A Night of Humour with the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls

Our emcee Giovanna Riccio, poet and co-organizer of the series at the Annex Live.

August Reading

  

Michelle Alfano is a co-organizer of the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends Reading Series and a Co-Editor with Descant. Her short story “Opera”, on which her novella Made Up Of Arias (Blaurock Press) is based, was a finalist for a Journey Prize anthology. Her fiction and non-fiction work has been widely published in major literary publications. She will be featured in a forthcoming documentary on the passengers, and the children of the passengers, of the Saturnia which will be featured on OMNI-TV. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects.

Sandra Battaglini is a dynamic, high-energy comedic actor, stand-up comedienne, clown and cabaret performer. Her mix of song, opera, contemporary pop, originally choreographed dance and theatrical clown has distinguished her as an innovative artist on the Toronto scene.

Bruna Di Giuseppe-Bertoni was born in Rome Italy. She immigrated with her family to Canada in 1964. Painting and creative writing has been a passion all her life and she has won literary awards for her poetry.  She has published the poetry collection Sentieri D'Italia in Italian.  Her poetry and writing is included in several anthologies  Legacy 2 (Brookridge, 2001), Wordscape (MTB press, 2001), Italian Canadian Voices (Mosaic Press 2006),  Writing beyond History (Cusmamo, 2006), Reflection on Culture and in other anthologies. One of her stories,“1001 stories of Italians in the world”, has been anthologized in a book printed in Italy in 2010.

Terri Favro’s writing springs from her identity as a first-generation Italian-Canadian who grew up consuming Catholic dogma, British fairytales, American game shows, Jell-O butterscotch pudding, her father’s grappa, her mother’s polenta, and the neighbours’ homemade vodka. Terri’s humour articles and fiction have been published in Prism, Riddle Fence, Geist, Accenti, Toro, www.facebook.com/l/427e6; Feathertale.com and More magazines, among others, and her work has been short listed three times for the CBC Literary Awards. She was recently selected as an emerging Toronto writer by Diaspora Dialogues and is currently working on a novel and collaborating on a series of online graphic stories.

Michael Mirolla's latest novel, a speculative fiction saga titled The Facility, is due out in late 2010. In a moment of temporary insanity, the Montreal-Toronto corridor writer, author of a half-dozen books of poetry and fiction, decided he needed his own publishing house and thus, along with another insanity plea partner, bought Guernica Editions. Their motto: "It's fun as long as the madness continues."

David Silverberg has been involved in Canada’s spoken word community since 2001. He founded Suburban Spoken Word in North York and then helped start Toronto Poetry Slam, where he currently serves as host and artistic director. He is part of the Toronto poetry troupe Last Call Poets (myspace.com/lastcallpoets), and his most recent book of poetry is Bags of Wires (LyricalMyrical). He has performed across Canada, including Calgary, Halifax, Vancouver, Ottawa, London and Montreal. He is the editor of Canada’s first spoken word anthology, Mic Check (Quattro Press). His favourite band, yet his most hated food, are Red Hot Chili Peppers.

And as emcee ...

Giovanna Riccio was born in Calabria, Italy and grew up in Toronto where she studied philosophy at the University of Toronto. Her poems have appeared in journals, magazines and newspapers, including the Eyetalian, Poetry Canada Review, CV2, Tickleace, and Italian-Canadiana. Giovanna completed her first manuscript, Strong Bread, earlier this year and is in the process of getting it published. Her dramatic monologue, Vittorio, will be published by LyricalMyrical Press in the spring. She has recently retired from teaching and is working on a new book of poetry.

Launch of Giovanna Riccio's Vittorio

(Not So) Nice Italian Girl Giovanna Riccio launched her new book of poetry Vittorio at supermarket on July 13, 2010 ...

 

Luciano Iacobelli, publisher of Lyricalmyrical and emcee for the night.

Friend Diane Bracuk introduces Giovanna and Vittorio.
 

Poet Giovanna Riccio

Friend Damino Pietropaolo listens attentively to the reading.

Luciano Iacobelli manning the book table.

Announcing the launch of

Vittorio
 by Giovanna Riccio

A dramatic monologue poem 

accompanied by epistolary and catalogue poems

Tuesday July 13th, 7pm 

Supermarket

268 Augusta Avenue
Toronto

Tel. (416) 840-0501

Published by Lyricalmyrical

Italian Canadian Artists Showcase

Thursday, June 24, 2010

7pm - 10 pm.
Live at the Annex Live

296 Brunswick Ave.

(south of Bloor St.)

