Maria Lisella

I take notes …
… on my iPhone as if it were a reporter’s notebook, efficient and cool.
Detached, my voice raises itself to inquire to questions I already know the answers to, skull-filed so many decades ago for future reference.
Reams of notes record incidents: calls to 911, a tossed chair, hunger strikes, “behavioral” issues they call them, I surmise when he can no longer tolerate
The cinderblock walls, the fenced-in windows, the odors of bleach and Pine Sol and alcohol, the wails and wants ...

The vast majority of workers do not know whom to turn to for improving their working conditions because the brands they make clothes for are kept secret. This lack of transparency allows brands to avoid accountability and fuels abuses against workers. Transparency benefits workers—they can inform brands when they experience labor abuses. Transparency also helps brands—they can better take steps to stop and prevent labor abuses. Currently, 40 companies have committed to the Transparency Pledge...

A Poet, A Poem
A dynamic four-week workshop with Queens Poet Laureate, Maria Lisella, recent Academy of American Poets Fellow, designed to inspire, encourage and lead to a poem. Participants will meet poets, read a poem, talk and write in response to a prompt or that poem. Maria Lisella’s Pushcart Prize-nominated work appears in Thieves in the Family (NYQ Books), Amore on Hope Street (Finishing Line Press) and Two Naked Feet (Poets Wear Prada). She curates the Italian American Writers Association readings, and is a travel writer by profession.

Spend time virtually exploring Noguchi’s sculpture Brilliance (1982) through a series of close-looking exercises. Then join Queens Poet Laureate, Maria Lisella, recent Academy of American Poets Fellow, to experiment with creating an ekphrastic poem about Brilliance. Previous experience is not necessary. Sharing your work and giving and receiving feedback are optional. Space is limited and advanced registration is required.

All registrants will be sent a link to participate through Zoom. Parti...

Adrian Hood

The Academy of American Poets announced on Thursday the 23 recipients of its Poets Laureate Fellowships, who will use the $50,000 grants for civic projects throughout the United States, even as the coronavirus pandemic limits the in-person, community-based initiatives they typically develop.

The program, now in its second year, was expanded from 13 poets in 2019 and funded through 2022 thanks to a $4.5 million grant that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which finances the fellowsh...

✨YOU'RE INVITED to FUMFA #30: MARIA LISELLA AND CHRISTINE SHAFFER! For FUMFA #30, we welcome special guest Maria Lisella, Queens Poet Laureate, and FUMFA alum Christine Shaffer (formerly of Queens)! Be here on SUNDAY NIGHT at 7PM Eastern time for an awesome night of readings from these incredible writers! RSVP on the event invitation to let us know you'll be there! And don't forget to stick around for the Q&A with the writers afterward! Spread the word and invite all your friends!✨
✨TO ATTEND...

We Fight to Build a Free World was curated New York-based artist Jonathan Horowitz, who for three decades has created works in various mediums that engage with politics and culture.
NEW YORK – As the world rides the crest of one pandemic wave after another, while horrific violent attacks on civil rights trigger massive protests, New York’s Jewish Museum has inaugurated a compelling exhibit that places visitors at the front line of those struggles with We Fight to Build a Free World: An Exhibi...

NEW YORK – The Book of Ruth, traditionally read during Shavuot, is a story of two women alone in a man’s world, in a time of famine, flight, foreignness, emigration, displacement and even despair.

It is a pastoral narrative that still piques the imaginations of artists, writers, scholars and in particular, New York illuminator and illustrator Barbara Wolff.

After two years’ work, Wolff has produced a stunning rendition of the Book of Ruth layered with platinum, gold and silver. It will be on ...

From its perch as one of the most popular countries in the world, overnight Italy has become the poster child the whole world is watching as the coronavirus stealthily arrived through its northern gateway in Milan earlier this week.
According to Worldometer, Italy now has 888 cases of coronavirus, the third most worldwide behind China and South Korea. Italy’s tourism federation, Assoturismo, said up to 90% of hotel and travel agency bookings had been canceled in Rome and up to 80% in Sicily f...

NEW YORK – A flirtatious installation dedicated to love, diversity and democracy in the center of New York City’s Times Square has Israeli hearth written all over it.
Located on Father Duffy Square on 7th Avenue between 46th and 47th streets, Heart Squared is this year’s winner of New York City’s annual Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition.
Heart Squared is the brainchild of a dynamic team of futurists, architects and designers that stars Israeli-born named Rachely Rotem, director ...

It is no great secret that Japan is among the most stunning, yet not widely visited, countries in Asia, and maybe the world. One insider said, “Japan is a land of ancient castles, Shinto Shrines, Buddhist monasteries and statues, where traditional cultures and etiquette overlap with futuristic, modern wonders.”
The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) inaugurated a global, multilingual campaign in 2018, “Enjoy My Japan,” designed to inspire guests to take a more intimate look at this el...

At first, I told myself this would be a good exercise: revisiting Italy without my husband, the recently deceased poet Gil Fagiani. Like widows all over the world, I was floundering, finding my way without him, and visiting Italy without him presented a particular challenge. In the end, I returned home with a touch of pride for having made the trip and finding an aspect of my Calabrian self that can only strengthen who I am.
I could not imagine a more difficult task than to revisit the places...

CALABRIA, Italy – No, you will not get a matzah ball recipe from Rabbi Barbara Aiello, but she will share her grandmother’s recipe for Italian wedding soup right next to an extra-large serving of a history lesson about the earliest Diaspora of Jews to southern Italy (in 267 BCE), specifically to the region of Calabria in the “toe of the boot.”
And, yes, she keeps a kosher house and doesn’t eat pork or shellfish even outside her home. This is not so challenging in Italy, where the cuisine is s...

Surveys inquiring why Americans travel to Europe almost all point to one factor: culture. The majority of Americans still trace their DNA to the continent, and while their first stops in Europe might be English-speaking countries, 42 percent of passport-holding Americans revisit Europe frequently.
Recent studies indicate that tourists pursuing culture and heritage tend to stay longer than the average visitor by 20 percent, and they tend to spend almost 40 percent more than general tourists. C...

In 1973, while bedridden, Levi used a special wooden notebook, built with strings attached to the sides to help guide his hand when drawing or writing. He labeled it "Quaderno a cancelli" (fenced notebook), the name given to his final collection of prose and poetry that accompanies these blind drawings, produced with pencil, pastels and ballpoint pen.
Carlo Levi’ s book, Christ Stopped at Eboli is considered one of the major literary works of the 20th century, and once translated into English...