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During a recent exhibition at the New York City Transit Museum, Antonio Masi was interviewed about his painting approach and ideas. Here is a link to the interview and  a brief painting demo. Video Link

New York Golden Age of Bridges
Paintings by Antonio Masi
Essays by Joan Marans Dim

Visit www.antoniomasi.com to read more about Antonio Masi and his work.

Whenever I think of my Greenwich Village holiday dinners now, I think of how different the childhood celebrations of my Italian-American traditions were from most Americans. We always started with an antipasto of Genoa salami, olives, anchovies, and roasted red peppers, bathed in olive oil with thin slivers of garlic to perk up the dish. We followed that with ravioli, then the roast—turkey for Thanksgiving and beef for Christmas. For Thanksgiving, the roast would be accompanied by mashed potatoes, stuffing, artichokes, a couple of other vegetables, finocchio and a salad. For dessert, we always had Italian pastries like cannoli and sfogliatelle from Ferrara’s on Grand Street, a huge fruit bowl topped with red grapes, dried figs stuffed with walnuts, a tray of mixed nuts, roasted chestnuts and espresso with a splash or two of anisette. Of course, wine flowed throughout the meal. Torrone, the almond nougat covered in a wafer that looked like Holy Communion, was given to the children. Of course, all the Italian Americans of Greenwich Village must have been serving pretty much the same menu with ravioli prepared in the morning and stored on beds with covered towels to keep them moist until the mid-afternoon repast.

That’s why when Professor Donna Gabaccia wrote her introduction to a sub-section on food in our book, American Woman, Italian Style, I could relate to so much of what she wrote. She notes that cultural choices are made in a people’s cuisine and that “food and cooking are powerful expressions of our ties to the past and to our current identity.”

How true that is and how true the many essays about Italian-American women in this book are. Essays written by authors of diverse backgrounds, such as Mary Ann Mannino, Richard Gambino, William Egelman, Carol Helstosky, Edvige Giunta and Jacqueline Reich, are in their. The book has four main sections: childhood, work and family—including the food section; literature by Italian-American women; music, art and film by Italian-American women; and finally a comprehensive overview of findings from a variety of studies about Italian-American women. One interesting finding, to give a taste for what the book contains, is that, compared to the general population, Italian-American women have the largest percentage of professional degrees and the highest percentage of women earning over $250,000 a year. And this from a culture that started from very humble beginnings in America!

By Carol Bonomo Albright

Gay Talese, author of A Writer’s Life says, “This book pays artistic tribute to the existence of great bridges—a wonderful achievement.”

We may be biased, but we’re certain this beautiful book is on everyone’s holiday wish list!

Fordham University’s picturesque Rose Hill Campus (home of Fordham University Press) is fortunate indeed to be a short walk from this little slice of culinary heaven. If you find yourself in our neck of the woods on this spectacular Columbus Day, be sure to stop by and stock up on some of the best eats anywhere. Perhaps you’ve seen Zagat’s 2011/2012 NYC Food Lover’s Guide? Our neighbors took TOP honors. In the #1 spot and hailed as the “definitive source” for “homemade mozz,” is Casa Della Mozzarella, while the “shrine” of “sublime” pastas, Borgatti’s Ravioli, comes in second. It is especially notable that these two are among 20 establishments that have earned a near-perfect 29 rating on Zagat’s 30-point scale for their Quality. Other top-rated spots in the Bronx include Arthur Avenue’s historic grocery Teitel Brothers, Zero Otto Nove (Zucca, Salsiccia e Gorgonzola antipasta is a must—and a FUP fave!), as well as Terranova Bakery and Addeo Bakery.

In keeping with the holiday theme, we have some Italian American books to go with your nibble …

American Woman, Italian Style: Italian Americana’s Best Writings on Women, edited by Carol Bonomo Albright and Christine Palamidessi Moore is an essay collection which seeks to bring awareness to the successes and triumphs of the modern Italian American woman. With topics ranging from cookbooks, inventions, Jewish-Italian intermarriages, and entrepreneurship, the collection offers an in-depth look at modern womanhood from all angles.

Italian Folk: Vernacular Culture in Italian American Lives is another essay collection that aims to dispel popular stereotypes and illuminates Italian American traditions such as Sunday dinners, parades, and basement kitchens as rituals that lend vitality and meaning to the community. Edited by Joseph Sciorra and publishing in June, the book is “a well-researched, admirably varied, and classroom-friendly collection of essays on Italian American folklore and vernacular culture.” (Tad Tuleja, Princeton University).

Still another essay collection that examines the Italian culture through the tradition of domesticity and issues of gender is Intimacy and Italian Migration: Gender and Domestic Lives in a Mobile World, edited by Loretta Baldassar and Donna R. Gabaccia, adds a new dimension to our understanding of nation-building through its examination of the role of intimate cultural processes.

Lastly, Luigi Bonaffini and Joseph Perricone edited the bilingual anthology Poets of the Italian Diaspora. Approximately 27 million Italians left their home country to live and work abroad between 1870 and 1970, a time of historic upheaval in the small Mediterranean nation. This landmark volume presents a truly international selection of works by more than 70 Italian-language poets who are writing in countries for Australia to Venezuela. The poems are presented in both Italian and English, and are also given critical overviews, and a bibliography for each author, rendering it a thorough and ground-breaking work of literature. You can get your copy next month.

Kate O’Brien-Nicholson