George Pelecanos in conversation (Athens, Greece)

http://www.sgt.gr/players/lns/20141204/en/

Solidarity with African Americans Now _ A Must Read about Race in the U.S.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27773-revelations-of-postracial-ferguson

"The one encouraging outcome as a result of these turns, likewise revealed by events in and around Ferguson, is that youthful counter-activists are beginning to realize something novel is afoot. They are beginning as a result to respond by shifting tactics, too. They are increasingly engaging in a mix of now-you-see-me-now-you-don't performance interventions and potentially viral social media campaigns alongside the more traditional large-scale street protests. They are thus calling attention to and into question these conditions of sustained injustice at key sites of their sustenance: at elite cultural events such as the St. Louis Symphony, local city hall and state capitol. They are engaging in "die-ins" at popular, large local malls frequented more by whites than people of color (there are pretty much no malls remaining in Ferguson itself). And they are pushing out on social media the "Black Lives Matter" campaign."

Greek Americans embrace Yanni Antetokounmpo as their own

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JW4zL19a6A

The Greek American Studies Resource Portal _ Fall 2014 Update

Autobiography, Memoir, Biography

a) Autobiographies, Memoirs, Biographies

Lagos, Taso G. 86 Days in Greece: A Time of Crisis. English Hill Press, 2014

“Here is an insider's view into the social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of the crisis in Greece. 86 Days in Greece provides us with a unique, impressionistic, and philosophical account of one of the most important moments in Europe today. Without the conventional structure of theoretical assumptions and academic rhetoric, this work brings us as close as we can come to the Greek people, their understandings, trials, and obstacles to future reforms. Taso Lagos has written a book in diary form that documents the crisis from a personal, interdisciplinary 360-degree perspective, and it should be required reading for all those interested in the European situation today.”

b) Autobiographies, Memoirs, Biographies – Scholarship

‪Arapoglou, Eleftheria. “Enacting an Identity by Re-creating a Home: Eleni Gage's North of Ithaca.” Identity, Diaspora and Return in American Literature. Ed. Maria Antònia Oliver-Rotger. New York and London: Routledge (Routledge Transnational Perspectives on American Literature), 2015. 118–132.

Gemelos, Michele. “Greek American Autobiography.” The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature, Volume Two: D–H. Ed. Emmanuel S. Nelson. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 2005. 870–873.

Dissertations and Theses

Beck, Ann. Greek Immigration to, and Settlement in, Central Illinois, 1880-1930. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014. [available athttps://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/50730]

This dissertation is a micro-history of Greeks immigrants to central Illinois between 1880 and 1930. The study focuses specifically on those Greek immigrants who were involved in the confectionery trade, opening candy stores (often accompanied by soda fountains and restaurants) in the small towns and cities of rural Illinois. The study draws upon, as its primary case study, the life and experiences of my own grandfather, Constantin “Gus” Flesor, a Greek immigrant who settled in Tuscola, Illinois in 1901 and owned a candy store/soda fountain business there for 75 years. In all, this dissertation tells the stories of more than 160 such Greek immigrant confectioners in more than forty towns and cities in central Illinois. Examples from the lives of my grandfather and these other first-generation Greek immigrants are interwoven throughout the dissertation to illustrate particular experiences. The dissertation begins with a discussion of migration theory, which seeks to locate the first-generation Greek immigrant experience in rural areas within the larger theoretical debate that has primarily focused on the urban immigrant experience. Chapter Two provides a geographical and historical background by briefly reviewing relevant features of Greek geography, particularly that of the Peloponnese region from where most of the immigrants in this study originated. This chapter also contains a short history of Greece that helps to frame the important question of Greek heritage and identity. Chapter Three presents an overview of first-generation Greek immigration to America, focusing particularly on immigration to Chicago and St. Louis, the primary cities that served as transit points for Greeks coming to central Illinois. Chapter Four explores education and the Greek immigrant, and specifically how Greek immigrants learned the confectionery business. Chapter Five addresses the question of Greek identity, anti- immigrant hostility during this period, especially the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, and how Greek immigrants in these small towns responded to this prejudice and bigotry. Finally, Chapter Six looks at the lives and businesses of the individual Greek immigrants to central Illinois. In my conclusion I address the questions raised by this study and possible avenues for further research.

