The Italian Radio Hour

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - Grazia D'Annunzio joins us to talk about Italian Fashion through her recent production "Italian Fashion from A to Z" available for free on YouTube. Each week, Grazia presents a different designer in a concise, informative and engaging way providing enough information to want to rewatch each episode twice or...watch a few more at the time!  

Watch our video interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UuiFgHOqLt4

For more information: Istituto Mondo Italiano: www.istitutomondoitaliano.org Italian Fashion from A to Z: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJwMxUCxY04akTxv8a8dY4Q

This week on The Italian Radio Hour  in Conversation with Laura Caparrotti, Director and Writer of "Tutti in Scena", the first documentary about the history of the beginning of the Italian Theater in NYC told by today's Italian Theater Company in NY, Kairos Italy Theater.  

Thru the work of Malzone, Maiori, Farfariello, Cordiferro, Antonietta Pisanielli, Ria Rosa and many others, Laura documents the development of the first amateur and professional theaters in NYC as well as the role that theater had in the immigrant community, family life and social conscience of those times.   

About Laura Caparrotti: 

Laura is the Founding Artistic Director of the main Italian Theater Company in NY Kairos Italy Theater and of In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, the first Italian Theater Festival to take place in all 5 NY Boroughs. In 2019 Laura inaugurated On Stage! the first American Theater Festival in Rome as a associate director.  Among Laura's many characters, one of our favorite is  Miss Margherita, a despotic teacher-diva, who has a unique method for teaching Italian through the ABCs of what everyone knows about Italy: “A” equals “amore,” “B” equals “buono,” “C” equals “citta,” and so on.  After Miss Margherita finishes reciting Dante’s poetry and scenes from Italian plays, singing old and new Italian songs, comparing regional differences, and demonstrating her impeccably correct pronunciation, everyone will know absolutely everything they ever need to know about the Italian language,” the library states.  

Video interview available on The Italian Radio Hour YouTube Channel:

For more information: Tutti in scena : https://tuttiinscena.com/ KIT Theater: https://kitheater.com/profile/laura-caparrotti/

Today’s conversation topic is Hollywood’s Italian American Filmmakers: Capra, Scorsese, Savoca, Coppola, and Tarantino, a wonderful publication written by Jonathan Cavallero.  Jonathan is an Associate Professor and Chair of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies at Bates College and the Founding Director of the Bates Film Festival.  In his book, Jonathan explores the different ways in which Italian American directors from the 1920s to the present  have responded to their ethnicity. While some directors have used film to declare their ethnic roots and create an Italian American "imagined community," others have ignored or even denied their background.

This week on The Italian Radio Hour - Prof Edvige Giunta On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the Asch Building in Greenwich Village, New York. The top three floors housed the Triangle Waist Company, a factory where approximately 500 workers, mostly young immigrant women and girls, labored to produce fashionable cotton blouses, known as “waists.”  The fire killed 146 workers in a mere 15 minutes but pierced the perpetual conscience of citizens everywhere. The Asch Building had been considered a modern fireproof structure, but inadequate fire safety regulations left the workers inside unprotected. The tragedy of the fire, and the resulting movements for change, were pivotal in shaping workers' rights and unions.  A powerful collection of diverse voices, Talking to the Girls: Intimate and Political Essays on the Triangle Fire brings together stories from writers, artists, activists, scholars, and family members of the Triangle workers. Nineteen contributors from across the globe speak of a singular event with remarkable impact. One hundred and eleven years after the tragic incident, Talking to the Girls articulates a story of contemporary global relevance and stands as an act of collective testimony: a written memorial to the Triangle victims.

Experience Italy in an action-packed ALL-EXPENSES paid journey exploring UNESCO sites, local hotspots and breath-taking landscapes. With NIAF's Voyage of Discovery, you will travel with Italian American peers while being introduced to the vibrant culture, mouth-watering cuisine, and fascinating history that puts one's Italian American heritage into a life-changing context that was never realized before. 

ELIGIBILITY: - Must be a full-time college student at a college or university for the semester preceding the trip; - Between the ages of 18-23 at the time of travel; - Of Italian heritage; - Never previously visited Italy;  - A United States citizen or permanent resident alien; - Must be a member of NIAF IMPORTANT DATES: Trip dates: June 2023 Deadline to apply: January 31st, 2023 For more information, visit: https://www.niaf.org/programs/voyage-of-discovery/

Watch our Video interview on The Italian Radio Hour YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/upglhq85oM8

This week on The Italian Radio Hour: The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia: History, Culture, People, and Ideas.

