Indefatigable after 40 years at the helm of Giordano Dance Chicago, Nan Giordano continues to advance the legacy of her father, jazz-dance pioneer Gus Giordano.

Nan Giordano says she’s blessed with a high level of energy — energy that enables her to dance, mentor dancers and produce performances, but also to run the business side of an arts organization and manage its budget.

As the artistic director and leader of nonprofit dance company Giordano Dance Chicago, she’s continuing the legacy of her late father, Gus Giordano. Known across the country among dancers and dance fans for developing the Giordano jazz-dance technique, he popularized jazz dance and led a critically acclaimed dance company. Nan Giordano is continuing that legacy while adding her own dynamism.

The company celebrated 40 years of her tenure as artistic director of Giordano Dance Chicago when its new season opened July 1. While the “artistic director” title suggests freedom to focus on creativity, she says the job encompasses much more.

“I do it all, from speaking with funders, working with our day of giving, talking to agents, planning performances, and my own teaching schedule,” Giordano says.

Those efforts come to fruition when an audience is sitting in a darkened theater, the beat of jazzy music starts, the curtain goes up and an array of lights in bright colors beams on Giordano company members as they glide, leap and turn with joyous energy: solo, in pairs and in a complete ensemble, having so much fun that audiene members find yourself beaming.

“I want people to leave exhilarated,” she says. “I don’t care if they know how much work it took, but I want them to feel wonderful.”

The main dance company has 10 dancers, who go on tour; the second company, Giordano II, has six, for a total of 16 dancers. They perform two shows a year at Chicago’s Harris Theater and this year will also be at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, the Gorton Center in Lake Forest and other venues.

The company members have toured in 28 countries. They teach classes in the Chicago Public Schools, do outreach activities and strive continuously to improve their dance skills.

On top of that, Giordano, along with associate artistic director Cesar Salinas, runs the Nan Giordano Certification Program, which certifies dance teachers, whether at universities or dance studios, in the Giordano technique.

Giordano codified her father’s technique on paper with dance notation so that Giordano Dance Chicago could teach it in the certification program, which has five levels. Those who take it can choose how many they wish to get certified in.

“It’s giving teachers tools to integrate into their programs,” she says.

She describes the Giordano technique as radiating from the core and pelvis outward. It’s grounded, with knees bent so they’re lower to the floor. From the waist up, however, the body is elongated. “It’s an interesting contrast — a grounded bottom half and elongated torso. It’s very regal from the waist up,” Giordano says. “It’s very athletic and very strong, and emotion is crucial. Athletic and sensual, those are kind of the key components.”

Salinas, who started as a dancer with the company under Gus Giordano at age 19, recently turned 40 and is still with the company, though now as associate artistic director.

“Nan pushes the envelope of dance,” he says. “She’s a creator of energy. She’s an educator, she has fostered the careers and lives of so many young dancers, and she continues to bring exciting choreographers to the stage. She has curated so many different voices in dance.”

And, he says, she still teaches.

“When she’s teaching, she’s very ‘on’ and gives 110%,” Salinas says. “She has a beautiful way of transmitting information from student to student and from her to student. She’s got so much style and presence.”

Giordano’s father had a lot to do with that. A child of Italian immigrants, he got a college education and became a much-admired leader and innovator in the world of dance and arts.

After Giordano’s grandparents came to the United States from Palermo and her grandfather opened a tavern on “The Hill,” an Italian area in St. Louis, their younger son, August Thomas “Gus” Giordano III, was born in 1923. He served in World War II and then went to the University of Missouri on the GI Bill, majoring in English and dance.

“He had a cousin in New Orleans that happened to be a dancer, so he went there, was introduced to jazz-music energy and saw dancers on the street. So, it was the influence of New Orleans,” Giordano says.

“My grandparents were very, perhaps, lower middle class, they spoke broken English, and my dad, I don’t really know how, he was very different than everyone else,” she muses.

Gus won a film camera in a contest when he was a teen, and started making silent films that were very creative, so he was “kind of the golden boy.”

“He was just very different than the rest of the family and they embraced it,” she says. “He was a visionary.”

She speculates that because Gus sold popcorn at the movie theater next door to his father’s tavern on The Hill, he was able to see the production-extravaganza movies of that era, with their big dance numbers.

“My father was a humble man who dedicated his life to elevating jazz dance as an art form,” she says.

Gus married Peg, who was mostly of Irish heritage with a touch of German, and they had two sons, followed by Nan and then another daughter.

“My dad and I were extremely close,” she reminisces. “We did so much together. I got to go out with my dad while he did master teaching. We were in Germany; we toured when I was a young dancer. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Giordano’s next move is to create a permanent home for the dance company. A generous donor bought them a former church building, Hermon Baptist Church on Clark Street in Lincoln Park, but with its sanctuary and raked floors, it’s not suitable for dancing.

She intends to have it torn down and build a new studio, rehearsal rooms and office space for Giordano Dance on the site. The city of Chicago has provided a grant and the company is in the midst of a capital campaign.

“We deserve a home,” she asserts, noting an architect and builder have designed “something not so extravagant so it can actually get done.”

In the meantime, the company continues rehearsing out of Ruth Page Center for the Arts on the Near North Side.

Giordano has been involved in running the dance company for 40 years, and though she acknowledges it’s a lot of work, she plans to continue.

“I’m very inspired, and I have no plan of retiring anytime soon,” she says. “I’ll always be involved somewhere in the dance world.”

The above appears in the August 2024 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.

Have you ever wondered how so many delicious Italian cheeses, pastas, sauces and wines show up in your local supermarket? It’s a little bit of magic created by an agency of the Italian government with a local branch located right on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue.

Marco Verna arrived from Italy last September to head the Italian Trade Agency in the Windy City. Known in Italy as ICE (Istituto per il Commercio Estero) Agenzia, ITA has five U.S. offices, each of which specializes in a different business sector.

Verna and his expert staff are charged with helping Italian producers find a market for their products in the United States, thereby helping Italy’s economy while also enhancing the bottom line of their American partners. In their role as matchmakers, they also introduce Italian companies to U.S. buyers.

Verna, who in his spare time loves listening to music and is a huge Beatles and Elvis fan, spoke with Fra Noi about his work and life.

FRA NOI: Tell me a little about yourself.

VERNA: I was born in Rome and have always lived there except when I was assigned abroad by the Italian Trade Agency.

I started working at the age of 19, and while I was working, I graduated from La Sapienza University, earning my degree cum laude in political sciences. I’ve been working for the ITA for over 35 years. It’s a great career. I was assigned to ITA’s New York office from 2001-04, and I was there on 9/11.

I’m married and I have twin boys, age 21. I tried to remain in Italy until they finished school, then I accepted an assignment in Spain from 2013-18, then returned to Rome.

In ITA’s headquarters in Rome, I was initially assigned to oversee accounting for the Italian textile and machinery sectors, then I worked as an auditor. I have always loved the challenge of learning new things.

I speak Italian, English, Spanish and French.

FRA NOI: Tell us all about the Italian Trade Agency.

VERNA: It was founded almost a century ago, in 1927. It is the Italian government agency that promotes business opportunities for Italian producers all over the world. We help Italian producers of machinery, fashion, jewelry, furniture, food, wine and other products that Italy is known for to find markets for their products abroad.

FRA NOI: Do you have staff in Chicago?

VERNA: Yes, I have eight employees here; six permanent and two on a temporary basis. The employees know the American market. My staff goes to trade shows all over the country and in Italy, as well. They help companies find customers all over the United States. My staff has a deep understanding of the American market and provides up-to-date trade and business information, as well as prepares market research reports and economic profiles on the 11 Midwestern states under our jurisdiction.

FRA NOI: Tell me about ITA globally.

VERNA: ITA has a network of 79 offices in 65 countries. Of those, five offices are in the United States. Each of our offices is assigned specific industry sectors of responsibility throughout the entire U.S. territory.

FRA NOI: Where are the other offices in America?

VERNA: Houston, Miami, New York and Los Angeles.

FRA NOI: Tell me more about what you do in the Chicago office.

VERNA: We help manufacturers of capital machinery and equipment, automotive parts, and food and wine to the supermarket sector.

Through a special task force called Machines Italia, we coordinate the promotional activities in the U.S. of 16 Italian machinery manufacturing associations that represent more than 10,000 member companies. While many consumers in the U.S. are familiar with and appreciate Italian food, wine, sports cars, fashion, jewelry and other luxury items, not many are aware that Italy also produces incredible machinery to produce all of these products.

Federalimentare, the Italian Federation of Food and Beverages Producers, estimates that there are over $57 billion in “Italian-sounding” food and beverages sold worldwide each year. To that end, our office in Chicago has been partnering during the last seven years with a number of major U.S. supermarket chains to promote their selection of “Authentic Italian” food and wine. We have also created and manage ItalianPrivateLabel.com, which helps U.S. buyers source both food and non-food products to sell under a retailer’s brand.

And we help Italian publishers exhibit in major U.S. book trade shows. There, Italian publishers or editors meet their American counterparts and sell their rights to American companies. To that end, we created and manage Italbooks.com, a dedicated website promoting the Italian publishing sector.

FRA NOI: Do the companies export directly, or do they use import-export specialists?

VERNA: It depends on the sector.

If you want to sell wine in the U.S., there is a three-tier system: importer, distributor, retailer. U.S. laws do not allow a wine producer to sell directly to a retailer.

In the food sector, an Italian producer can sell directly to a retail chain, but we recommend that they initially work through an importer and distributor who can help them with product registration and certification, transport, customs clearance, warehousing and delivery to the retailer.

If you want to sell machinery, you’re better off doing it through an agent who can also offer service support. Some Italian companies decide to set up a branch office in the U.S. and bypass the traditional importer and distributor.

If you want to sell books, you have to exhibit at a trade exhibition to meet prospective buyers.

FRA NOI: Some family-owned Italian companies are quite small. How do they sell to American corporations?

VERNA: To sell their products in the U.S. market, they must conform to U.S. registrations and product certifications. We help them do that.

FRA NOI: Does ITA do promotional campaigns?

VERNA: Yes, we organize several Italian-themed promotions of authentic Italian food and wine with a number of major supermarket chains throughout the United States.

We teach U.S. consumers about real “Made in Italy” products. “Made in Italy” was, in 2016, the world’s third most recognizable brand, after Visa and Coca-Cola.

If you go to a supermarket and you find a cheese marked Parmesan and there’s an Italian flag, do you think you’re buying Italian? No, it’s fake. It’s made in America. We try to teach the American consumer how to recognize products made in Italy, and explain the benefits that make real Italian products special.

FRA NOI: How long will you be working in Chicago?

VERNA: I arrived in Chicago in September of last year. My sons wanted to come back to the United States. My wife wanted to go to Miami, but I chose Chicago because it’s a bigger office, and the ITA’s director general chose Chicago for me. Now my wife has fallen in love with Chicago. It’s wonderful like New York, but cleaner and more livable. My assignment is for a four-year period, so most likely I will be here through September 2025.

For details, click here.

The above appears in the September 2022 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.

A natural-born performer, Vanessa Racci abandoned a career in marketing to dedicate herself full time to rekindling the flame of classic Italian-American music.

Imagine taking the swinging, glamorous Italian-American singers of the mid-20th century — Connie Francis, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Louis Prima — and distilling their essence for the 21st-century stage. Vanessa Racci does exactly that in her performances, bringing the music of these icons to life for a new generation.

As a child, Racci soaked up the Italian-American music enjoyed by her grandfather. By age 4, her parents encouraged her to sing when they had company over. By age 12, she was doing professional musical theater.

As an adult, she realized that what her Italian-American idols were singing was actually jazz. She also discovered the deep connections Italian Americans have with the genre, which is rooted in the fact that Italian Americans lived near African Americans in New Orleans in the early 20th century and absorbed their music.

She has developed performances that tell the story of the Italian jazz connection — from the genre’s first-ever recording, produced by Nick LaRocca in 1917, to the swinging LPs of Frank Sinatra decades later.

Racci studied marketing in college, which helped when she quit her corporate job last April to become a full-time performer. Her retro-cool brand includes a glamorous 1950s look with fitted-bodice, full-skirted dresses and a stylish wavy bob.

She has an album out and another on the way, several shows and a strong online presence. She also performs at music venues and Italian-American festivals across the country.

Racci, who lives in Westchester County, New York, with her husband, discussed why she wants to continue channeling the music of the Italian-American greats.

Fra Noi: How did you develop your love for Italian-American music?

Racci: It was at an early age, without really realizing it. My grandfather, Frank Prisciantelli, was born and raised in Harlem in the early 1900s, when it was a center for Italian-American culture. He later lived in the basement apartment with the rest of the family living on the top two floors (of a two-flat) in Westchester County. My grandmother died when I was 4, but I had the opportunity to develop a close relationship with my grandfather, who was my mom’s dad.

My grandfather was influential in my life — he picked us up from school, he babysat us, and he would play Dean Martin, Connie Francis, Frank Sinatra, Lou Monte, Louis Prima, so I grew up knowing these singers and songs.

Fra Noi: How did you begin singing?

Racci: I grew up singing ever since I can remember. Starting at about age 4, my parents had me sing for family parties. I just loved to get up and sing for people. I was a natural ham.

My parents enrolled me in professional theater, so I did off-Broadway performances at Westchester Broadway dinner theater [Is this a proper noun?], and I got paid to perform at 12 years old.

I went on to do lots of musical theater and won a Helen Hayes Award when I was 18. It’s like the Tonys for New York state musical theater.

Fra Noi: What happened as you grew older?

Racci: My parents pushed me to get a degree in marketing because they perceived it was more practical. But I always studied music, like private singing, piano and theater lessons.

I wound up working at an advertising agency, but something was missing. I wanted to continue music. So I formed a jazz band and toured in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut for four years.

Through learning a repertoire of jazz standards, I realized a lot of the songs my grandfather played were jazz. I hadn’t realized what jazz was.

I wanted to make my mark on the industry in some way. After he passed, I was inspired to keep Italian music alive.

Fra Noi: About what percentage of your singing caters to an Italian-American audience?

Racci: I mostly do Italian-American performances.

My first album was “Italiana Fresca,” in which I reinvented the songs Grandpa taught me with fresh jazz arrangements. I’ve performed it at 70 festivals, from 2017 on, across the United States — Florida, California, New Orleans, Chicago, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut — all the places where Italians are.

I reached No. 65 on the jazz charts; I’ve been played in over 81 countries on Spotify, with 16,000 streams and 7,200 listeners.

I have a new project. I was performing at the Kenner Italian Festival in New Orleans, and I went to museums and learned how much Italian Americans influenced jazz. The first recorded jazz song in history in the United States was by Nick LaRocca. Italian Americans, specifically Sicilian immigrants to New Orleans, lived and worked in the same areas as African Americans. Jazz started in New Orleans in the Black population in the early 1900s, but Italian Americans performed in bands with African Americans. That’s why Italian Americans are so steeped in jazz.

I put a stage show together on the history of Italian influence on jazz and launched it at the Birdland Jazz Club in Manhattan. I started with the LaRocca song, then told the story of how Italian Americans started in jazz and then came up to Chicago.

Fra Noi: It seems like you are creating visuals, via your wardrobe, hairstyling and photo styling, to recreate the glamour of the 1940s and ’50s. Is that something you do intentionally?

Racci: Absolutely. I do all my own marketing. That came from working at an ad agency and also as a marketing exec at Pepsico. I just left in April 2021 to pursue music full time.

I’m performing, producing. I teach voice to students and also have a marketing consultancy where I use what I’ve learned from large companies to help artists develop their businesses.

Fra Noi: What do you hope to accomplish in 2022?

Racci: Record and launch my new album, perform shows at Italian fests, jazz clubs and events across the county. I have a whole roster of shows.

One is “Forbidden Love,” the love story of Connie Francis and Bobby Darin. I’m selling that show (to producers who book entertainment) as well as the show on the history of Italian-American jazz. I also do a jazz Valentine’s show, a Christmas show and an “Ode to Gershwin” show.

Some people are booking for this year, but some are hesitant due to COVID.

It’s still busy if you are creative. For example, the Italian American Women’s Center of New York City hired me to do a performance and lecture on Italian Americans and the history of jazz.

I’ve also done virtual shows, like a performance for the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles. And I do virtual performances from home.

Fra Noi: When are you coming to Chicago?

Racci: I don’t know. Normally, I perform at the Rockford Italian-American festival, but they canceled it the last two years.

To learn more, click here.

To sign up for Racci’s mailing list, follow her on social media, or book a live or virtual show, visit vanessaracci.com. To support the production of her second album, click here.

The above appears in the May 2022 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.

A journalist on an incredible journey, Nicola Orichuia parlayed his passion for reading and knowledge into the first bricks-and-mortar Italian bookstore in the United States.

There are two things you need to know about Nicola Orichuia. Though he was born in Italy to Italian parents, his dad’s globetrotting career gave him an international perspective. Still, he is thoroughly Italian, transmitting the love of his native land to his new home in America. Also, he loves to read and share knowledge.

OK, that’s four things, but from those characteristics flow many of his achievements, from a journalism career in Rome, to his coming to Chicago and writing for Fra Noi, to the Italian-American magazine he launched in Boston, which resulted in the first brick-and-mortar Italian bookstore in the United States. Dubbed I AM Books, it quickly evolved into a cultural hub.

Orichuia now lives in a Boston suburb with his wife, Alessandra, and their three children. A surgeon at Lahey Clinic, Alessandra pursued a medical degree from Tor Vergata University in Rome and followed that with a two-year research position at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She completed her surgical residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and Orichuia was with her every step of the way.

Those joint decisions — and no small amount of fate — have played significant roles in a remarkable journey that includes a two-decade-plus tenure as Fra Noi’s Italian editor. He’s covered a lot of ground in his 40 years. Let’s start from the beginning.

FRA NOI: Let’s talk about your roots in Italy. You’re from Roma?

ORICHUIA: I moved to Rome when I was 13. Before that, we globetrotted. My father worked for Eni, the oil company. We lived in Germany, Malaysia, China, Russia. My mom eventually said to my dad, “We have to give these kids some roots.” So we went to Rome.

When I was 17, I did my senior year of high school here in the United States, in St. Louis. After that, it was mostly Rome. I was studying communications, and two years into it, I was working for a small political newspaper right in the heart of Rome. I just fell in love with the world of journalism.

I graduated a month after Alessandra (then his girlfriend), even though my program was half the length, because I spent so much time working at that newspaper. She said, “I’m going to [do my medical] residency in the U.S. Hurry up and get your degree.”

We actually met as foreign exchange students. She went to Detroit, but we met on our way back to Italy. We married in Chicago in 2010 before moving to Boston.

FRA NOI: Tell me how your stay in Chicago unfolded.

ORICHUIA: I moved from Italy to Chicago in 2008 and did my master’s in journalism from Columbia College Chicago. I had reached out to a number of publications [seeking journalistic opportunities], and Paul Basile of Fra Noi responded. So I met with Paul, and we hit it off immediately.

FRA NOI: How did that seed grow into your bookstore?

ORICHUIA: In 2010, my wife and I moved to Boston, but I kept working with Paul and noticed the lack of an Italian-American journalistic presence in Boston.

I launched a website called Bostoniano, people were starting to go on it, and I said to Paul, “Let’s have Fra Noi here.” In December 2012, we launched Bostoniano in a paper format.

Then, one day in early 2015, I [was having] coffee with a friend who had a business in the North End, and he said he was closing and didn’t have rent money for the nine months left on his lease. I said, “Let me think about taking it over.”

My original thought was to have cultural events, but we had to make money to pay the rent. I thought, why not a bookstore? So I went with it.

It was a hole in the wall, and even though we were across from the Paul Revere house, a major tourist attraction, we were on the dead side of the neighborhood. But we were just excited to have space.

When we opened, we had to learn how to do everything — order books from publishers, set up a point of sale. But people bought into the idea of what we were trying to do.

FRA NOI: It’s amazing that it all fell into place. How did you make the business successful?

ORICHUIA: What helped us was starting to put together events in the store. I think we had been open 10 days, and I get an email from Tomie dePaola’s assistant. The year before, I had pushed Tomie to Paul Basile. We managed to get Tomie on the cover of Fra Noi. So two years go by, and I didn’t think of reaching out to Tomie, but he reached out to me and said, “We’d like to do a signing at your store.” The first time he came, 350 people showed up. He came the second and the third year, and we’d have 700 or 800 people stand in line for hours. Tomie is one of the reasons we survived the first few years. Seeing how attached people were to [Tomie’s] work, it made me understand how people are attached to certain books and authors. I was heartbroken when I heard of his passing.

FRA NOI: What is the bookstore’s mission, and what happened to Bostoniano?

ORICHUIA: I closed Bostoniano a year after opening the bookstore. The last issue was in fall 2016. For the bookstore, I AM Books is a play on words. It stands for Italian-American books, but we promote Italy, Italian culture and everything in between. Let’s create a space where if you have some connection to Italy or the immigrant experience, you’ll find something. Or at least you’ll feel at home, and there’s a space for you.

FRA NOI: Tell us how you survived the pandemic.

ORICHUIA: The bookstore opened in October 2015, and we were there until October 2020. When the pandemic hit in March 2020, we closed the store and did curbside pickup. Our business kind of died out. Our lease was coming up, and our landlord wouldn’t cut us a break, so we closed. That forced me to invest my time in the website and the e-commerce side of things. I had never paid much attention to it.

With e-commerce, we went basically from 0 to 100. Suddenly, everyone’s ordering from us online. I started sending newsletters, being more active on social media. People in other places discovered us. We had customers before in New York and Connecticut, but then we started getting orders from Illinois, California, even places like Idaho.

I had to lay off the bookstore employees, but I put all the inventory in my basement and set up a shipping center. I’d have dozens of orders every day. It really supported the business.

So I was working from home, and someone from the neighborhood reaches out and says, “We should get the bookstore back up.” I was seeing what was available and found the 124 Salem St. address.

The ground floor space had sat empty since the building was built around 2016. The rent was high but reasonable, so I said, “Let’s give it a try.” From when I signed the lease in the spring [of 2021], I had to get construction done. We opened one week before Christmas 2021.

When I signed the lease last summer, it looked like the pandemic was basically over. Then, all of a sudden there’s delta, there’s omicron. But people still came. People were so excited to have us.

FRA NOI: Tell us about the events at the bookstore.

ORICHUIA: I have an events coordinator, Chiara Durazzini, who’s originally from Florence. We launched two online series. One is called “Libriamo;” it focuses on Italian authors who have been translated into English. The second series, “Our Voyage,” focuses on Italian-American themes and authors.

The inspiration for these events is a festival that we launched in 2018, Idea Boston. We hosted two days of 20 presentations, theater performances, photo exhibits. We repeated it in 2019. We were thinking about how we’d do it in 2020, but then the pandemic hit. I haven’t abandoned the idea of doing it in the future.

To join Orichuia on this remarkable journey, visit iambooksboston.com.

The above appears in the April 2022 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.

A clinical scientist at the National Institutes of Health since 1996 and a program director since 2007, Dr. Lynn Sorbara is helping make early cancer detection a reality.

Imagine going to the doctor for your annual checkup, providing a small sample of blood or saliva for testing, and learning a few days later whether you’re in the clear or dealing with the early stages of cancer.

Identifying the dread disease that early would increase your chances of survival, as well as minimize your pain and the disruption to your family. More people would be spared the terror of suddenly learning they have stage 4 cancer, with only months to live.

Such a test, referred to as a liquid biopsy, is the goal of clinical scientist Lynn Sorbara, who has spent years of her distinguished career at the National Institutes of Health working on its development.

Sorbara chose to go into medical research when doctors were unable to diagnose her father, whose family was from Calabria, as she, her Sicilian-born mother and her younger brother watched on anxiously.

She earned her Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology and has advanced through the echelons of medical research science ever since. She became a clinical staff scientist at the National Institutes of Health in 1996 and a program director in 2007.

However, she still makes time to delight in Italian culture. She’s second vice president of the Abruzzo and Molise Heritage Society in the D.C. area, where she lives. She’s also writing a pair of books about her family’s Italian roots and traditions.

Fra Noi: You have said your father’s death at a young age had a great impact on you and inspired you to go into medical research. What happened?

Sorbara: I think even before my father’s death, I was the kind of kid that was curious and fascinated with how things work. My father was sick a lot. In December 1969, he came down with strep throat. By March, he was in excruciating pain. He died of streptococcal meningitis.

As I was growing up, I thought, “Why didn’t anybody know what this was?” We lived in New York City at the time; it was 1970, and I was 14. My brother was 8.

As it turns out, my brother and I have celiac disease. I was hospitalized 14 times in my life for fevers above 105. No one could figure it out. I went to the best immunologist here in D.C., and they figured out I was a celiac, so probably my father was, too. It gave me this fire in my heart to find out what was wrong. I didn’t want others to have to suffer like we did. So I decided to dedicate my life to research.

Fra Noi: What did you do next?

Sorbara: My mother only had a part-time job, and it became clear we were living near the poverty line, so I got a job in a department store. In my senior year, I wanted to go to college to study biology and chemistry. My mom said, “You have to get a full-time job.” One of my high school teachers found out CUNY was basically free for people with our income.

I got a job for six hours a day with a company owned by Aristotle Onassis. There was a time when I even worked directly for (him). So I was able to go to college for free, and still work and help support the family.

Fra Noi: Were there any serendipitous moments when you thought, “This is what I’m meant to be doing”?

Sorbara: Research is really a lot of disappointments. But there’s always a couple of wonderful things that happen, and it kind of pushes you along.

My Ph.D. thesis was on a drug called Taxol. We had no idea what this drug was.

We knew from early experiments that it was powerful and could be used for cancer. It turned out to be one of the most widely used drugs in the world. It’s still used today for lung, breast and sometimes testicular cancer, though immunotherapies are becoming more popular because they have less side effects.

So that was a big reason for me to keep on going. The difference in my mind between a physician who’s treating one person at a time, and a researcher — I always felt that doing research would be a contribution to hundreds of thousands of people in the world. What physicians do is important, but I felt my calling was to contribute to research.

Fra Noi: After graduation, you worked in diabetes research at Rockefeller University, then Mount Sinai, then the National Institutes of Health. But what you really wanted to do was work on cancer research. Why?

Sorbara: I think I felt cancer was the bigger problem. There were very few people surviving cancer at the time. You’d hear the word cancer, and everyone would think it’s a death sentence.

At the National Cancer Institute, I was hired when pathology was starting to look at genetics, genetics sequencing and DNA to make a diagnosis. This was in its infancy.

For me, it was very rewarding because we were learning something new about how to help patients every day. A lot of NIH patients were children under 12 with sarcomas. It was difficult to see those kids suffering, so if our lab could make a correct diagnosis, we were helping them.

Fra Noi: You changed jobs within the NIH in 2007. Tell us about that.

Sorbara: I became a program director who oversees grants, not in a financial but in a scientific way.

When I was working in the lab, liquid biopsy tests were in their infancy. When I became a program director, I realized there was a lack of funding for liquid biopsy work, and they didn’t have a way to use liquid biopsy for early detection.

My supervisor and I wrote a program and went up the chain in the NIH and NCI [National Cancer Institute]. We received millions of dollars to support research on early detection using liquid biopsy.

It has now become a really big thing because there are two companies, Grail and Guardant, and both are trying to get approval for their liquid biopsy technology for early detection.

Fra Noi: You and your supervisor wrote a commentary that called liquid biopsy the “holy grail,” and CNN reported on that and used your phrase. Why is it the holy grail?

Sorbara: It will change the way medical decision-making with cancer is done.

I’m a speck in an ocean of people who are doing this research, and if I live long enough to see this done, it will be a massive achievement. I would be elated.

It’s such an important advance. There are very few things that completely change the way medicine is done. Penicillin was one of those things. The polio vaccine is one of those things. This will be one of these things.

The following disclaimer is provided by Sorbara’s employer: This material should not be interpreted as representing the viewpoint of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health or the National Cancer Institute.

The above appears in the January 2022 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.

Heeding a calling one cold night 20 years ago, Dr. Patrick Angelo has been helping the homeless ever since, recently launching a business and a nonprofit to fund even greater efforts.

Even 20 years later, Dr. Patrick Angelo struggles to explain the freezing February night when he felt a command to get into his car and drive downtown to go feed and warm the homeless.

He didn’t know his way around downtown Chicago. But after making some random turns, he arrived at a homeless encampment on Lower Wacker Drive, where he had never been before.

For about 13 years, Angelo spent four nights a week buying food with his own money and bringing it to about 70 people per night in their makeshift shelters in the bowels of the city. He kept up that schedule even while working his day job as a periodontist and developing a business called The Angelo Method. Recently patented, TAM helps people with diabetes and excess weight regain their health. Angelo plans to funnel 100 percent of the profits from the business into helping the homeless, just as Paul Newman donated profits from his salad dressings to charity.

When a Chicago Tribune article came out in 2013 dubbing Angelo “The Angel of Lower Wacker Drive,” several people came forward to help the “angel” dispense sandwiches and kind words. Since then, he has expanded the operation, hiring a leader to coordinate a network of volunteers, though he continues to fund the endeavor out of his own pocket. Six months ago, he finally filed to form a nonprofit and receive 501(c)3 tax status.

Solving the problem of homelessness is not as simple as giving people homes, Angelo says, explaining that most of the “unhoused” people he meets are addicted to heroin, and people with that addiction can’t function in society. While his day job involves helping people bust sugar and carbohydrate addictions, heroin is so highly addictive that it’s much tougher to kick, he notes.

Getting to know street people has also taught Angelo that many kids — and large swaths of youth on the South and West sides of Chicago — grow up without things middle-class people take for granted, such as enough food to eat, money for necessities, two parents in their lives and a safe neighborhood to live in. That creates hurdles for them as they simply try to make it from day to day.

Angelo, 69, who says most people call him by the nickname Doc, found time to chat with Fra Noi.

Fra Noi: Before that night when you felt the instruction, or command, were you concerned about the homeless?

Angelo: No, I had never thought anything with regard to the homeless or people panhandling or standing on the street.

Fra Noi: Take us back to that very first night.

Angelo: It was 2000 or 2001. It was really cold. So you’re home in a nice house and you’re working, and you have the amenities of middle-class America, and the message was, “Go downtown. Feed people who are cold and hungry.” I guess you could say it was a thought, but this was more like someone had me by the shoulders and was shaking me. I’m a Catholic, and it was like Jesus saying, “I’ve given you everything, and you’re not giving enough back.” So it was like 9 o’clock at night, and I got dressed and went to Walgreens and bought hand warmers and gloves and socks.

Fra Noi: So you set out on this freezing night, going on faith. What happened next?

Angelo: I drove downtown, but I’m not a downtown person. I just knew to get off (the expressway) at Ohio Street. The next thing I see is Rock ’n’ Roll McDonalds. So I said, “Give me 120 hamburgers and 70 coffees.” I figured now I’m ready. I took a right on Clark, and I’m looking for people. Now it’s about 10 p.m. I haphazardly took a left, and there was a little street off of Lake Street, and you can turn left, so I did. Within that two- or three-mile stretch we call Lower Wacker, I found 73 people. They were basically in boxes — like refrigerator or stove boxes. I started handing out hand warmers and coffee and clothes. I was there for hours and probably didn’t leave until after 1:30. I kept finding people.

I wouldn’t believe the story if someone else told me, because I never even knew Lower Wacker existed. I don’t want to say divine intervention, but it was odd to have my car just wind up there.

Fra Noi: So you kept on returning to feed the homeless? Four nights a week?

Angelo: I found out that a church group from Evanston was doing it Mondays and a group of nuns was doing it Wednesdays and another group had Sundays, but no one was doing it Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. So from about 2004-13, when the Tribune article appeared, I was doing those four days a week by myself.

I’m 69 years old now. Here I was running this company, doing surgery, and I have five kids, and that became like a part-time job.

So the 2013 Tribune article bailed me out, because people came forward and were able to take some days from me. A gentleman named Mike Roach took Thursdays and had the financial wherewithal to do it himself. Some other church groups, I financially backed them, and they did it. So that’s the loose organization we’ve had since 2013.

About six months ago, I formed a 501(c)3 called The Angel of Lower Wacker Drive Fund and hired a chief giving officer, Aaron Garza. Because this has gotten so big, he really helps me. We cover seven nights.

I would say there have to be at least 30-40 volunteers that help us. So now I’ll go consistently one night a week to Lower Wacker, but then I’m overseeing it. And I’m out in some capacity doing something every day. We’re now also serving Humboldt Park, Pilsen, Uptown, the tent city on Des Plaines and Taylor, and others.

Fra Noi: The need is so great.

Angelo: This last winter was really a wake-up call. That’s why I want to start the 501(c)3, because this has gotten too big for me. I’ve been funding this myself all these years, but for the first time, I realized that I need help.

This (past) winter, for 17 days in February, the high was 16, and the low was minus 8. We had two or three vans out every night picking people up, driving them to shelters. We were putting people up in hotels. We spent $20,000 in 17 days.

There was one boy, a 26-year-old — they called him Picasso because he was such a good artist. We missed him one night. One of our volunteers found him at 6:30 a.m. He was frozen to death. As sad as that is, we have no idea how many people we helped those nights.

Fra Noi: It sounds like you’re growing synchronicity between your profession and your mission to help the homeless.

Angelo: I’m a periodontist, but what I do now is I own The Angelo Method for diabetes reversal and weight loss. We’re able to reverse diabetes and chronic disease. We haven’t had anyone who has been motivated who has failed.

TAM (The Angelo Method) based on Newman’s Own, where profits from his salad dressing funds a charity for kids with cancer: Half the profits [from The Angelo Method] will go to the Angel of Lower Wacker Drive Fund to help homeless people suffer less, and the other half to mentoring them.

There’s a group we support that helps West and South side youth — it’s mostly business owners who give kids summer jobs. You have to give these kids a mentor.

The only way to have fewer heroin addicts is to give kids chances to not be part of the problem, but be part of the solution. If a kid has a single parent and no money and lives in a violent area, they don’t have a lot of opportunities.

If you look at impoverished areas, there are either homeless or there are addictions, and people aren’t trained for jobs. Why would we expect anything else if we’re not putting time and money into helping these kids?

I’m an expert on addictions, because for 20 years, I’ve been working with people addicted to heroin, cocaine and alcohol. The great majority of people without homes are addicted to heroin.

If you diagnose a person who’s homeless, you might think the solution is to give them a home. But it’s not the solution. It’s solvable, but not by giving them a home.

When you have an addiction, it’s really hard to get rid of it by yourself. We stay with them and love them and give them what we can. But for heroin, you have to get them to want to quit, then get them on treatment, then get them out of the environment down there. If you don’t, they’re probably going to fail.

Fra Noi: Tell us about your family.

Angelo: My mom was Sicilian; her parents were born in Catania. They lived in the Taylor Street area.

My dad’s grandpa, Pasqual Angellichio, came from Calabria. At Ellis Island, he held his (immigration) card up, and a police officer crossed off the “licchio” and put an “o” to make it Angelo. My grandfather protested, and the policeman punched him, knocked him down, threw the card at him and said, “Welcome to America, you little greaseball. Move on.” And that’s always stuck with me.

My dad came back from World War II and became a Chicago police officer, later chief investigator of the Cook County coroner.

Until around age 7, we lived in Garfield Park. I remember fighting every day and physically enjoying it, because that was my environment, and I was going to survive. Then, when we moved to near St. Francis Borgia (on the city’s Northwest Side), it was like the suburbs, and by eighth grade, I wanted to be a priest. That’s why I understand the environment those kids are in, because I was in that environment. My young brain thought of violence and survival, and then when I was put in another environment, I changed.

And I never forget that. It’s with me every day.

The Angel of Lower Wacker Drive Fund is accepting contributions at 5440 N. Cumberland Ave., Suite 225, Chicago, Illinois, 60656. For more information, call 773-389-5544 or click here.

The above appears in the December 2021 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.

A standout high school teacher and director for decades, she now fosters theater at every level throughout the state.

Carmel De Stefano loved theater as a child, studied it as an undergrad and beyond, and taught and directed it for decades at the high school level. All of that has prepared her well for her current theatrical turn, as a leader since 2016 in the Illinois Theatre Association.

After immersing herself in theater throughout her youth and earning a bachelor of arts in theater and broadcasting out east, the Niagara Falls, New York, native decided to head west. Arriving in Chicago in 1976 to attend the Goodman School of Drama, she was offered a chance to direct a play at a girls’ Catholic high school. She got hired and taught there for eight years, then became head drama coach at Reavis High School in Burbank for 26 years. There, she taught, directed plays and prepared students for the Illinois High School Association’s theatrical competitions, enjoying a string of successes.

After De Stefano retired from the ranks of high school educators in 2016, she began the fourth act in her highly theatrical life. That same year, she became executive director of the Illinois High School Theatre Festival, an annual celebration of theater with more than 4,000 student and teacher attendees and participants. She went on to serve as second vice president of the festival’s sponsoring organization, the Illinois Theatre Association, which works with high school, college, community, and professional programs and companies throughout the state. The spotlight is now on her as president of the ITA.

Fra Noi: When was your first exposure to theater, and what was your reaction to it?

De Stefano: I think “Fiddler on the Roof” was the first show I saw. It was just the fact you were transported into another world. You’re sitting there in that theater, and those actors became friends of yours, and they were talking to you.

Fra Noi: What is it about theater that you loved then? Has your love for theater, or relationship with it, changed over the years?

De Stefano: Yeah, it probably went from a love to an addiction or an obsession. I adore theater. I adore directing. I adore seeing theater. I love working with people and creating shows.

Fra Noi: Tell us about your Italian family.

De Stefano: My parents were my rock and my protector, and my mom was a sounding board. You could talk and she would listen, and she wouldn’t say anything. But later, she’d say one thing and put it all in perspective. I miss that.

My family was very Italian. We still do some of the traditions, getting together before Christmas and making cappelletti, and always having a house full of people.

My father made sure when I graduated from SUNY (State University of New York) that I had a degree in theater and broadcasting, but he also made sure I had a teaching certification, which I thought I’d never use. My father was not thrilled about me going into theater, but when he realized I was going to do it, he gave me a program of a show that his older brothers had been in, and my dad said he had helped. So members of the family were interested in theater.

When I said, “Dad, I’m going to move out,” he said, “You should stay home and marry a nice boy.” When I moved to Chicago, they came out and helped me fix up my studio apartment. I said, “I don’t think I’m ever going to get married,” so he drove a car out here and gave it to me and said, “Here, this was your wedding money.”

Fra Noi: How did you get to Chicago?

De Stefano: After my final year of college, I remember thinking I needed to move someplace else. There was no way my dad would let me move to New York. My sister had just married a guy from Chicago, and if there’s family there, it’s OK. I came here in 1976.

I asked a professor at SUNY, who had done Broadway shows and we really respected him, where to go in Chicago, and he said the Goodman School of Drama, and I auditioned and got in.

Fra Noi: What were and are your impressions of Chicago’s theater scene compared to other places?

De Stefano: I was in awe of it. In 1976-77, it was the year Steppenwolf started performing. I was gobbling it up. I lived in the city in an apartment, even though my sister was in a suburb. It was exciting. There were young people, and there was storefront theater. And it was very accessible to go see shows. Most theaters are expensive now, even storefronts.

Fra Noi: What happened at Goodman and afterward?

De Stefano: At Goodman, I was finishing up the second year, and one of my professors said to me, “Carm, you’ve worked with high school kids. My cousin is the head of a girls’ school, and she needs a director for a show.” So I did it, and I loved it. It was the Academy of the Sacred Heart.

They made me the dean of students. I adored it. The only problem was it didn’t pay a lot, and I had to waitress at the same time.

Then, I got a job at Reavis High School in Burbank, south of Midway Airport. I went from a 105-person girls’ school to having 150 kids in my class during the day in a more blue-collar setting.

We would do a comedy, a drama, a musical and a competition piece for the Illinois High School Association’s theatrical division. [The competition entry is] a 40-minute contest play. You take it to a place to perform, and you have 15 minutes to put up your set.

Then we did group interp (another category in the IHSA theatrical competition), which is more like a reader’s theater.

Reavis, for a school that didn’t have a theater curriculum, grew into a powerhouse for contest play and group interp. With group interp, I think I did 22 of them, and 17 went down to state. We won first place once.

Fra Noi: So you retired and took another job?

De Stefano: The year I retired from Reavis High School, 2016, I was asked to be executive director of the Illinois High School Theatre Festival. It’s sponsored by the Illinois Theatre Association.

After that, I joined the Illinois Theatre Association board. I ran for second vice president. Now I’m president. All the board members are volunteer positions.

The focus of the Illinois Theatre Association is more on schools. But we have all the other categories: professional, theater for young audiences, community theater, etc.

Fra Noi: What’s your advice for someone who aspires to work in theater?

De Stefano: My advice to students, and parents who’d panic about kids majoring in theater in college: I’d say let them do it. Go for it. You may go down a different path, but at least you tried it. I meet so many people who regret not trying.

I got to do theater, but I also got to make a pretty good living by teaching.

The above appears in the October 2021 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.

A former Eagle Scout, Army officer and CFO, Brian Caputo brought all those skill sets to bear in steering the College of DuPage through the pandemic.

If you’re facing a real crisis — say, the need to keep a 21,000-student college going through a global pandemic — it’s not a bad idea to have a guy like Brian Caputo in charge.

Caputo started honing his leadership skills as a teen in the Chicago suburbs, earning his Boy Scouts of America Eagle Award, then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served in the active and reserve military, gaining a specialty in finance and human resources and eventually becoming a lieutenant colonel.

Enjoying the precision of working in finance, he earned a master’s degree from DePaul and served in several suburban governments, eventually spending 19 years as chief financial officer (CFO) of the city of Aurora. Along the way, he picked up a second master’s, this time in public administration, from Northern Illinois University, and then a Ph.D.

Commanding the title of Dr. Caputo, he switched jobs in 2017 to become CFO at the College of DuPage (COD) because he wanted to help students move forward in life. In July 2019, he stepped into the president’s role at the community college — just a couple of months before the pandemic hit. Caputo spoke with Fra Noi about his experiences and his Italian heritage.

Fra Noi: You’ve been College of DuPage president for about two years now. No one could have anticipated the pandemic. Looking back on it, what were some of the biggest challenges?

Brian Caputo: I’d say first there was no clear right path forward.

The most difficult piece was keeping the college community safe and delivering educational services. We had opinions ranging from, “There doesn’t appear to be a pandemic to me,” to people who were petrified, so it was tricky.

As far as teaching online, COD has had a 20-year run at online education. When you pivot an entire institution from 20 percent to 90 percent being remote, that was a task. That part was probably the second most difficult — getting everybody online.

Fra Noi: Were there students who lost family incomes due to COVID-19? And what about those who struggle to pay tuition even in regular times?