Kappatos, Nicole. Greek Immigration to Richmond, Virginia, and the Southern Variant Theory. M.A. Thesis. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3483, 2014.

“Greek immigration to the United States occurred in two distinctive waves: the first wave from the 1890s-1920s and the second wave from the 1960s-1980s. This thesis explores the regional diversity of the Greek immigrant experience in the Southern United States through the case study of the Greek community in Richmond, Virginia. The first chapter introduces the history of Greek immigration to the United States, discusses major scholars of Greek American studies, and explains the Southern Variant theory. Chapter two examines the experiences of the first wave of Greek immigrants in Richmond. The third chapter incorporates oral history to explain the experiences of second wave Greek immigrants in Richmond. Chapters two and three examine factors including language, church activity, intermarriage, and community involvement, in order to demonstrate a Southern Variation in the experiences of Greek immigrants in Richmond in comparison to their counterparts elsewhere in the United States.”

Morrow, Eric V. Transnational Religion in Greek American Political Advocacy. Diss. Baylor University, 2012. (available online,https://beardocs.baylor.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2104/8452/eric_morrow_phd.pdf-a.pdf?sequence=1)

“Contemporary studies of transnationalism are challenging scholarship on the political advocacy of ethnic groups by examining a broader range of connections that shape immigrant identity and engagement with the political systems of host countries. One of these connections is the role religion has in forming new ethnoreligious identities and how this role is influenced by transnational relationships with countries of origin and external religious institutions. In many analyses of “ethnic poltics,” religion is either excluded or viewed as a cultural element closely aligned with ethnic identity. This has obscured the significant influence of religious affiliation and religious institutions in the political advocacy of immigrant groups.  This dissertation examines the role of religion in Greek American advocacy and analyzes the transnational elements that have shaped Greek American identity and contributed to the engagement with the United States government on specific foreign policy issues. From a basis in theories of diaspora nationalism and transnationlism and within the larger context of Greek American advocacy, focus is placed on the development of the role of the Greek Orthodox Church in America in defining a unique ethnoreligious identity and in direct engagement with U.S. policymakers on the issues of the invasion and partition of Cyprus, the Macedonian Question, and the legal status and religious freedom of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, Turkey. Following a survey of the role of the Church and its leadership in advocacy on these issues, this dissertation analyzes the elements of transnational religion in the Greek American experience in order to develop a methodology for approaching other groups in the United States. With the increase of immigrant religious affiliation and institutions in America and the diversity of engagement in both domestic and foreign policy issues, the analysis of transnational religious connections is critical to understanding identity formation and ethnoreligious lobbying, as well as gauging the impact of this advocacy on the U.S. political system.”

Stavrianidis, Panos. The Intergenerational Integration of Immigrants in the American Society: A Quantitative Study of Attitudes and Behaviors in the Greek American Community of New Jersey. Diss. Panteion University Athens, Greece, 2012.

“This exploratory study examined the extent to which a population of Greek Americans hold attitudes and behaviors for the conservation and intergenerational transmission of their ethnic culture. In particular, six core value domains were considered for their impact on the preservation of ethnic identity: the Greek language, Greek Orthodox Church, family cultural orientation and values, Greek cultural activities and organization membership, continuing contact with Greece and/or Cyprus, and political activity. Data was obtained through a questionnaire administered to 229 self-identified Greek Americans in 11 parishes of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey. The collected data was analyzed quantitatively and the differences in behaviors and attitudes among the first, second, and third and beyond generations were statistically compared.  At least four patterns of intergenerational changes emerged. The first pattern was observed within the Greek language domain and demonstrated the steady diminishment of this as a core value from one generation to the next. The second pattern was observed for the domains of the Greek Orthodox Church and Greek cultural activities; here, the core values reflected the least degree of reduction in the subject population. The third pattern was observed mostly in behavior rather than in expressions of attitude regarding the domains of family cultural orientation and values and continuing contact with Greece and/or Cyprus. These domains reflected more similarities exist between the first and second generations while a significant deviation was seen for the third and beyond generational cohort. The fourth pattern was observed in the core values of organization membership and political activity which showed similar responses for the second and third and beyond generational groups, and greater distance from the results for the first generation.”

