Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
Cultural showcase
Italian heritage will be amply represented at the 81st Holiday Folk Fair International. The venerable event will take place from Nov. 22-24 at the Exposition Center at Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisconsin. The folk-dance troupes Tradizione Vivente and I Bei Bambini will perform throughout the weekend, and the Italian Community Center of Milwaukee will sponsor a glassblowing display featuring products from Murano, Italy, as well as the artwork of masters like Michelangelo, da Vinci and Botticelli. Cannoli, tiramisù, bomboniere and other dolci will be served in the World Café. For more, click here.
Groundbreaking chef
On the occasion of the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World, the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago will shine the spotlight on a chef who helped introduce Italian home cooking to America. At 6 p.m. on Nov. 20 at the institute, Prof. Grazia Menechella of the University of Wisconsin-Madison will discuss Julia Lovejoy Cuniberti’s “Practical Italian Recipes for American Kitchens” as an important cookbook that promoted “cucina casalinga” as an ideal model for Americans in 1917. The presentation will stress how this Midwesterner from Janesville, Wisconsin, was socially engaged and committed to helping needy families in Italy during World War I while she raised awareness of the benefits of Italian home cooking. For more, click here.
Idol to icon
Frankie Avalon will perform at the Des Plaines Theatre at 3 p.m. on Nov. 24. Born in 1940 and first performing on TV in 1952, the American actor, singer and former teen idol has emerged as a pop icon with one of the most durable careers in show business. He had 31 charting U.S. Billboard singles from 1958 to late 1962 and is the earliest living singer to have scored a solo No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. He started appearing in films in the 1960s and is best known for his beach party movies during that decade as well as his appearance in the 1978 musical film “Grease.” He has had cameo appearances on TV and in the movies in every decade since while maintaining a busy concert tour schedule. For more, click here. For more, click here.
Sumptuous showcase
European history buffs will have a field day at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Deering Family Galleries of Medieval and Renaissance Art, Arms and Armor. Unveiled in 2017, the expansive exhibit showcases nearly 700 objects from the museum’s rich holdings of art from 1200 to 1600 as well as an extensive arms and armor collection. Among the Italian items on display are a terra-cotta altarpiece by Florentine Benedetto Buglioni, works of art for the bedchambers of Tuscany’s merchant elite, and a tempera-on-panel diptych of the Virgin and Child Enthroned and the Crucifixion (pictured). For more, click here.
Several of these look very interesting. Thanks for sending.