"Women. Empowerment. Leadership." an online panel discussion led by the Italian Professional Women group in Chicago
When: Monday, March 8, 2021 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. CST - What: "Women. Empowerment. Leadership." an online panel discussion led by the Italian Professional Women group in Chicago 2020 fundamentally changed workplace dynamics, particularly for professional women. Companies face both a challenge and an opportunity for women at all management levels....
Back to Your Italian Roots: “An Incredible Adventure”
“Mio Dio!” (Oh my God!) - these are the words Janet Badia most associates with her first trip to Italy to discover her family’s roots; as she recalls, “they capture both the surprise and delight of an incredible adventure.” Janet traveled to Italy with her sister Lisa for the first time in 2012. Growing up immersed in the local Italian American com...
Citizenship? It's in the blood
Even though only 25 percent of my DNA leads back to Italy, I have always considered myself Italian. Given my surname, everyone assumes I’m pure Italian. (Everyone except my Irish mother who always reminded me that the majority of my roots lay in Ireland.) The fact that I grew up in a part of Illinois inhabited by few Italians did nothing to separat...
Chicago’s Italian American Community responds to Monuments Project
The City of Chicago, in a release distributed on February 17, 2021, launched the Chicago Monuments Project website at chicagomonuments.org kicking off the public engagement phase of the Chicago Monuments Project. The new website identifies monumental sculptures, artworks, and commemorative plaques on the public way and in Chicago parks selected by...
Army mortar squad leader Alex Fosco
Suffering 75 percent hearing loss as a member and then leader of a mortar squad in the push toward Berlin, Alex Fosco took part in three major battles on the way to victory over the Nazis. The oldest of five children and only son, Alex Fosco was born on Sept. 19, 1925, in Chicago to Alex and Mary Vespa Fosco. The family lived in the Italian neighbo...
Chicago Bishop Robert Lombardo
The first Italian American to be ordained a bishop in Chicago, Fr. Bob Lombardo has served the poorest of the poor and resurrected a church close to the heart of our community. In the hush of Holy Name Cathedral, with hundreds of Catholics in attendance, the former Fr. Bob Lombardo knelt before Cardinal Blase Cupich in a Nov. 13 ceremony to receive...
Chicago statues of Columbus, Presidents Washington and Lincoln among commission’s list of 41 controversial monuments throughout city
Statues of Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley, as well as the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, were among the 41 public statues and other commemorative markers identified on a list from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration on Wednesday for further review as part of “a racial healing and historical reckoning pr...
Soprano Maria Novella Malfatti
The pandemic may have put a crimp in her plans, but Maria Novella Malfatti is making the most of her chances to learn and grow at the Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center. The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center is one of the most prestigious training programs in the world for emerging opera singers, offering world-class opportunities for professional...
Photographing Italy: then and now
Art historian Giovanni Aloi will present “Photographing Italy: Identity, History and the Contemporary Landscape” at a series of 6 webinars hosted by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura. From their first appearance in 1839, photographic images have radically changed the way we live and think. Aloi’s lecture series maps crucial moments in the history o...
Italian American Pride Banners Replace Columbus Statue — Without a Permit
For Ron Onesti, the president of Chicago’s Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to remove the city’s three statues of Christopher Columbus after violent protests was a bitter pill to swallow.While most of the media attention focused on the city’s overnight removal of the explorer’s statue in Grant Park, Onesti...
Photographing Italy: Identity, History, and the Contemporary Landscape, a Webinar by Dr. Giovanni Aloi
What: Photographing Italy: Identity, History, and the Contemporary Landscape, a Webinar by Dr. Giovanni Aloi - When: Thursday, February 18th at 6pm (Central Time) - Register at this link. From their first appearance in 1839, photographic images have radically changed the way we live and think. Though it did not appear clear from the very beginning,...
Obituary: Sister Mary Jo D’Amico, SNDDEN
Mary Josephine D’Amico was the oldest child and only daughter in a close-knit Italian family. Her parents made sure she and her brothers were raised with Italian customs, celebrated Italian feasts, and had a sense of pride in their Italian heritage. Church was also a central part of family life in the D’Amico household. Mary Jo’s prayer life, inclu...