Documentary

a) Documentaries

Thoma, Lamprini C. (Producer/Writer), & Ventouras, Nickos (Director/Editor). Palikari: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre [Motion picture]. Original Score: Manos Ventouras. A Non-Organic Production, 2014. [http://www.palikari.org]

c) Documentaries – Reviews

Anagnostou, Yiorgos. “The Diaspora as a Usable Past for a Nation-in-Crisis: Media Readings of Palikari: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre.” Filmicon: Journal of Greek Film Studies, 2014 (November 5) [review essay, available online, http://filmiconjournal.com/blog/post/32/the_diaspora_as_a_usable_past_for_a_nation_in_crisis]

“This analysis shows that the structure of Tikas’s media history story in relation to Greece resembles that of narratives that societies purposefully excavate from the past to address crises that confront them in the present. To effectively generate hope and guide action, such narratives animate a shared story from the past, which bears a close metaphorical association with the present they seek to reshape. This link is evident in the case of Palikari. Subjected to dual oppression – ethnic because of racism and economic because of immigrant exploitation – Tikas rose against abuse by performing a venerable national heritage, heroic resistance to foreign rule. Similarly, stigmatized as a nation and put under onerous economic strains, Greek people today are called to once again act out this heritage as a way to escape from humiliating dependency on global institutions. In this parallelism, an immigrant’s American story is turned into a Greek narrative via the recognizable trope of national heroism. A historical event situated in the intersection of immigrant experience and U.S. modernity is brought to Greek audiences, and incorporated into the nation as a familiar story of diaspora courage. The film and its meta-commentary therefore expand collective national memory to include Greek immigrant history, animating in this manner a suitable usable past for a nation-in-crisis.”

Film

c) Film Scholarship

Georgakas, Dan. “Ethnic Humor in American Film: The Greek Americans.” A Companion to Film Comedy. Εds. Andrew Horton and Joanna E. Rapf. Chichester. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.

Globalization, Transnationalism, Diaspora

Roudometof, Victor. 2014. “Forms of Religious Glocalization: Orthodox Christianity in the Longue Durée.” Religions Vol. 5. 4 (2014): 1017-1036.

The article advocates a “glocal turn” in the religion–globalization problematic. It proposes a model of multiple glocalizations in order to analyze the historically constituted relationship between world religions and local cultures. First, the conceptual evolution from globalization to glocalization is discussed with special reference to the study of the religion. Second, the necessity for adopting the perspective of the longue durée with regard to the study of Eastern Orthodox Christianity is explained. Third, an outline of four forms of religious glocalization is proposed. Each of these forms is presented both analytically as well as through examples from the history of Eastern Christianity (from the 8th to the 21st century).  It is argued that this approach offers a model for analyzing the relation between religion, culture and society that does not succumb to the Western bias inherent in the conventional narrative of western modernization and secularization.

Greek America – Miscellaneous

Patterson, Diana Thomopoulos: “Maternal Guidance: Women pass on cherished Greek traditions.” GreekCircle 9.3 (Winter, 2009): 38–39.

The author reflects on how her family, especially her paternal grandmother, shaped her Hellenic identity.  She says, “Yiayia didn’t speak English very well, and I didn’t know very much Greek. Yet yiayia and I didn’t have to speak the same language to understand each other.” Includes photos.

Thomopoulos, Elaine. “Memories in the Making: A Personal Perspective on Greek American Organizations.” GreekCircle 14.1 (Fall 2013): 32-34.

A personal essay about how the author’s sense of Hellenic identity has been nurtured by a myriad of organizations, starting with the Greek Orthodox Church.  Includes photos.

Thomopoulos, Elaine Cotsirilos. “Two Worlds: Village-and city-life provide two very different cultures.” GreekCircle. 10:1 (Summer 2010): 19-21.

From the perspective of a second-generation Greek American, the author reflects upon her visits to Greece and the differences she has experienced between city and village life.

Thomopoulos, Elaine. “The Mati: the evil eye unveiled.” GreekCircle 2.2 (Fall 2002): 42–43.

To describe the “evil eye,” the author uses her own experience ofxematiasma (ridding of the evil eye) during a visit to a friend’s restaurant in New Buffalo, Michigan. Using anecdotal examples, she shows how this belief lives on in America.

History

a) Community and Regional Histories

Vasilakes, Mike and Themistocles Rodis. Greek Americans of Cleveland since 1870. The Hellenic Preservation Society of Northeastern Ohio, 2007/2008.

This upgraded and expanded third edition has 460 pages and includes graphics, tables, and more than 500 photographs. Included are excerpts from oral histories. It explores the events that delayed the emigration of most Greeks until the mid-1890s and the forces that precipitated emigration from Greece to America. It tells the stories of the pioneer Greek immigrants who settled in Cleveland. The first one was a woman who married an Irish merchant seaman in Piraeus. She arrived in Cleveland in 1870. The book tells the history of all four of Cleveland's Greek Orthodox Church communities. Also included are the histories of church-affiliated groups (choirs, psaltis, Philoptochos, acolytes, Greek Schools, youth groups, et al) as well as many of the 32 village and national societies, and independent Greek schools and tutors who taught in the homes of Greek immigrants. Other chapters include businesses; media (newspapers and radio programs); dramatic arts; Greek bands; and political organizations. “The Family Album," a separate section, contains individual family histories.”

c) History and Historiography Scholarship

Stephanides, Marios Christos. The History of the Greeks in Kentucky, 1900 -1950, Volume I: The Early Pioneers of Louisville. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellon Press, 2001.‏

Identity & Immigration

Wilson, R. J. “Playful Heritage: Excavating Ancient Greece in New York City.” International Journal of Heritage Studies (2014) [published online, August 14].

“This article examines how concepts of ‘play’ can be used within studies of cultural heritage to build an alternative to the dominant use of consumer-orientated models within current scholarship. Using the example of how the traditions, motifs and history of Ancient Greece have been reused within New York, from the nineteenth century to the present day this work demonstrates that this is a heritage that has been ‘played with’ by successive generations as a means of establishing identity within the metropolis. Whilst the ideals of Athenian democracy and classical learning inspired the formation of the early American republic, these associations were brought into wider usage in New York with the arrival of significant Greek immigration into the city during the twentieth century. This provided a new opportunity of a playful use of Ancient Greek heritage as this émigré community built new identities and became established in the metropolis. The Greek American enclave of Astoria, located in the borough of Queens, will be the focus of this study as the site where this playful use of heritage has taken place, undertaken both by members of the Greek American community and also by individuals and groups responding to their presence.”

 Literature and Poetry

a) Fiction

Ahnen, Pearl Kastran. Daughter of Immigrants. Baltimore: Publish America, 2003.

Skaragas, Gianni. “Floaters.” World Literature Today, Vol. 88, No.2 (March/April 2014), 20–23.

“Anna is a self-hating Greek-American psychic working for the German secret service. Her assignment? Travel to crisis-ravaged Greece and save people from suicide.”

d) Poetry – Reviews

Αρσενίου, Ελισάβετ. «Ελληνοαμερικανική οικειο-ποίηση.» Review of Διασπορικές Διαδρομές (Γιώργος Αναγνώστου). Η Αυγή Online, (6 Ιουλίου, 2014) (http://www.avgi.gr/article/2882657/-ellinoamerikaniki-oikeio-poiisi-)

e) Literature and Poetry Scholarship

Fragopoulos, George. “The Politics and Poetics of Transliteration in the Works of Olga Broumas and George Economou.” MELUS 39.4 (Winter 2014).

Gemelos, Michele. “Greek American Fiction.” The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature, Volume Two: D–H. Ed. Emmanuel S. Nelson. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 2005. 873–877.

Patrona, Theodora. “Mapping the Female Ethnic Self in the Family Battleground: Vertigo and the Greek American Novel.” Personal Effects:Essays on Memoir, Teaching, and Culture in the Work of Louise DeSalvo. Eds. Nancy Caronia, and Edvige Giunta. Fordham University Press, 2014. 210–221.

Stefanidou, Anastasia. “Greek American Poetry.” The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature, Volume Two: D–H. Ed. Emmanuel S. Nelson. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 2005. 877–880.

f) Children’s Books

Lemperis, Athena with Georgia Vratanina, illustrator. Fun at YiaYia’s House. 2003. [self-published]

"This book of verse show the joy grandchildren share with theiryiayia on a visit to her home. Yiayia imparts Greek, as well as American traditions."

Blogs and Resource Portals

a) Blogs

Georgia Kolias, Food, Fertility

http://www.georgiakolias.com

Welcome to my website – the home of my writing life and the intersection of food, fertility, and culture.

food: ˈfüd

Something that nourishes, stimulates, and sustains the mind or soul: promoting growth
Ingesting food for thought

fertility: fər-ˈti-lə-tē
the ability to produce many ideas or offspring: fruitfulness, abundance
improve the fertility of the soul by adding rich organic material

culture: ˈkəl-chər

to grow in a prepared medium sharing language, religion, cuisine, music and arts: cultivation of the soil

raising culture from fertile ground

There are so many mysteries in life—some of these have inspired my novel, The Feasting Virgin, and book of poetry, The Motherland. How can mixing some inert ingredients together like water, yeast, and flour result in something that rises and fills your heart with comfort when it is baked in the oven? How can a woman be “infertile” and end up birthing three children? How can we reconcile deeply conflicting beliefs in our lives and find beauty in the everyday? There are miracles, and then there are Miracles. Let’s discover the beauty and magic that can be found despite the hard stuff—or perhaps because of it. Come hang out with me a bit. I’m curious about your story, too. Visit my blog, Fertile Ground, where I’ll unearth, redefine, and cultivate the purpose and meaning of food, fertility, and culture.

Palikari: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre

THE DIASPORA AS A USABLE PAST FOR A NATION-IN-CRISIS: Media Readings of Palikari: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre (review essay)

Yiorgos Anagnostou

 

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Diaspora, Documentary, Greek crisis, Immigration, Ludlow, National identity, Tikas Louis

The documentary Palikari: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre (2014, Nickos Ventouras) narrates one of the “bleakest and blackest” chapters in American labor history, the Ludlow Massacre.¹ A hundred years earlier, on April 20, 1914, in Ludlow, Colorado, a strike for basic labor rights by exploited miners and their families, mostly immigrants, was violently ended by state militia. In the fight, the strikers’ tent colony was machine-gunned and burned to the ground, leaving over twenty people dead, including women and children. Louis Tikas (1886-1914), a Cretan immigrant and union organizer born Ilias Anastasios Spantidakis, was shot in the back in cold blood, as were two other strikers. Still considered a politically volatile event, in fact a dangerous past for the nation laying open the synergy of state and capital to brutally put down labor, Ludlow does not commonly find a place in celebratory official memory. Historians take note of its absence in public history textbooks. However, when Colorado inaugurated the Ludlow Centennial Commemoration in September 2013, a yearlong, statewide remembering of Ludlow, it marked a significant departure, adding an official seal so to speak to remembering what functions as an enduring symbol of working class struggle in the United States.²

Read more, http://filmiconjournal.com/blog/post/32/the_diaspora_as_a_usable_past_for_a_nation_in_crisis

Greek American Literature _ Novel by Ivet Manesis Korporon

Παρόλο που το βιβλίο είναι μυθιστόρημα, «όπως η Δάφνη, έτσι και εγώ μεγάλωσα με το ένα πόδι στην Ελλάδα και με το άλλο στην Αμερική». «“Ο ψίθυρος των κυπαρισσιών”» είναι ένα μωσαϊκό από τη δική μου ζωή δημιουργημένο από μνήμες, μύθους, και σχέσεις που κρατώ ως ιερά».

«Ερωτικό γράμμα»

Σκοπός της ήταν αυτό το βιβλίο να είναι ένα «ερωτικό γράμμα» για την Ελλάδα, να μεταφέρει τη μυρωδιά και τις γεύσεις της ελληνικής κουζίνας, να διδάσκει την ιστορία και τον πολιτισμό της. «Μέσα από τη λογοτεχνία, τις ταινίες και τον πολιτισμό μπορεί να αλλάξει η εικόνα της Ελλάδας στο εξωτερικό και θεωρώ απαραίτητο να υπενθυμίζω στον κόσμο την αληθινή πλευρά της». Μέσα από τις σελίδες της, η Ιβέτ Μάνεση κατάφερε να μαγέψει το αναγνωστικό κοινό του εξωτερικού και να τους παρακινήσει να ταξιδέψουν στην Ελλάδα.

http://www.kathimerini.gr/789990/article/politismos/vivlio/rantevoy-sto-magiko-nhsi-voreiodytika-ths-kerkyras

