As the festive season approaches, I think of my mom and her enigmatic smile, and how she diligently and lovingly prepared our favourite Christmas sweets. One of these is nacatole. In many households in Calabria and wherever Calabresi are dispersed around the world, Christmas is a time of renewal. Nonne pass along the family recipe, and mothers and daughters bond…
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“When we undertake the pilgrimage, it's not just to escape the tyranny at home but also to reach to the depths of our souls. The day arrives when the guilty must return to save those who could not find the courage to leave.” ― Orhan Pamuk, Snow ON THIS FIRST NIGHT SLEEPING IN MY CHILDHOOD BED, the tolling of the…
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Clara and Cosimo finally reached Via Plebiscito number 80, the intersecting street name Via Daniele written in cobalt blue on a yellow-ochre wall directly in front of them. Clara felt a sense of arrival. They turned left and walked down to the grey metal gate that closed off a narrow courtyard flanked by grey and red-ochre homes. Clara realized that…
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A Collage of Impressions, curated by George Elliott Clarke Among Toronto’s cold, glistening skyscrapers, Corrado Paina (1954-2024) was a transplanted Vesuvius, fuming damning smoke and flame upon everyone content with the insipidly provincial in Canuck commerce and culture. He was arrestingly contradictory; a booster of trade between Canada and his native Italy, and yet also an urbane citizen favouring the…
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