Episode Details

First on ITALICS, we’ll go to The National Organization of Italian American Women’s 30th Anniversary Celebration, which honors La Famiglia Bastianich, Lidia, Joseph, Tanya, and Nonna Erminia, the first family of Italian American cuisine. Italics Correspondent Lucia Grillo reports on the evenings proceedings and speaks with La Famiglia Bastianich, from the historic Waldorf Astoria in Mahattan.

Next ITALICS takes you to the National Italian American Foundation’s 2010 East Coast Gala. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Member and NIAF Lifetime Achievement Honoree Frankie Valli was joined by the Chicago cast of “Jersey Boys”, in honoring Joseph J. Grano, who was presented with NIAF’s Special Achievement Award for his contributions to Italian Heritage and Culture. Mr. Grano also announced his intentions to create a New Italian American Museum near Pier A in Lower Manhattan. Lucia Grillo reports from the Hilton New York in Times Square.

Then ITALICS takes you to the celebrations observing the 375th anniversary of the arrival of Pietro Cesare Alberti, on June 2nd, 1635 in then New Amsterdam, now New York City 2010, becoming the first Italian Immigrant to this part of the New World. A Consortium of Italian American Community Groups gathered at The Alberti Marker Stone, in Bowling Green, in Lower Manhattan, near what was originally the Dutch Town square in 1635 to commemorate the event. The Alberti Marker sits very near the famous Charging Bull or Wall Street Bull Sculpture, by Arturo Di Modica, forming an artistic and physical analogy of the long impact of Italian immigrants to these very shores.

ItalicsNewsBriefs-We’ll also have updates on Saving our Lady of Loreto Church in Brownsville, Brooklyn, the renewed Efforts to Restore the Advanced Placement Test in Italian, and a friend and Distinguished Professor who just became a little bit more distinguished.

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