.m.
Angels in the Flesh

Lynne Lawner will discuss “the splendors and miseries” of Renaissance Italian courtesans, major figures in the cultural and social life of the era, above all in Rome and Venice. Muses and models for great writers and artists were noted for their own poetry, musical talent, and conversation.

Speaker:
Lynne Lawner
Independent Scholar
Author, Lives of the Courtesans: Portraits of the Renaissance and Harlequin on the Moon: Commedia dell’Arte and the Visual Arts
Editor of Antonio Gramsci’s Letters From Prison


Tuesday, April 23, 7 p.m.
Delirious Naples

Dr. Stanislao Pugliese discusses his new book, Delirious Naples: A Cultural History of the City of the Sun, based on the Hofstra Cultural Center conference held in 2011. The book, edited with Dr. Pellegrino D’Acierno, boasts two dozen essays by leading scholars, writers, and artists. The lecture includes images of Naples and a discussion focusing on the renaissance of the city and its relationship with New York City. Special guest speaker, Massimiliano Verde, will discuss international promotion and teaching the Neapolitan language and cultural heritage.

Speaker:
Dr. Stanislao Pugliese, professor of History, Queensboro Unico, and distinguished professor of Italian and Italian American Studies
Hofstra University
Massimiliano Verde, president, Accademia Napoletana

Location for all lectures: Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library

Hofstra University gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Long Island Regional Chapter of the Italian American Studies Association and the Association of Italian American Educator, Cav. Josephine Maietta, president.

All events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise indicated. Advance registration is requested.

Reservations will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please contact the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669.


ITALIAN-AMERICAN WOMEN, POLITICS, AND RECENT IMMIGRATION

Tuesday, October 23, 7 p.m.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and Monument

Speaker: Dr. Mary Anne Trasciatti, associate professor, Department of Writing Studies and Rhetoric
Hofstra University
Director, Superstorm Sandy Oral History Project
Long Beach, NY
President, The Triangle Factory Fire Coalition Inc.

Tuesday, October 30, 7 p.m.
Frank Serpico (2017)
A Film by Antonino D’Ambrosio

In his own words, Frank Serpico tells the story of his one-man crusade for police reform in the NYPD during the early 1970s.

Speaker: Antonino D’Ambrosio, filmmaker, author, visual artist
“A finely etched and fascinating documentary.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“A wondrous portrait.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Released by IFC Films Sundance Selects, playing in theaters, on-demand, and on Hulu now!

 

Thursday, November 1, 7 p.m.
Monuments, Memory, and the Italian-American Community:
Columbus, Italo Balbo, and Beyond

Events in Charlottesville, Virginia, have reignited a long-standing debate over how the past should be remembered in public spaces. Italian Americans have a responsibility to participate in the larger national conversation about how to remember their history and experiences in the United States. Professor Fraser Ottanelli will explore the relationship between memory, identity, and politics by focusing the debate surrounding statues of Christopher Columbus and the ancient Roman column commemorating the 1933 transatlantic flight of fascist aviator Italo Balbo in Chicago.

Speaker:  Fraser Ottanelli
University of South Florida

Tuesday, November 13, 7 p.m.
New Italian Migrations to the United States From 1945 to Present

The presentation will highlight the two-volume collection, New Italian Migrations to the United States (University of Illinois Press, 2017), which offers a radical rethinking of the history of Italian Americans. The books’ editors will discuss how the continual immigration from Italy over the past 70 years has influenced immigration laws, impacted local communities, contributed to consumer culture, and continues to reboot Italian American and U.S. culture in unfolding ways.

Speakers: Laura E. Ruberto
Berkeley City College
Joseph Sciorra
Queens College, CUNY

The Italian American Experience Lecture Series is presented by the Hofstra Cultural Center and supported, in part, by the Association of Italian American Educators.

Location for all lectures, unless otherwise noted: Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library

Hofstra University gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Long Island Regional Chapter of the Italian American Studies Association and the Association of Italian American Educator, Cav. Josephine Maietta, president.

All events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise indicated. Advance registration is requested.

Reservations will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please contact the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669.


Bread, Roses, and Fire: Italian American Women at Home and Abroad

Tuesday, February 27, 7 p.m.

