ORAL
HISTORY, ORAL CULTURE, AND ITALIANS IN AMERICA
Multimedia Festival: Italian Los Angeles
(Program)
IOHI – ITALIANORALHISTORYINSTITUTE
presents:
Italian Los Angeles: Celebrating Italian Life, Local History, and the Arts in Southern California (multimedia festival)
October and November, 2005
Los Angeles hosts the 5th largest population of Italian heritage among U.S. cities. Italian Los Angeles: Celebrating Italian Life, Local History, and the Arts in Southern California, a multimedia festival organized by the IOHI – Italian Oral History Institute (www.iohi.org), will present and celebrate the historic and recent presence of Italians in greater Los Angeles during October November, 2005. This festival also inaugurates the recently launched Web site: www.ItalianLosAngeles.org (The Italian Resource Guide to Greater Los Angeles), a collaborative, community-based research project of the IOHI. Look for exhibitions, lectures, book presentations, concerts, music and dance workshops, tours of Italian Los Angeles, and more For festival events, updates, and registration form, visit: http://www.iohi.org/aiha/festivalregistration.html.
AND
Speaking Memory: Oral History, Oral Culture
and
Italians in America 38 th annual meeting of the
American Italian Historical Association November 3-6, 2005
The IOHI festival, Italian Los Angeles, is offered in conjunction with a major international conference, bringing over 140 speakers to Los Angeles to discuss topics as diverse as: music, food, festivals, gender, cinema, literature, sports, genealogy, folk revivals, neo-pagans, ethnic and religious minorities, oral history projects, comedy, theatre, art & architecture, war experiences, proverbs, folktales, linguistics, and more. Speaking Memory: Oral History, Oral Culture and Italians in America, is the first AIHA meeting ever to be held in Southern California. (Conference attendance is by advance registration and pre-payment only. For more information on conference, and for registration form, visit: http://www.iohi.org/aiha/conferenceregistration.html "Conference Registration and Payment").
Conference highlights: Plenary speaker: Alessandro Portelli, Università Sapienza, Rome: What Makes Oral History Different? UCLA programs: presentation of the Repertorium Colombianum, Oral history research workshop by the UCLA Oral History, Program Sound and visual archives presentation by the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive.
Italian Los Angeles: Celebrating Italian Life, Local History, and the Arts in Southern California (multimedia festival)
– Preliminary Festival Program –
N.B. Most festival events are free and open to the general public. Some events are by pre-payment only (see: "Festival Registration and Payment"). Space is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. Times and dates subject to change without notice. Please check this page for festival program updates.
October 23 – December 4
Watts Towers Arts Center Gallery
1727 East 107 th St. Free and open to the public
Exhibition: Leo Politi: Artist of the Angels. Politi, best known as a children's book illustrator, also painted murals and familiar Los Angeles sites. Book presentation: Leo Politi, by Ann Stalcup, illustrated childrens book, a biography based on oral history research. Download the press release (pdf, 92KB).
Wednesday, October 19, 4:00–6:00 p.m.
Ethnomusicology Archive
1630 Schoenberg Music Bldg., UCLA Free and open to the public
Italian Wine & Cheese Open House and Multimedia Presentations: 1) Del Giudice-Tuttle Italian Traditional Music Collection and the Italian Oral History Institute Collection at UCLA (includes display at Music Library, Schoenberg Music Bldg., Oct. 19–Dec.9); 2) www.ItalianLosAngeles.org (Italian Los Angeles: The Italian Resource Guide to Greater Los Angeles), recently-inaugurated Web site of the IOHI; 3) Performing Ecstasies: Music, Dance, and Ritual in the Mediterranean, Proceedings of the 2000 IOHI-UCLA conference.
November 1 – 11
Spazio Italia, Istituto Italiano di Cultura
1023 Hilgard Ave., Westwood
Opening – Wednesday, November 2, 8:00 p.m. Free and open to the public
Lecture: "The Watts Towers of Los Angeles and La Festa dei Gigli of Nola: A Shared Tradition," by Joseph Sciorra, Calandra Institute, CUNY. The Watts Towers, a beloved site in south-central Los Angeles, was the creation of Simon (Sabato) Rodia, a native of Campania, an area with a strong dancing tower festival tradition. This Italian ethnographic background to an emblematic Los Angeles monument is little known and rarely celebrated.
