The Vito Marcantonio Forum’s efforts at bringing life to East Harlem’s treasure recently yielded results across the Atlantic in the place of his maternal and paternal families - Picerno, Basilicata, southern Italy.
The realization in January 2018 of the VMF’s goal of a street sign with the congressman’s name on it, somewhere relevant in New York City, emitted waves that reached Italian shores.
Specifically, it was a story about the posting of a Vito Marcantonio “Lucky Corner” sign up in East Harlem from this very website.
The Picerno municipal government had obtained funding for a three-day conference with sidebars about Marcantonio’s life and times. Through Saverio Romeo, who was raised in Picerno and works in London, the VMF was invited to send a pair of delegates.
Chosen were VMF co-chair Roberto Ragone and member Gary Bono.
Their cultural and educational sojourn took them to the presentation of “Etica del Dialogo” by Gennaro Curcio, a local author, that included a panel involving the author, and VMF member in Italy, Renato Cantore.
Curcio is also the author of a two-part tome summarizing Gerald Meyer’s “Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician” and discussion of selected speeches from “I Vote My Conscience.”
The duo visited the Associazione Insieme Onlus (Together Nonprofit Organization), an advocate group for the disabled, that had curated an exhibit explaining the political particulars of post-World War II Italy.
The event included a pure VMF panel featuring the American guests, and Cantore, each of whom held forth on some aspect of Marcantonio’s significance and influence.
The rigorous schedule soon put Ragone’s thespian talents to good effect with his rendering of a July 1942 speech defending Italian Americans against discrimination in employment during the war years.
The two Americani were interviewed for a radio show/podcast, visited the Albert Einstein Technical School, and the environs of provincial Basilicata.
The final day included a tour of nearby Matera, featured in Carlo Levi’s classic, “Christ Stopped at Eboli,” an appropriate stop linking the radical traditions of 20th century New York and Italy.
Ragone, who declared the Vito Marcatonio Forum a "transnational organization" upon his return, has written an account of the sojourn that can be found at Vitomarcantonio.org
"The Goodfather (A Novel): The Rising Fall of the Marvelous Marcantonio," can be found here: MARC LIVES
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