A film screening of Brooklyn Roses by Christine Noschese. Professor Christine Noschese is an Emmy Award-winning writer, director, and producer of both narrative and documentary films. In Brooklyn Roses, Professor Noschese blends documentary and fiction to reexamine her childhood and her mother’s feminist struggles in 1950s and ’60s working-class Brooklyn. The film had its world premiere at the 2017 Fic Autor (Author’s International Film Festival) in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, where it was awarded best documentary feature.

Read more about Brooklyn Roses

Speaker:  Christine Noschese, associate professor, Department of Radio, Television, Film, Hofstra University

Room 211 Breslin Hall, South Campus


Tuesday, March 13, 7 p.m. – POSTPONED
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and Monument

Speaker:  Dr. Mary Anne Trasciatti, associate professor and chair, Department of Writing Studies and Rhetoric, Hofstra University
Director, Superstorm Sandy Oral History Project, Long Beach, NY
President, The Triangle Factory Fire Coalition Inc.

Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library


Tuesday, April 3, 7 p.m.
When the War Came to Pulcherini: Italian Americans and the Italian Campaign, 1943-1945

Speaker:  Dr. Angela Danzi
Professor Emerita of Sociology, Farmingdale State College, SUNY
Author, From Home to Hospital: Jewish and Italian American Women and Childbirth, 1920-1940

Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library

The Italian American Experience Lecture Series is presented by the Hofstra Cultural Center and supported, in part, by the Association of Italian American Educators and the Long Island Regional Chapter of the Italian American Studies Association.

Hofstra University gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Long Island Regional Chapter of the Italian American Studies Association and the Association of Italian American Educator, Cav. Josephine Maietta, president.

All events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise indicated. Advance registration is requested.

Reservations will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please contact the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669.


Celebrates the publication of
THE ROUTLEDGE HISTORY OF ITALIAN AMERICANS

Edited by William J. Connell and Stanislao G. Pugliese

The Routledge History of Italian Americans is a new, multi-authored history of one of the largest ethnic groups in America. Concentrating on themes ranging from immigration to religion, and labor rights to women’s rights, this collection reflects the field of Italian American studies as it exists now and brings out aspects of Italian American culture that make this ethnic group one of the most interesting in the American experience.

Tuesday, October 31, 7 p.m.
Italian American Studies After 50 Years

Speaker: Dr. Salvatore LaGumina
Professor Emeritus of History,
Nassau Community College, SUNY

Tuesday, November 14, 7 p.m.
Why Italian Americans Need a New History

Speaker: Dr. William J. Connell
Professor of History and Joseph and Geraldine LaMotta Chair in Italian Studies
Seton Hall University

Tuesday, November 21, 7 p.m.
The Future of Our Past

Speaker: Dr. Stanislao G. Pugliese, professor of History and Queensboro UNICO Distinguished Professor of Italian and Italian American Studies
Hofstra University  

Location for all lectures: Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library

Presented by the Hofstra Cultural Center and supported, in part, by the Association of Italian American Educators.

Hofstra University gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Long Island Regional Chapter of the Italian American Studies Association and the Association of Italian American Educator, Cav. Josephine Maietta, president.

All events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise indicated. Advance registration is requested.

Reservations will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please contact the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669.


FROM ELLIS ISLAND TO YANKEE STADIUM:
ITALIAN AMERICAN IMMIGRATION,FAMILIES, AND SPORT

Tuesday, March 7, 7 p.m.
DiDonato and Puzo Classics: La Famiglia, From Cities to Suburbs

Tuesday, April 4, 7 p.m.
Generations: From Immigrant to Second, Third, Fourth — and Beyond "Salad Bowl" to "Melting Pot"

Tuesday, May 2, 7 p.m.
How the "Low" People Moved Up: Sports as Pathways to Wealth, Celebrity (Respect?)

Speaker for all three lectures: Michael D'Innocenzo, distinguished professor emeritus, Hofstra University.

Professor D'Innocenzo was named the Eugene Asher National Distinguished Teacher by the American Historical Association in 2008. Growing up in an immigrant enclave (13 people sharing his home), he went on to attend Columbia University and was named a Danforth Scholar and an Edward John Noble Leadership Fellow. He came to Hofstra in 1960 and developed the University's first course on immigration history, which led to the book American Immigration and Ethnicity: "Melting Pot" or "Salad Bowl"? (which he co-edited).

Location for all lectures: Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library

Presented by the Hofstra Cultural Center and supported, in part, by the Association of Italian American Educators.

IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT:
ITALY AND AMERICA IN FILM, MEMOIR, AND ACTIVISM

Tuesday, October 25, 7 p.m.
Author and Activist: The Daniela Gioseffi Story

A docudrama portraying a life-affirming struggle to make art of civil rights, democratic equality, and climate justice by prize-winning filmmaker, Anton EvangelistaDaniela Gioseffi, a pioneer of Italian American culture, recipient of an American Book Award, and author of 16 books of prose and poetry. Her career as a journalist in Selma, AL, during the civil rights movement. She was among the first to integrate Deep South TV and was abused by the KKK for her activism. Ms. Gioseffi’s immigrant father, an inventor in the electronics industry, inspired her tenacity. As a poor, hardworking young man, her father was among the first Italian immigrants to win a Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Psi from Union College.

Speakers: Daniela Gioseffi, writer, and Anton Evangelista, filmmaker, www.authorandactivist.com


Tuesday, November 1, 7 p.m.
Blaxploitalian: 100 Years of Blackness in the Italian Cinema

BlaxploItalian is a documentary that uncovers the careers of a population of entertainers seldom heard from before: Black actors in Italian cinema. BlaxploItalian cleverly discloses the personal struggles classic Afro-Italian and African diasporic actors faced, correlating it with the contemporary actors who work diligently to find respectable and significant roles. More than an unveiling of history, it is a call to action for increased diversity and esteem in international cinema.

Speaker: Fred Kuwornu, writer and director


Tuesday, December 6, 7 p.m.
Journey to the Heart’s Waters 
 

“Louisa Calio’s Journey to the Heart Waters is a searing personal work of eternal return and transformation. Calio sets out on a quest that unites southern Italy and east Africa through the image and bodies of the black madonnas who encourage her to seek, to question, to love, to grieve, to revel, and to dance. These poems are a profoundly poignant and well-earned liberation from all that is oppressive in the modern world.”—Stanislao Pugliese

Speakers:  Louisa Calio, author; Gaetano Cipolla, publisher; Nino Provenzano, poet

THREE DOCUMENTARIES
ON

HISTORY, CRAFTSMANSHIP, AND CONTEMPORARY ITALY

Tuesday, February 23, 7 p.m.
The Peasant and the Priest

The story of two elderly men whose ways of life have survived from medieval Italy. Sergio, a sharecropper, uses ancient farming methods that have become overshadowed by corporate agriculture, and Father Oreste Benzi, a Roman Catholic priest, fights the tide of sexual slavery. Both represent ways of life that are rapidly fading as the modern world closes in. The point of departure for exploring their parallel lives is the 14th century fresco, The Allegory of Good and Bad Government, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.

Speaker: Esther Podemski, producer and director


Tuesday, March 1, 7 p.m.
My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes

Directed by Oren Jacoby and narrated by Isabella Rossellini

With Robert Loggia as the voice of Gino Bartali

The story of how World War II bicycling idol Gino Bartali, physician Giovanni Borromeo, and other Italians worked with Jewish leaders and high-ranking officials of the Catholic Church, risking their lives by defying the Nazis to save thousands of Italy’s Jews.

Speaker: Stanislao G. Pugliese, Professor of History, Queensboro UNICO Distinguished Professor of Italian and Italian American Studies, Hofstra University


Tuesday, March 15, 7 p.m.
Men of the Cloth: Three Master Tailors - A Vanishing Craft

Directed by Vicki Vasilopoulos

This film offers an inspiring portrait of three Italian master tailors who confront the decline of the apprentice system as they navigate their challenging roles in the twilight of their careers. The film unravels the mystery of their artistry and reveals how their passionate devotion to their Old World craft is akin to a religion.

Speaker: Vicki Vasilopoulos, director


Location for all lectures: Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library

The Italian American Experience Lecture Series is presented by the Hofstra Cultural Center and supported, in part, by the Association of Italian American Educators.

 

Hofstra University gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Long Island Regional Chapter of the Italian American Studies Association and the Association of Italian American Educator, Cav. Josephine Maietta, president.

All events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise indicated. Advance registration is required.

Reservations will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please contact the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669.

