Vito Marcantonio Forum

VMF members join former city council president Melissa Mark-Viverito in hoisting Marc's new sign.

The Vito Marcantonio Forum (VMF) will convene a planning meeting on Aug. 11, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Mulberry Street Public Library community room, 10 Jersey Street. 

The agenda includes a financial report, evaluation of recent programming and possible coming events including a reading circle for Leonard Covello's “The Heart is a Teacher,” the annual fundraiser, and a commemoration of the recently departed Gil Fagiani.

The Mulberry Street Public Library has awarded the VMF $75 in recognition of its work in organizing public events of great interest.

VMF co-chair Roberto Ragone performed in “The Purgatory Trial of Vito Marcantonio,” from June 20 to June 24 at the Royal Theater at the Producers' Club.

Bordighera Press has announced the posthumous release of Gil Fagiani's “Missing Madonnas.”

According to Bordighera, the collection, “explores mythical Madonnas, nonnas, and urban addiction and redemption for a portrait of a life lived in pain and triumph. Dedicated to his Orlandini family, this book, first posthumous, is the final in a trilogy – 'Chianti in Connecticut' and 'Stone Walls' – from a first generation American whose poetry transcends the conventional visions of the post-war 50s, the turbulent 60s, and the bitter tenderness of a life that ended too soon.”

Gil Fagiani died on April 12 and is much missed by his comrades at the VMF. The Forum received contributions ranging from $25 to $200 in his name and memory. 

“Ovunque Siamo” published VMF member LuLu LoLo Pascale's prose poetry work, “Growing Up Italian In a Wonderbread World.” (see related post)

Saverio Romeo is a denizen of Basilicata, the province from whence the original Marcantonios hail. He wrote an article on the radical congressman and the VMF's efforts to recuperate his memory in “Mondo Basilicata.”  

It is written in Italian.

Among the readings shared throughout the Forum of later were a pair of pieces in “Portside.” 

One is on African-Americans who participated in the Spanish Civil War  and the other recalls union organizers building southern locals on civil rights issues.

Still another article in “Portside” discusses the unique relationship between poet Langston Hughes and Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Copies of “I Vote My Conscience,” a collection of Marcantonio's speeches, edited by Annette Rubinstein, can be purchased at the Vito Marcantonio Forum at vitomarcantonioforum.org

"The Goodfather (A Novel): The Rising Fall of the Marvelous Marcantonio," can be found here: MARC LIVES!