Radio in Greek at OSU

http://thelantern.com/2014/10/foreign-language-broadcast-heard-round-the-globe/

Greek Americans: A Musical Journey

Η Σκορπισμένη μου Γενιά _ Μπάμπης Τσετίνης

«Σαν παραμύθι πάλιωσε 

μα σαν αλήθεια καίει

η ξενιτιά αγόρασε 

της προσφυγιάς τα χρέη»

http://megalaiko.blogspot.com/2014/09/blog-post_31.html

Visual Representations of U.S. Greek Ethnicity

Projecting an ethnoreligious – Greek Orthodox – identity

Spaces of Greek America, The Greek Station

Butte, Montana, 2013

We were extended full hospitality

Photo Credits @ARC

Mary K. Mousalimas (1926-2014), A Preservation Activist

Mary K. Mousalimas (1926 - 2014)

Obituary

View Sign

Mary K. Mousalimas

July 28, 1926-September 6, 2014 Mary Kumarelas Mousalimas was born on July 28, 1926 in Salt Lake City, UT; the daughter of Demetrios "Jim" and Eugenia "Virginia" Kumarelas who were originally from Greece. The eldest of five children, she was predeceased by Eleni, Anna, and John, and is survived by Bobbie.

Mary attended Westminster College in Salt Lake City. She was an active member of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church from her youth; she was a member of the Church Choir and at 17 years old established the parish's first Sunday School program.

In 1948, Mary married Andrew Mousalimas, settled in Oakland and raised her beloved family of four children. From 1968 to 1990, she was the co-owner and restaurateur at Kings X, an Oakland landmark of its time.

Mary's passion was the preservation of Greek/American history honoring her parents' immigrant generation. In 1976, she spearheaded saving the first Greek Orthodox Church in the East Bay from demolition, establishing it as a national and state historical landmark on 10th and Castro Streets, Oakland. Mary was the founder and chairwoman of the Ascension Historical Society from 1989 to 2010. She co-founded the Preservation of American Hellenic History website (pahh.com) in 2002; and was instrumental in organizing a series of conferences and symposia from 1998 to 2007 in California, Utah and Arizona for the preservation and dissemination of Greek-American history. In 2006 Mary was honored by the Ascension Cathedral as Mother of the Year, and in 2009 received the medal of St. Paul, the highest honor awarded to a member of the laity by the Greek Orthodox Church.

She is predeceased by her baby, Andrew, and survived by her beloved husband of 66 years, Andrew Mousalimas; children Soter Mousalimas, Eugenia (George) Ahlas, Paula (Dean) Gassoumis, James (Diane) Mousalimas; grandchildren Harry (Victoria), Andreas, Zachary, Ria, Ariane, Gianna, Paris; and great-granddaughter Anna Maria.

Viewing on Wednesday, September 10, from 4 to 8 pm at Alameda Funeral& Cremation Services, 1415 Oak St, Alameda. Trisagion Service on Thursday evening, September 11 at 7 pm and funeral service on Friday, September 12 at 10 am; both services will be held at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension, 4700 Lincoln Avenue in Oakland. Interment Mt. View Cemetery, Oakland

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Ascension Cathedral General Fund and/or the Ascension Historical Society. For further information please call: Harry W. Greer, Funeral Director (FDR-745). Alameda Funeral and Cremation Services, Alameda. 510-522-6020- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?n=mary-k-mousalimas&pid=172407975#sthash.73EKeBKl.dpuf

Spaces of Greek America

Oakland, CA

Photo Credits @ARC

Αντώνης Νταλγκάς _ Της Ξενιτιάς ο Πόνος (1935)

Για σένα κλαίγω μάνα μου γλυκιά kαι υποφέρω μες στην ξενιτιά. Δεν θέλω μάνα ποτέ να κλάψεις, για το παιδί σου κερί ν' ανάψεις.

"Tis Xenitias O Ponos" (The Exile's Grief)) is about loneliness and the condition of having to live in a foreign land, a common theme in rembetika. The melody is from the famous Turkish song called "her yer karanlik", often recorded in both Turkey and Greece from the 20s up to the present day.