Caputo: We have about 40 percent of students on Pell grants, a need-based federal grant program. When something like this happens, families absolutely lose income. We had need-based scholarships. Some racial groups were hit harder than others. Our Latinx population was about 27 percent of the student body and dropped to 25 percent. We believe it’s likely that’s because of their culture. They pulled together to work to support the family.

As far as more basic educational needs, you might think every student has their own laptop. We realized many students would [before the pandemic] use our computer labs. So when campus mostly closed, where do they go? We had to give them laptops, but they may not have had Wi-Fi at home. So we had to purchase hotspots to make those available to students so the educational process could keep going.

Fra Noi: What are the next steps for COD?

Caputo: We are the largest community college in Illinois. Our 21,000 students represent a drop from 25,000. It’s been a decline in Illinois for a while. We’ve had a lot of outmigration to neighboring states. Also, there has been a smaller high school population in Illinois, or at least in our area.

All three of my kids went through COD. It offers a great way to get an education for the first two years. Classes are small, taught by real professors with Ph.D.s. The facilities are great. So you can save money.

There’s a massive skills gap in higher education now. Many jobs are hard for employers to fill. They don’t [necessarily] need people with a full bachelor’s, but they need some education, and they need these people now. COD has 170 degree and certificate programs — everything from nursing to chemistry, vocational skills, HVAC. You name it, we’ve got it.

Fra Noi: What is your vision for COD?

Caputo: Student success is the North Star. We are trying to help students get where they want to go as efficiently as possible — to figure out what they want to do and get there without taking a lot of credits that don’t count toward degrees.

We’re trying to push college courses down into high schools. High school superintendents want more dual credit courses [classes for which students receive high school and college credit at the same time]. These courses are free to high school students, and they get acquainted with COD and are more likely to come to us.

Fra Noi: Looking at your bio, you were a “Boy Scouts guy,” a “military guy,” a “financial guy” and now a “higher education guy.” Which of these plays the greatest role in who you are today?

Caputo: I would say that the common thread is leadership and public service. I’ve always been attracted to responsibility and making as much of a difference as I can. I’ve always tried to take on responsibility and do the best I can for the betterment of the organization.

Fra Noi: Tell us about your parents and where you grew up.

Caputo: I grew up in Prospect Heights and Arlington Heights and went to Hersey High School in Arlington Heights. My father spent some time in the Air Force, but he mostly sold insurance. My mom was an office manager in mostly manufacturing firms.

I have a brother who’s two years younger, and he’s a retired Barrington Hills police officer. I also have a sister, and she runs a cell phone store.

Fra Noi: What is your Italian background and identity?

Caputo: I’m Italian on my dad’s side, but that was by far the predominant influence. Both my father’s father and mother came from Southern Italy. My grandpa was from Calabria. They had Sunday get-togethers, and my grandparents played very large roles in my life in how they encouraged me. I don’t think I’d be the same person if not for them. My grandpa came over, was a tailor, and he did well for himself. I don’t think he graduated from even middle school. That was a time when if you were industrious, you could do well for yourself. We had a very wide network of relatives, so a lot of Italians!

Fra Noi: What about your own family?

Caputo: I am married about 30 years now. We met in middle school but didn’t get married until age 30. We had different paths and got together later. My wife, Karen, is a retired high school teacher.

We have three children. The oldest son graduated from COD, went to UIC and is now an Army captain. Our second son is a carpenter — he works locally — and my daughter is entering her senior year at Aurora University, studying social work.

Fra Noi: You mentioned going to Italy would be on your bucket list. Anything else?

Caputo: There’s just so much work to actually get COD into a place where I’d like it to be. I’ve got a pretty darn full plate for several years to come.

The above appears in the September 2021 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.

Anna Bonavita nonprofit tour series uplifts the towns she explores while immersing visitors in a rejuvenating culinary, cultural and communal experience.

Science launched Anna Bonavita’s career, but an appreciation for art led her to create an Italian film festival, a cultural center and a series of highly personal, connoisseur-level cultural tours to Italy.

After she immigrated to the United States to work in Minneapolis, her quest for friendship, community and the familiar comforts of Italy propelled her to start the film festival. A random event stirred up a romance with an Italian senator, who came to Minneapolis to help her create the cultural center, and the two married.

After cancer took his life, Bonavita’s process of grieving and healing led her to explore the small towns of his native Emilia-Romagna. Those towns contained remarkable treasures, but a lack of jobs was forcing young people to leave, precipitating a slow decline. From the ashes of Bonavita’s grief grew a desire to help, and Esperienza, a nonprofit tour series, was born.

She designs tours that include language and culture, but also exquisite meals at world-class restaurants. Halted by COVID, the tours will continue next year, and Bonavita will make sure they include plenty of time for participants to develop relationships with Italians and experience the pleasures — gastronomic, artistic and otherwise — of Italian life.

Bonavita spoke to Fra Noi from her Minneapolis home.

Fra Noi: You grew up in Bulgaria. How did you develop an affection for Italy, and how did you come to the United States?

Bonavita: It was very easy because the Italian culture was quite welcome in Eastern Europe. The Italian Communist Party was quite pro-Soviet, and as a result, Italian culture was widely celebrated in Russia, Bulgaria and elsewhere. So you heard Italian on the radio, you listened to Italian music, you read Italian books.

As for how I got to the United States — well, again, it goes back to politics. At the end of the Cold War, the economy collapsed, and there were no jobs. I was fresh out of university. I have a Ph.D. in physics, so it was possible to leave. I was most fortunate to be able to come and do research at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. Then I moved to Minneapolis for a job. But I found myself isolated, and I started thinking about founding an Italian cultural center because I knew that plenty of Americans were fascinated with Italy.

Fra Noi: Tell us how you met your husband.

Bonavita: In 2003, I went to a wedding in England. A friend in Emilia-Romagna had had a bicycle accident, so I took a flight to Italy to see her. That’s where I met my husband, who was at that time one of the senators from Emilia-Romagna for the republic of Italy. When he retired, he decided to discover America. So he joined me in Minnesota in 2006. We got married in 2010.

Fra Noi: Did you and he pursue Italian identity in some way?

Bonavita: I started work on the Italian Cultural Center (of Minneapolis) in January 2006. He arrived in September, and we had the inauguration. The whole thing started because we wanted to have an Italian film festival but needed to pay for a theater. Someone suggested starting an Italian cultural center and having the revenue from language classes pay for it. We did and it proved successful. In 2009, I became the director of the Italian Film Fest of Minneapolis/St. Paul. I believe in sharing the beauty of Italian culture; it belongs to humanity.

Fra Noi: We understand you went through a difficult period and had to grieve and heal.

Bonavita: Yes, cancer took my husband. But in spite of that, I feel like to have met him was one of the greatest gifts in my life.

When he got ill, we moved to Italy so he could be close to his family and friends. After he died, I didn’t want to come back because it was a painful experience. But the universe works in amazing ways. When you struggle, people step forward and help you. And that’s how I discovered the friendships of people in these small towns. One woman took me to this little town, Pennabilli, to show me the beauty there.

So many aspects of this town appealed to my soul. I kept going back, and eventually I made friends there. But it’s losing young people; there are no jobs. So I thought, “Let’s have a summer Italian language program here and bring a little life.” But I’m a foodie and I’ve studied seriously, and I thought of also offering a gastronomy tour. This is how Esperienza came to life.