Wednesday, November 2, 9:00 p.m . Sala Rossellini, Istituto Italiano di Cultura
1023 Hilgard Ave., Westwood Free and open to the public
Exhibition: Alan Lomax in the Salento: Ethnographic photographs from the 1950s: black and white photographs taken on the pioneering ethnomusicologic field collecting campaigns of the 1950s and 1960s, by Alan Lomax and Diego Carpitella (extensive recordings now available in the Italian Treasury CD collection (Rounder Records). This exhibition focuses on photographs of the Salento, the southeastern-most tip of Puglia, the cultural area most closely associated with the spider ritual of tarantismo. Presented by Anna Lomax Wood and Luisa Del Giudice. Book presentation: Performing Ecstasies: Music, Dance, and Ritual in the Mediterranean, edited by Luisa Del Giudice & Nancy Van Deusen (proceedings of 2000 UCLA conference).
Thursday, November 3, 1:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Doubletree Hotel Westwood
10740 Wilshire Blvd. Free and open to the public. By reservation only.
Workshop: What, Why and How of Oral History, by Teresa Barnett, Director, UCLA Oral History Program). This workshop is designed for individuals with little or no experience in conducting oral histories and will provide a basic introduction to oral history methodology. Topics will include: drawing up interview outlines and questions; effective interview techniques; equipment needs; legal and ethical concerns (limited to 25 participants). Sound and Visual Archives: Italian Collections at UCLA, by John Vallier, UCLA Ethnomusicology Archives.
Thursday, November 3, 3:00 - 6:00 p.m.
St. Alban's Episcopal Church
580 Hilgard Ave., Westwood
Workshop fees: $15/one; $25/two; $30/three. By pre-payment only. See "Festival Registration and Payment." Free parking permit for provided at St. Alban's gate for Westholme & Hilgard UCLA parking lot (across the street).
Dance & Music Workshop (Enzo Fina & Roberto Catalano): Traditional Music of Mediterranean Italy: Apulian frame drum, Sardinian benas, and more.
Thursday, November 3, 8:00 - 9:30 p.m.
Doubletree Hotel Westwood
10740 Wilshire Blvd Free and open to the public.
Poets to Prose: Readings by Italian/American writers from So. California. Includes: Dan Fante, Dorothy Barresi, Ken Scambray, Mary Bucci Bush, Pasquale Verdicchio, Father Frank Desiderio.
Friday, November 4, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
St. Alban's Episcopal Church
580 Hilgard Ave., Westwood
Workshop fees: $15/one; $25/two; $30/three. By pre-payment only. See "Festival Registration and Payment." Free parking in St. Albans parking lot.
Music & Dance Workshop: Rhythm is the Cure: ritual music and dance from Southern Italy (with Alessandra Belloni of I Giullari di Piazza).
Friday, November 4, 2005, 8:00 p.m.
UCLA Armand Hammer Museum of Art
and Cultural Center
10899 Wilshire Blvd.
Free and open to the public.
Concert: Music from Mediterranean Italy: Musicàntica in concert. Performing in Los Angeles since 1994, Musicàntica performs music from Southern Italy's oral traditions (e.g., the music associated with peasants, fishermen, street vendors) while blending more contemporary musical styles in Mediterranean World Music. Their repertoire includes traditional and original compositions. "The connection between southern Italian tradition, their individual experiences as immigrants in Southern California, and the symbolic remembrance of the sounds of their birthplaces – Sicily and Puglia – is evident in the artists' various improvisations and re-adaptations of older material." (For more information on Musicàntica, visit: http://www.musicantica.org/).
Saturday, November 5, 5:00 7:30 p.m.
St. Albans Episcopal Church
580 Hilgard Ave., Westwood
Workshop fees: $15/one; $25/two; $30/three. By pre-payment only. See "Festival Registration and Payment." Free parking in St. Albans parking lot.
Music & Dance Workshop: Northern and Central Italy (with Marie DiCocco & Celest DiPietropaolo, traditional village dance instructors): from an Emilian monferrina to the Abruzzese saltarello, and Sardinian round dance.
Sunday, November 6, 8:30 (sharp) - 1:30 p.m Departure from and return to Doubletree Hotel, Westwood
$40 by pre-payment only.
See "Festival Registration and Payment."
(Box lunch included.)