FALL 2015
HOFSTRA CELEBRATES SINATRA

A century after his birth, Frank Sinatra still looms large in the American imagination and in our popular culture. Join us as we celebrate his 100th birthday and his extraordinary life and career with a series of lectures, interviews, and a master class followed by musical interludes by Hofstra students, professional singers, and musicians from The Great American Song Book. Featuring legendary musicians who played and toured with Frank Sinatra: Jerry Bruno, bass, D’Addario Foundation Visiting Artists; and Grammy Award-nominated jazz vocalist Jane Monheit; authors and biographers James Kaplan, David Evanier, and Will Friedwald; scholars John Gennari, University of Vermont, and Shalom Goldman, Middlebury College; journalists Sandy Kenyon, WABC-TV, Carol D’Auria, 1010 WINS, and Mark RotellaPublishers Weekly; multimedia journalist and founding member Greg Dunmore, National Association of Black Journalists; and Sal Scognamillo, Patsy’s Italian Restaurant.

Advance registration is required where indicated:

Tuesday, November 10, 7 p.m.
Gay Talese (Frank Sinatra Has a Cold and Other Essays) and Pete Hamill (Why Sinatra Matters) discuss “Sinatra As American Icon.


Wednesday, November 11
Bassist Jerry Bruno, who played and toured with Sinatra, will be interviewed at 5 p.m. by John Bohannon, host of WRHU-FM’s The Jazz Café. The interview is followed by an 8 p.m. master class.


Thursday, November 12, 4 p.m.
“Racism, Civil Rights, and Israel” focuses on Sinatra as a champion of civil rights and a staunch supporter of Israel. There will also be a screening of 1945’s The House I Live In, a short film opposing anti-Semitism, starring Sinatra.


Thursday, November 12, 7 p.m.
The Great American Songbook: Past, Present and Future is a panel that features musician, record producer, and songwriter David Finck; musical director, pianist, and arranger Tedd Firth; Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Jane Monheit; and Debbi Whiting, president of My Ideal Music.


Wednesday, November 18, 4 p.m.
“Lessons Learned From Sinatra” is a lecture and master class with radio personality Mark Simone.


Wednesday, November 18, 8 p.m.
Will Friedwald, music critic and author of Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer’s Art, presents “Sinatra: The Television Factor, with an introduction by Robert Foster, executive director of the Hoboken Historical Museum.


Thursday, November 19, 4 p.m.
“Frank Sinatra and Italian American Culture” features University of Vermont Professor John GennariJoe Scognamillo and Sal Scognamillo of Patsy’s Restaurant in New York City; author Mark Rotella; and scholar Rocco Marinaccio.


Thursday, November 19, 7:30 p.m.
“Assessing Frank Sinatra” features celebrity journalist Sandy Kenyon, music critic and author Will Friedwald, Sinatra biographer James Kaplan, radio host Ron Forman, and Bronx Opera Company Artistic Director Michael Spierman.


Sunday, November 22, 7 p.m.
The Peter B. Clark Memorial Scholarship Fund Concert Sinatra
Past, Present, and Future

Legendary Guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli
WILL NOT BE PERFORMING
(due to health reasons)
with guest artist, the legendary jazz guitarist extraordinaire, Rick Stone
featuring the
Hofstra Jazz Ensemble
Hofstra Vocal Jazz Quartet
and the
Sinatra Future Singers

(A free master class and open rehearsal with Rick Stone will be given at
4 p.m. prior to the evening performance. Interaction is limited to Hofstra students only.)

This performance takes place at the Helene Fortunoff Theater.
Tickets are $10, $8 for adult over 65 or non-Hofstra students with ID.
This event is sold out.

ITALIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE SERIES
Divertimenti: From a Female Renaissance Painter to Soccer in War-Torn Palermo to the Recipes of Italian American South Brooklyn

Tuesday, March 10, 7 p.m.
Sofonisba Anguissola: Neglected Renaissance Female Painter

Speakers:
Louis Barrella, NYC Department of Education; Louis Leonini, St. John’s University; Snjezana Smodlaka, Rutgers University

Recognized by Michelangelo, Sofonisba Anguissola became a court painter for King Philip II of Spain and lady-in-waiting to the king’s third wife, Elisabeth of Valois. This presentation explores Sofonisba Anguissola’s expertise as an artist, as well as her intelligence, determination, and independent spirit. Historical perspectives and a connection to Verdi’s Don Carlo round out this diverse presentation of art, music, history, culture, and real-life escapades.