Fra Noi: How did Esperienza evolve?

Bonavita: The planning started in 2017, and the first group came in August 2018. I worked with a group of volunteers, and we did everything.

So we took the group to Osteria Francescana, Massimo Bottura’s restaurant, which was declared the best in the world, but also to Casa Artusi. We went from casalinga cooking, which is essential for understanding Italian cooking, to Massimo Bottura. It was extraordinary.

We had a deep immersion language class. We brought a band and danced and sang with the residents. We arranged with a local meat shop, museum, bar and grocery that our students would “help” them for an hour or so. It gave our participants the opportunity for direct interaction.

From the very beginning, Esperienza offered a different type of travel — connecting with people. We also imagined travel that benefits the local environment, the cultural heritage, the community, the economy. When we make a profit — next year, I hope — 100 percent will go back to local projects. Our travel is carbon neutral.

Fra Noi: What are your future plans?

Bonavita: We decided to look forward to 2022 because it could be a little risky this year. So we’ll do two language immersions: one in Pennabilli and one in Verucchio, also a fascinating place. Villanova culture was based there. It’s pre-Etruscan. If you could just see the jewelry these women were wearing five centuries before Christ — stunning! We’ll do a special immersion focusing on food and language.

In total, we’ll do two language tours, two culinary tours, a mosaic tour in Ravenna, known as the capital of mosaics, and one in Faenza, a world capital of ceramics.

Fra Noi: Why is it important to save towns in Italy where population is declining?

Bonavita: I was born in a village, and I appreciate this way of life. I believe that, especially after COVID, people will realize we derive the most joy from being with small groups of people. In these towns, there is so much beauty, so many opportunities for nurturing relationships. What makes us human can be found in these places; the kindness, generosity, joy of sharing, opportunity to explore. This is where we’re at our best.

For details, click here.

The above appears in the August 2021 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.

As the director of the Chicago office of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Luca Di Vito’s job is to illuminate Italy’s vast cultural treasures and burnish the country’s image around the world.

In a sleek office on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, the Italian government offers up a wealth of cultural riches in the form of movie screenings, lectures on art and architecture, discussions on Dante, and more.

Luca Di Vito, director of the Chicago office of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, explains that Italy provides this resource to promote Italian culture around the world.

The Istituto has a devoted local fan base, but Italian Americans and Italophiles who are just discovering it may feel like they’ve stumbled on a treasure trove of cultural offerings. Even better, most are available to the public for free or just a modest fee.

Di Vito, 47, grew up in his mother’s hometown of Gorizia, then moved to Trieste and Rome. His parents are retired, his mother having worked as a teacher, and his father, originally from Salerno, having served as an officer in the Ministry of Education. Di Vito started his career as an attorney in Italy, hoping to contribute to the social good, but discovered that his passions aligned more with the arts and humanities. He joined the Istituto and has represented it in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

He arrived in Chicago in January 2020 just before the pandemic struck. He quickly pivoted to online offerings and has since live-streamed Italian films. He is planning more events, including animated films and puppet theater for children, starting in September.

Fra Noi: Being director of the Istituto seems like a dream job. You’re working with films, art and culture, and traveling the world. Is it as much fun as it seems?

Luca Di Vito: I consider it to be a gift, a blessing, especially for the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had. It’s a beautiful job — creative and challenging. Every time I come to a different country, I need to understand the perception of Italy in that country. It’s important to give people what they’re expecting but also to present what people are not expecting to see from Italy. I find it stimulating to cooperate with local cultural institutions. I can create a dialogue with the society I’m working with.

Fra Noi: Why does the Italian government fund and offer the Istituto Italiano di Cultura? Considering it must represent a big financial commitment, what is the Italian government’s goal?

Di Vito: This is the reason why the Italian Cultural Institutes are part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and not the Ministry of Culture — that we belong together with embassies, consulates, the Italian Trade Agency, to represent the image of Italy to the world. Cultural institutes are a means to create soft power and influence, to create a positive image of the country. Italy is recognized as a cultural superpower because we have the highest number of UNESCO sites and a long history and tradition in architecture, music, visual arts and painting. So it’s a way to create good relationships with the rest of the world and share these treasures that we have.

Fra Noi: You were posted in Seoul, Korea, from 2007-13. What was your experience like there? Are Koreans familiar with Italian film and art?

Di Vito: It was an enriching experience, probably because it was the first time I confronted myself with such a radically different culture. But the effort I put in was rewarded with friendships that are still lasting. In Korea, Italy is known for specific areas of art. The first one I’d mention is opera, then fashion and design, and then food and wine. There’s a big passion for cinema, but what they know about Italy is that it’s famous for neorealism — Rossellini, De Sica — so it was interesting to bring them contemporary Italian cinema. To surprise people, in a way. And to bring things like Italian jazz music. You could see how people were discovering something new.

Fra Noi: You finished an assignment in Abu Dhabi in November 2019. What was it like there?

Di Vito: I was there for a very short time compared to our usual posting because my task was to open and start from scratch the Italian Cultural Institute there. I had never been to the Gulf area before, so I jumped at the opportunity. I had to rent the building, hire the people and decide what kind of institute it should be. It was not easy, but it’s now working very well.

I would say I discovered an open and tolerant society. When I was there in 2019, Pope Francis visited the United Arab Emirates, the first time in an Arab country, and held a public Mass in the stadium. In fact, there’s an area of Abu Dhabi where you have churches, and people are allowed to worship and follow their religion.

Fra Noi: You arrived in Chicago in January 2020, just before the pandemic hit Italy and then the United States. How did COVID-19 affect your mission?

Di Vito: When I arrive in a country, I like to take it slow, get a perception of the place. I talked to my predecessor in Chicago, Alberta Lai, who did an excellent job here. But I wanted to be here to grasp what the people were like.

The first month I was here, I was overwhelmed by the vibrance and dynamism of Chicago. People were very open to discussing new projects, which is something I have never found anywhere else, so I was really enthusiastic about being here. Then the pandemic changed everything radically.

We started cancelling events, and we transferred language classes online. I’ve been touched that in such a difficult moment, people kept following our activities. It’s a testimony to the passion people feel for Italian arts.

Fra Noi: You have, however, aired movies and virtual events.

Di Vito: We launched this online platform that allows people to see Italian films that are not easy to see in the U.S. One of my interests is to offer works for children. For September, I commissioned a series of short puppet theater shows from Teatro Verde. We will probably release one a week and put them on Vimeo.

We have just launched a membership opportunity, which gives access to a digital library, which is part of a network of 6,000 Italian libraries. So if you become a member for $30, you can download two e-books a month and read Italian newspapers and magazines. You also get a tote bag.

Fra Noi: Do you have a favorite art form?

Di Vito: I would say film is the art that talks to me the most. And I think cinema is the art of our time. It’s like paintings in the Renaissance or Middle Ages, when people would enter a church and see frescoes. Many people were illiterate, so those frescoes were a means of communicating with them. Now we need a tour guide to tell us what those frescoes represent because we don’t have that cultural language. But movies speak to everyone.

The Istituto Italiano di Cultura is located at 500 N. Michigan Ave., Ste. 1450, Chicago. For details, call 312-822-9545, email iicchicago@esteri.it or visit iicchicago.esteri.it.

The above appears in the July 2021 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.