In conversation with Dr. Andrea Canepari, Directorate General for Country Promotion of the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Rome. Dr. Canepari was also the Consul General of Italy in Philadelphia from 2013 to 2017

Italian arts and culture have been a significant influence on Philadelphia dating back to Thomas Jefferson and colonial times. Throughout the ensuing decades, Italian art and architecture styles flourished, and wealthy Philadelphians traveled to Italy and brought back objects to display in emerging institutions of art and culture. New immigration formed neighborhoods—such as South Philly, home to the Italian Market—and Italian business leaders, politicians, artists, musicians and sports figures came to prominence and became part of the social fabric of the city.

This glorious volume, The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia, celebrates the history, impact, and legacy of this vibrant community, tracing four periods of key transformation in the city’s political, economic, and social structures. The editors and contributors chronicle the changing dynamics of the city as Italian immigrants established themselves and as they continue to have lively interactions with people and institutions in Italy.

#philadelphia #ItalianLegacy #italian #southphilly Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale #Roma #italy Temple University Press

In 1985, Antonio Ratti created in Como the non-profit foundation that bears his name, with the desire to share his passion for art and textiles and to preserve his textile collection.  Over the past 30 years, Fondazione Antonio Ratti (FAR) has been supporting and promoting research and experimentation in culture and the arts, including scholars, established and emerging artists in a lively and open environment.  The Foundation, headed by Annie Ratti since 2002, is located in Villa Sucota, an historic building on Lake Como. Here we find Antonio Ratti’s extraordinary collection of antique textiles preserved – with more than 30.000 pieces from across the globe – and a library open to the public with more than 7800 volumes specialized in textiles, fashion, visual arts and crafts.  Every year the program Artists' Research Laboratory (CSAV) is held in this location. It was conceived by Annie Ratti in 1995, with the intention of allowing young international artists to deepen their practices and research through experimentation and dialogue with major figures on the contemporary art scene.  FAR organizes also a wide range of activities, courses, lectures and seminars dedicated to different subjects, from history of textile to theory of art, from cineforum to permaculture.  In addition, FAR proposes exhibitions in which antique textiles from the collection dialogue with contemporary works of art, activating unexpected connections between the two souls of the Foundation.  The spaces of the villa and the surrounding garden – that host site-specific artworks made by a selection of artists who have collaborated with the Foundation – become thus places of encounter and debate platforms where visitors, scholars, entrepreneurs and experts from different fields have the chance to meet and gather in order to expand and deepen their research and influence each other in the process.  Fondazione Antonio Ratti is therefore internationally renowned and is part of a larger network of institutions which exchange and develop ideas together. The location of Villa Sucota – where FAR moved in 2010 becoming part of the Kilometer of Knowledge project – places the Foundation in a wider cultural context in terms of its architecture and location, thus acting as a cultural reference point for the city of Como.

Watch the video interview on our YouTubeChannel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsJJrBERZV8&t=83s

A massive enterprise to build the bigger movable Befana "puppet" that has made her "royal" entrance today in Padova in Prato della Valle.  A team consisting of various artists, gymnasts, and creative minds conquered the challenge to even transport the huge Befana in pieces and reconstruct it for the enjoyment of "grandi e piccini". Bravi tutti! Today, we were joined by Sara Celeghin and Giovanna Bracco right after all the festivities and the tear down was completed, full of excitement for the "mission accomplished".  Befane on stilts, Befane on bicycles, Fire fighters as part of the show, Prato della Valle today was filled with smiles.  L'evento è a cura di Teatro Invisibile in collaborazione con il Comune di Padova.  La Befana marionetta è un'idea di Giorgio Gabrielli che l'ha progettata e realizzata con la collaborazione di Giovanna Bacco- Crispy, Samuel Silvestrin e l'aiuto indispensabile di Olmo Gabrielli ed Elena Testa.

Watch the video interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Pdp-li6vo&t=789s

In this episode, we caught up with artist Teresa Astorino who has been making nativity sets, aka Presepi from a very young age with a variety of different materials. Her work has been features at the Vatican's exhibit of "100 Presepi" which features 100 nativity sets from all over the world. She joined us from Ciro, in provide of Crotone (Calabria).  The Italian Radio Hour brings you the best of Italian culture from all over the world. Celebrate your Italian-ness by subscribing to The Italian Radio Hour.

This Thursday on The Italian Radio Hour: Have you ever wondered how Italian food became American?

Join us for a conversation with Ian MacAllen, author of "Red Sauce, How Italian Food Became American", an interesting journey into the history and the development of some dishes that might have had Italian origins but took an "American twist" over time.