This song was probably recorded in Athens 1935 for release in the U.S. ca. 1938. Vocals: A. Dalgas, Lira: Lambros Leondharidis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MulOdQFyFLA

Interviews with Famous Greeks – Diamanda Galas

Diamanda Galas

Hailed as one of the most important singers of our time, Diamanda Galαs has earned international acclaim for her highly original and politically charged performance works, as well as her memorable rendition of jazz and blues. A resident of New York City since 1989, she was born to Anatolian and Greek parents, who always encouraged her gift for piano.

Galαs has contributed her voice and music to Francis Ford Coppola's film, Dracula, Oliver Stones' Natural Born Killers, Spanish/Nicaraguan filmmaker Mercedes Moncada Rodriguez's El Immortal (The Immortal), as well as films by Wes Craven, Clive Barker, Derek Jarman, Hideo Nakata, and many others. In 2005, Galas was awarded Italy's first Demetrio Stratos International Career Award. Her much-anticipated CD, Guilty Guilty Guilty, a compilation of tragic and homicidal love songs, was released by Caroline in the U.S. and MUTE UK worldwide on April 1, 2008; You're My Thrill, will be released in 2009.

See, http://www.hellenism.net/interview_diamanda_galas.html

Phyllis P. Chock, Professor Emerita

A pioneer and one of the most sophisticated anthropologists of Greek America. A heart-felt thank you!

Congratulations to Dr. Phyllis Chock on her retirement after teaching at CUA since 1971. She served six years as department chair, as many as editor of the Anthropological Quarterlyand, as president of the Anthropological Society of Washington, organized a year-long symposium that resulted in a volume she edited (with June Wyman) on Discourse and the Social Life of Meaning, published by the Smithsonian Press in 1986. Over the years, her research focus moved from expressions of ethnicity among Greek-Americans to cultural constructions of citizen and alien in path-breaking work on Congressional testimony which contributed to the revaluation of "ethnicity" and "identity" in American anthropology now incorporated into the US Census. At CUA, Dr. Chock supervised dissertation projects from New Guinea to Africa to the US and taught courses from theory and method to linguistic anthropology, including immensely popular courses on gender, cultures in a global world, and identity in America. The Undergraduate Student Government recognized that achievement with their James E. Dornan Memorial teacher of the year award in 2004, and on her retirement the department presented her an antique Chinese bowl of appropriately ambiguous provenance along with our genuine thanks for her unambiguous contributions. http://anthropology.cua.edu/faculty/phyllischock.cfm

Contours of White Ethnicity _ Roundtable Discussion

Ο διάλογος για το Contours of White Ethnicity: Popular Ethnography and the Making of Usable Pasts in Greek America (Ohio University Press, 2009) είναι τώρα διαθέσιμος. Τρείς ακαδημαϊκοί σχολιάζουν από την σκοπιά των Ιταλοαμερικανικών σπουδών, και από την πλευρά μου απαντώ. (Σημείωση, το βιβλίο είναι υπό μετάφραση από τις εκδόσεις Νήσος. Μεταφράστρια, the very accomplished, Πελαγία Μαρκέτου)

The roundtable discussion of Contours of White Ethnicity is now available for free, thanks to the generosity of the Italian American Review!

http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/calandra/sites/calandra.i-italy.org/files/files/Contours%20Group%20Review%20from%20IAR_3_1.pdf

Greeks Gone West _ Of Greeks and Greek Americans

H «Καθημερινή» παρουσιάζει το αφιέρωμα της αμερικανικής πρεσβείας στην Αθήνα σε 23 Έλληνες και Ελληνοαμερικανούς που έκαναν το ελληνικό όνειρο να ανθίσει.

“Greeks Gone West” is a series of video vignettes the US Embassy in Athens made about the world of work in the US. Through the prism of Greeks and Greek-Americans with interesting work lives, we hope to improve the understanding of US society and to show possibilities during a time, in Greece, when life seems full of limitations and frustrations.

Each video is roughly three minutes long and addresses how each of the 23 participants came to do what they do, whether a music supervisor, a film director, an HIV doctor, a restaurateur, an advertising guru, fashion designer and several other people, and what they plan to do next. We hear about their experiences and relations with Greece, but mainly we hear how they've pushed through the toughest parts of their journey. We plan to profile a pathologist, a music producer, a fashion designer, a chef, a video game designer, and several other people.

