R.I. Italian Americans to honor veterans, former defense secretary
Leon Panetta — a former White House chief of staff, CIA director and secretary of defense — will receive a lifetime achievement award, and eight military veterans from Rhode Island will receive distinguished service awards on Sunday, at the Rhode Island Italian-American Hall of Fame 30th anniversary event at The Veterans Memorial Auditorium. The Ha...
Brookline To Change Columbus Day To 'Indigenous People's Day'
Brookline just dropped Columbus Day. After hearing arguments from both sides, including a Brookline High School student for the name change and a group of Italian-Americans from outside the town against the proposal, the legislative board of Brookline's Town government voted. The proposal to sub out Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day passed...
Judy Cicero, Provincetown activist, arts supporter & entrepreneur, dies at 79
She may have come from humble roots, but Judy Cicero, born Judith Schwartz in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Aug. 10, 1938, was Provincetown’s version of a Renaissance woman, our Auntie Mame. She was active in local politics and town government, and she supported more than a few arts institutions and charities on the Outer Cape. She owned businesses in town an...
Thank you Tomie!
With so much sad news in the world today, it’s easy to lose track of all the love and kindness that’s still out there. It was almost overwhelming how much of it was squeezed into one little bookstore for one glorious day. For three years in a row, I AM Books has had the honor and privilege of hosting Tomie dePaola, whose books have filled the lives...
Italian-American Hall of Fame recognizes vets
The Rhode Island Italian-American Hall of Fame’s “Greatest Salute to America’s Bravest” induction event will occur Sunday, Nov. 19, at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium, One Avenue of the Arts, Providence, at 1 p.m. This is the group’s 30th anniversary event honoring eight local military veterans, former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon Pa...
Massachusetts Association of Italian American Police Officers recognizes Mayor Stephanie Burke
On Oct. 28, the Massachusetts Association of Italian American Police Officers, MAITAPO, presented Medford Mayor Stephanie Muccini Burke with the Guglielmo Marconi Award for Public Service. “It was a privilege and honor to be recognized by such a hardworking and philanthropic group, but the true honor is to be surrounded by such amazing men and wome...
Former Bridgeport mayor, city clerk honored
The two people who started the Greater Bridgeport St. Patrick’s Day Parade are scheduled to be honored by the parade’s committee on Thursday. Former Bridgeport Mayor Leonard S. Paoletta and City Clerk Catherine Brannelly Austin will be honored by the committee at Circolo Sportivo Italian Club — 2500 Park Avenue in Bridgeport. The ceremony is schedu...
Fiorentini walks unopposed into record eighth term
Like another Italian-American mayor who presided over Boston City Hall for 21 years, it seems that Mayor James Fiorentini is likely to also have the same job in Haverhill for as long as he likes. But while the 70-year-old Fiorentini, who was elected to a record eighth consecutive term Tuesday night, still has a few years to go before he catches Tho...
Mt. Carmel Preservation Society seeks to block church sale
A preservation group has appealed a decree by Worcester’s Catholic bishop that revokes the sacred status of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church so the building can be sold. Meantime, Bishop Robert J. McManus has said warnings of seriously deteriorating conditions at the crumbling church date back a half-century, not long after Interstate 290 was built...
Ella Grasso, ‘a will that could not be daunted’
Ella Grasso famously never lost an election and Nov. 5, 1974 was no exception. A true political pioneer, Connecticut’s first woman governor was also the state’s first governor of Italian descent, as well as the first woman elected to lead any U.S. state in her own right (not as successor to her husband). Amid the post-Watergate Democratic sweep, Gr...
This Place in History: Italian American Club of Rutland
At 'This Place in History,' we're at the Italian American Club of Rutland with Executive Director of the Vermont Historical Society Steve Perkins. David Cioffi and Jack Kulig gave us a tour of the club and and a history lesson, too. "100 years ago in 2014. All the immigrants that came needed a place to go and the club at the time put them all toget...
Happy birthday, little bookstore
Well, little bookstore, you have just turned two. It’s hard to grasp the notion of time inside the magical box that you are. You have grown so much in these two years. When you were a baby, and we all celebrated your birth on Oct. 29, 2015, you were so small, so lean. Looking back, I realize how frail you must have looked to anyone seeing you for t...