Italian American Folklore

I'm a folklorist and over the past 20 years I have documented Italian American vernacular culture, producing publications, exhibitions, concerts, and media projects. I am particurarly interested in religious art, public celebrations, and vernacular architecture. I have written about: Yard Shrines. You can read Brian Michael Lione's critique of my 1989 yard shrine article.) I successfully nominated the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel grotto in Rosebank, Staten Island (read my article "Multivocality and Vernacular Architecture" and watch excerpts from the ceremony at the grotto) and the Lisanti Family Chapel (in italiano) in Williamsbridge, the Bronx to the New York States and National Registers of Historic Places. The Giglio Feast in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Presepi (Nativity scenes) The devotion to the Black Madonna. Religious processional banners I co-edited a bilingual collection of verse by Sicilian American poet Vincenzo Ancona.

Dancing the giglio and boat in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (1981). Photo: Martha Cooper

Bibliography of Critical Studies and Resources

• John Cicala's great list of important resources
  
• Luisa Del Giudice, editor, Studies in Italian American Folklore
  
• Robert Orsi's book The Madonna of 115th Street about the devotion of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in the lives of East Harlem's Italian immigrant women changed the way we look at the everyday experiences of Italian Americann lives.
• Giovanna Del Negro, Looking Through my Mother's Eyes: Life Stories of Nine Italian Immigrant Women in Canada
• Simone Cinotto, Una famiglia che mangia insieme: Cibo ed ethicita' nella communita' italoamericana di New York, 1920-1940
• Gloria Nardini, Che Bella Figura!: The Power of Performanmce in an Italian Ladies' Club in Chicago
• Carla Bianco, The Two Rosetos
• Special issue on "Italian American Folklore" of the Italian American Review.
• The American Folklore Society's Mediterranean Studies Section Section

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