Come celebrate the living arts with music, comedy, film, performance, poetry and visual art: 

hosted by Gianna Patriarca, John Calabro and Luciano Iacobelli.
with the artists:

Michelle Alfano Valentino Assenza Sandra Battaglini Marco Bernardi 

Marisa Buffone Julie Campagna Domenico Capilongo Raffaela Diana 

Bruna Bertoni Di Giuseppe Sal Greco
Thomas Marchese Roberto Marra 

Michael Mirolla Damiano Pietropaolo Vincenzo Pietropaolo 

Gio Riccio John Romano Daniela Saioni

Special Guest: Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone 

FREE EVENT

EVERYONE WELCOME

June Reading

The evening of readings at Lola's Commissary on Juen 10th
began with the poet Beatriz Hausner reading

from her collection Sew Him Up

Beatriz is, among many other things,
also a Co-Founder of Quattro Books.

Writer Lina Medaglia organized the reading around the 

theme of our fascination with dolls

Lina read from her novel The Demons of Aquilonia.

Diane Bracuk warding off the paparazzi during her reading.

Diane read from her widely published and
fascinating article on the revolutionary aspects of
Barbie in mainstream culture during the 1950s.

Red hot poet and NSNIG&F co-founder 

Giovanna Riccio reading her suite of Barbie poems. 

Giovanna's book of poetry Vittorio will be published

by LyricalMyrical this summer.

Michelle Alfano, NSNIG&F co-founder, served as emcee.
Poet Sonia DiPlacido is in the front row.

Musician Tom Garrett provided a wonderful interlude 

before and after the readings and between sets.

All photographs taken by Reeves Miller. 

The (Not So) Nice Italian Girls read poetry and prose about our fascination with dolls

Diane Bracuk is a freelance writer specializing in health and women's issues. Her fiction and poems have appeared in Canadian journals such as The Antigonish Review, TickleAce and Other Voices. In Great Britain, Diane’s work has been published in Image, Ireland's largest circulation woman's magazine, and You Magazine, part of the Saturday Supplement of England's Daily Mail.

Beatriz Hausner’s poetry is rooted in the legacy of international surrealism, especially its Spanish American expression. Many of her translations have focused on the writers of that literature, including Rosamel del Valle, Enrique Molina, Olga Orozco, César Moro and the poets of Mandrágora, among others. Hausner has worked tirelessly to promote international literature in Canada, through her own translations, as well as her advocacy work (she was President of the Literary Translators' Association of Canada and is one the founders of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre). She is one of the publishers of Quattro Books. Her work has been published in Spanish, French and Portuguese translation. The Wardrobe Mistress was published in 2003. Sew Him Up is her latest poetry collection (2010). By day, Beatriz works as a librarian at the Toronto Public Library.

Lina Medaglia is a teacher, a peace activist, and a crisis counselor for abused women and children. Her writings have included a libretto for a three-hour feminist musical called Casanova, the lyrics for a progressive country album, and two albums of political rock. At the age of eleven, Lina immigrated with her family to Toronto, from a tiny mountain village in Calabria. Her first book, Demons of Aquilonia, is a fictional autobiography based on her family's struggles with 'passing,’ or reinventing identities for the purpose of survival and overcoming. Lina lives and works in Toronto with her family.

Giovanna Riccio was born in Calabria, Italy and grew up in Toronto where she studied philosophy at the University of Toronto. Her poems have appeared in journals, magazines and newspapers, including the Eyetalian, Poetry Canada Review, CV2, Tickleace, and Italian-Canadiana. Giovanna completed her first manuscript, Strong Bread, earlier this year and is in the process of getting it published. Her dramatic monologue, Vittorio, will be published by LyricalMyrical Press in the spring. She has recently retired from teaching and is working on a new book of poetry.

As emcee …
Michelle Alfano is a Toronto writer and a Co-Editor with Descant. Her short story “Opera”, on which her new novella Made Up Of Arias (Blaurock Press, 2008) is based, was a finalist for a Journey Prize anthology. Her fiction and non-fiction work has been widely published in Canada in major literary publications, and has also appeared in the U.S. She will be featured in a forthcoming documentary on the Saturnia, an immigrant ship which transported thousands of Italian-born immigrants to Canada in the 1950s and 60s and which will be featured on OMNI-TV. She is currently at work on a new novel entitled Vita's Pospects.

And music by ...
Tom Garrett has been performing at open stages in and around Toronto since moving to the city in 2003. His acoustic styling is reminiscent of James Taylor mixed with a touch of Springteen.