Whaddyacall the Wind?

Book Presentation on Zoom

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Whaddyacall the Wind?
(Bordighera Press, 2022)

by
Annie Rachele Lanzillotto

The author in conversation with
Stan Pugliese
Hofstra University

In ENGLISH

A poetic tarantella of the heart. Walk, tremble and fall in the Matriamia, cry for connection from alleyways up to open windows. Expose your heart. Know what it is to feel “like an errant puzzle piece… never to be found, never to be put into place.” A New Yorker learns to walk on Sanpietrini, connects with gay community in the Matriamia, finds living cousins by hanging out in the village cemetery, talks to a Saint who sees ecstasy in stirring fava beans, learns of the Duchess who bit off the saint’s finger, argues with Pulcinella, envisions the epic journey of a painting of La Madonna through four seas to get from Constantinople to Acquaviva delle Fonti, sells wind to sailors, avoids draughts, tangos Sciroccazzo, builds a bridge of hearts and asks the question: “What position do you want to be in for l’eternità?”

Annie Rachele Lanzillotto is a Bronx born poet, performance-artist, author, playwright, actor, director, songwriter, activist, cantastoria, whose stage presence has been called riveting and volcanic. Her work is inspired by the cacophonous opera of pushcart peddler street cries, the roots of theater in the agora, and the solo cantastoria in the piazza. She incorporates and puts metaphoric spins on iconic urban objects: the blue street corner mailbox, Spaldeens, the parking meter, traffic lights, block ice, casts of sewer caps. You can listen to her raw Bronx roar in Annie’s Story Cave podcast, and her audiobooks on Audible.com. Visit AnnieLanzillotto.com, StreetCryInc.org.

Stanislao Pugliese is Professor of History and the Queensboro Unico Distinguished Professor of Italian Studies at Hofstra University. He is the author or editor of fifteen books including Carlo Rosselli: Socialist Heretic and Antifascist Exile and Bitter Spring: A Life of Ignazio Silone. With Brenda Elsey he is co-editor of Football and the Boundaries of History: Critical Studies in Soccer; co-editor with William J. Connell of The Routledge History of Italian Americans; and, with Pellegrino D’Acierno, co-editor of Delirious Naples: A Cultural History of the City of the Sun. He is currently working on a new book, Dancing on a Volcano in Naples: Scenes from the Siren City.