Tuesday, April 21, 7 p.m.
The Macaroni’s in the Basement: Stories and Recipes, South Brooklyn 1947

Speaker:
Fran Claro, independent author

You can almost smell the aroma of roasting garlic and hear the laughter of the nonnas punctuating their daily conversations about the truly important things in life – family, faith, and the best way to prepare roast pork! Fran Claro serves up a savory slice of Americana, complete with mouth-watering recipes straight from the nonnas of Brooklyn. The Macaroni’s in the Basement is a treat for the soul and for the taste buds.


Tuesday, April 28, 7 p.m.
Life Is a Great Game

Speaker:         
Salvatore Cottone
, independent author

A work of historical fiction based on an actual soccer match that occurred near Palermo on July 10, 1943, the same day the Allied forces invaded Sicily during World War II – based on a story retold by the only player still alive among both teams. Many factual details are included on subjects ranging from ancient mythology, art history, and literature, to the sociological bases and consequences of emigration across many decades of the Sicilian experience. 


Location for all lectures: Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library

ITALIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE SERIES
New Books on Italian Americana

Luigi Bianco, chief carver of Mount Rushmore (1933-1940)

Speaker: Douglas Gladstone
The author speaks about his book, Carving a Niche for Himself:
The Untold Story of Luigi Del Bianco
 (Bordighera Books, 2014) and
the Italian immigrant's largely forgotten role in creating the monument.
Tuesday, September 16, 7 p.m.

Orange Peels and Cobblestones

Speaker: Rose Marie Calicchio Dunphy, independent author
In her debut novel, Orange Peels and Cobblestones (2013) the author
follows Marietta, "who from her early childhood days in Italy to her life as a
young wife and mother in Brooklyn… is haunted by hard questions from her past."
Tuesday, October 7, 7 p.m.

The Kennedy Assassination and Organized Crime

Speaker: Stefano Vaccara, Lehman College/CUNY, editor in chief, La Voce di New York
Over 50 years after the assassination of JFK questions linger as to the identity
of his assassin. The author delves into the alleged role of the reputed New Orleans
organized crime boss in his book, Carlos Marcello: The Man Behind the JFK Assassination (Enigma Books, 2013)
Tuesday, October 14, 7 p.m.

Tweeting Da Vinci

Speaker: Ann Pizzorusso is a geologist-naturalist whose first book uses the Renaissance genius to explore Italy’s underground secrets that have confounded people since the dawn of time: from the gateway to the underworld to the stairway to heaven and the gems described by Dante in the Divine Comedy.
Wednesday, November 19, 11:30 a.m.

Clash of Civilizations in Italy

Speaker: Amara Lakhous, author, Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, examines the theme of identity through the descriptions of idiosyncrasies in multicultural Italy by way of a story of a murder in Rome.
Tuesday, December 2, 9:30 a.m.

ITALIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE SERIES
The Italian American Past: The Personal and the Political

Waiting for Yesterday

A revealing picture of Parenti's early years as a youth in New York's East Harlem, along with some of the influences that helped shape his lifelong commitment to activism and social justice.

Speaker: Michael Parenti, political scientist, historian, and cultural critic
Author, Waiting for Yesterday: Pages from a Street Kid's Life, 2013

Date: Tuesday, February 11

ETHNICITY AND MULTICULTURALISM IN CONTEMPORARY ITALY

Film Viewings led by Italian Ghanaian Filmmaker Fred Kuwornu

Fred Kuwornu, film director and activist, will present two of his acclaimed documentaries and conduct a question and answer session after each screening.

Date: Wednesday, February 12

Finding the Motherlode: Italian Immigrants in California

Through stories set in seven Italian communities throughout California, this film examines how economic and social mobility became possible for many Italians in the Golden State. It is also a look at how immigrant identity is maintained and transformed as immigrants become assimilated into mainstream America.

Speakers: Gianfrano Norelli and Suma Kurien, directors

Date: Tuesday, March 11

Umberto E

Award-winning filmmaker Anton Evangelista's heartwarming documentary about the epic story of Umberto Evangelista, a dynamic and charming 90-year-old Italian immigrant.

Speaker: Anton Evangelista, filmmaker and director

Date: Tuesday, April 1

Time and location for all lectures:
7 p.m.
Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater
Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus

Admission: Free

Hofstra University gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Long Island Regional Chapter of the Italian American Studies Association (www.italianamerican studies.net) and the Association of Italian American Educators, Cav. Josephine Maietta, President.