Cultural & Historic Tour: "Chi Siamo: Italians of Los Angeles," (with Prof. Gloria Ricci Lothrop, Whitsett Professor of California History Emerita, CSUN). This tour will survey the history of southern California Italians, retracing the story of local Italians from their arrival in 1823 to their latest boutiques on Rodeo Drive. Includes walking tour of Olvera Street (El Pueblo, site of citys founding), docent-lead tour of Simon (Sabato) Rodia's folk art masterpiece, the Watts Towers, the beach community which developer Abbott Kenney fashioned as the "Venice of America," and much more.
[For more information: The four-hour tour, "Chi Siamo: Italians of Los Angeles," will survey the history of southern California Italians, while also noting city highlights. Participants will retrace the story of local Italians from their arrival in 1823 to their latest boutiques on Rodeo Drive. Passengers will travel from UCLA in Westwood, to Beverly Hills and along Wilshire Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard to El Pueblo, the site of the city's founding. A walking tour along Olvera Street will lead to dwellings, businesses and wineries once owned by Italians, concluding at the historic Italian Hall.
The bus will then travel to Casa Italiana and St. Peter's church, the current social center of the widely dispersed Italian American community, before proceeding to the Music Center and the current financial district, noting Italian art and artists represented in the area. The tour will then highlight labor and enterprise as it passes through the earlier financial district housing the former Bank of Italy headquarters, the flower and produce districts and the garment and manufacturing districts where Italians have long been active.
The tour will proceed southward to visit Simon (Sabato) Rodia's folk art masterpiece, the Watts Towers, and the beach community which developer Abbott Kenney fashioned as the "Venice of America." At 1:00 pm the bus will drop off AIHA Conference participants at LAX Terminal before returning to the Doubletree Hotel in Westwood by 1:30.].
Sunday, November 6, 4:00 p.m
Remo Music Center
7308 Coldwater Canyon Avenue
N. Hollywood, CA 91605
(818) 982-0461
$12.00 (at the door, no prepayment required)
Concert: "Tarantelle e canti d'amore" (Tarantelle and love songs), with tambourine virtuosa Alessandra Belloni and composer & Renaissance guitar (chitarra battente) virtuoso John La Barbera, co-founders of the New York-based Italian Music and Theatre Company I Giullari di Piazza. Performance includes Belloni and women dancers performing Southern Italian ritual dances such as the tammorriata (a Campanian dance in honor of the Black Madonna), and the pizzica tarantata, the Apulian tarantella as ritual trance dance, once used to heal the mythic spider's bite.
Festival Registration and Payment
Festival registration available online at: http://www.iohi.org/aiha/festivalregistration.html ("Festival Registration and Payment"). Please pre-pay by check made payable to: "Italian Oral History Institute Italian LA Festival" and send to the IOHI. Or, register by mail by sending: name, address, telephone number, e-mail, events registered for, and payment to:
Italian Los Angeles Festival
c/o IOHI, Italian Oral History Institute
P.O. Box 241553
Los Angeles, CA 90024-1553
N.B. Space is limited. No guarantee of registration is offered. Confirmation will be made by e-mail or telephone. IOHI members receive a 10% discount on all festival and conference events. To become a member visit: www.iohi.org.
Conference Registration and Payment
To participate in the 38 th annual conference of the American Italian Historical Association, Speaking Memory: Oral History, Oral Culture and Italians in America, register online at: http://www.iohi.org/aiha/conferenceregistration.html ("Conference Registration and Payment"). Pre-payment of conference fees required. Learn more about the American Italian Historical Association at: http://www.aiha.fau.edu/
Mission of the IOHI: The IOHI incorporated in 2000 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to conduct community-based research and public education. It engages in the collection, preservation, and dissemination of materials and information relating to the culture and history of Italians in California. (cf. About the IOHI: http://www.italianlosangeles.org/index.php?20)
Italian Oral History Institute
American Italian Historical Association
Istituto Italiano di Cultura
George L. Graziadio Center for Italian Studies, California State University, Long Beach
National Italian American Foundation
UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Center
UCLA Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center
UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies
UCLA Department of Italian
UCLA Ethnomusicology Archives
UCLA Oral History Program
City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department
Watts Towers Arts Center
The Association for Cultural Equity at Hunter College, New York City
Frank de Santis
St. Alban's Episcopal Church
San Gennaro Foundation Los Angeles
Italian Organic Wines from Dynamic Imports
Villa Scalabrini
With the support of:
Politi Family
Friends of Leo Politi Children's Services at LAPL
Under the auspices of the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles
