Before I started Stevie's Artisans Urban Fok Art, I curated for and managed the gift shop at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. And before that, I spent 9 months in Italy as a Fulbright Scholar researching a project about folk art, cultural traditions, music and food.
Of course, I have tons of photos and lots to say about my project so I have begun doing presentations. My project, Festa, Family and Food, is a study of continuity, change and identity manifested in three saints' feasts celebrated both in Italy and in Italian-American communities in the US. The key themes of all three feasts are sacrifice and redemption, suffering, survival and communal rejoicing and celebration. The feasts honor three heroic and charasmatic figures (saints) who rescued their communities from destruction and ruin.
Women and t

This past November 17, I gave a presentation - commentary and power point photo presentation at the Italian American Museum in New York's Little Italy. I'm going to be presenting at the Brooklyn Historical Society on March 29, 2012. That presentation will focus on the giglio celebration in Brooklyn with background information of the celebration in Nola, Italy. Danny Vecchiano, leader of the Vecchiano Festival Band and archivist of American tradtional giglio music will join me. I wrote an article about Danny - Born to Giglio - for "Voices" the New York Folklore Society magazine. I am hoping