For an overview, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LC614KowkM

For a list of interviews, http://athens.usembassy.gov/greeks_gone_west2.html

"Revisiting Ludlow: 1914/2014."

A Special One-Day Colloquium, October, 3, 2014, at the SF State University Campus

"Revisiting Ludlow: Its Enduring Legacy"

This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the Ludlow massacre, one of the most violent conflicts in American labor history. A politicized site of
memory, Ludlow brings attention to immigrant subjectivities, working class consciousness and interethnic solidarity, while it generates interest in
its resonance for the contemporary labor movement. The events surrounding the strike and the families of the strikers at Ludlow attract the interest of historians, archaeologists, journalists, poets and writers exploring social memory and
its politics, the literary representation of the past, academic activism, public scholarship, and labor, ethnic and gender history. Local populations
and organized labor annually honor the memory of those miners, women and children killed in the massacre.

To honor this special anniversary of the Ludlow massacre of 1914, the Center for Modern Greek Studies at San Francisco State University will host the colloquium, "Revisiting Ludlow: 1914/2014." The colloquium brings together scholars, artists, journalists, researchers and museum curators with the aim of furthering the conversation about the scholarly and political significance of this seminal event. Writers with a distinguished record of work on Ludlow will introduce fresh perspectives and exchange ideas with scholars who are engaging with the subject for the first time. The colloquium provides a critical forum to present new scholarship and to revisit seminal texts on Ludlow. The aim is to promote cross-fertilization across genres and disciplines to further our understanding of Ludlow in relation to material culture, ethnicity, transnationalism, usable pasts, women's activism, academic politics, and the intersections of historical facts and fiction.

Participants include: writer and retired Professor of English, San Francisco Art Institute, Zeese Papanikolas; poet and Professor of English, David Mason, University of Colorado; historian, Professor Thomas Andrews, University of
Colorado; journalist Scott Martelle; Director of Labor Archives and Research at SF State, Catherine Powell; archaeologist and Professor of Art History, Kostis Kourelis, Franklin and Marshall College; and the two co-organizers of the
event, Director of the Center for Modern Greek Studies at SF State, Professor Martha Klironomos, and Greek American Studies scholar, Professor Yiorgos Anagnostou, Ohio State University.

The event is scheduled for October 3, 2014, at the SFSU campus, room HUM 587, 10 am – 4 pm.

For additional information, please contact Martha Klironomos (mkliro@sfsu.edu) or Yiorgos Anagnostou (anagnostou.1@osu.edu).

Please check the Center for Modern Greek Studies' website for updates: moderngreekstudies.sfsu.edu

This event is being made possible by the generous support of the College of Liberal and Creative Arts and the Center for Modern Greek Studies at SF State University.

It is also co-sponsored by the Departments of History, Humanities, Labor Archives and the American Studies program at San Francisco State
University.

Spaces of Greek America

National food hits in the multicultural agora coexisting 

(Burlingame, CA, 2014)

For a cultural commentary on U.S. Greek yoghurt (in Greek and English) see,
 http://www.newdiaspora.com/im-greek-therefore-im-yogurt/

Golden Dawn in NYC – a short film and a response

"The film offers an in-depth look at what the Greek community in New York City is thinking and doing about the rise in Greece of one of the most virulent neo-Nazi parties in Europe, Golden Dawn. Polls indicate that Golden Dawn has grown into Greece’s third largest political party since the 2008 economic crisis. Filmmaker Richard Ledes decided to find out what the Greeks of New York City thought about the extraordinary rise of the party. Ledes places Golden Dawn in the context of the price America has paid previously for complacency in the face of the rise of Nazism in Europe."

See, http://www.pappaspost.com/award-winning-filmmaker-richard-ledes-releases-short-film-greek-neo-nazi-partys-activities-nyc/

And the GD response:

"Golden Dawn witch hunt targets members of the Greek-American community"

"A witch-hunt with a chiefly anti-Marxist slant has been launched by the New York arm of Golden Dawn against Greek expat professors, luminaries, activists of the American left, as well as other distinguished members of the Greek-American community. In an act of ‘retaliation’, as they themselves called it, against the ‘criminals’ and their ‘conspiracy’, the Greek-American Golden Dawn published personal details, phone numbers and addresses of whomever they put in their sights.

According to the post on their website, the neo-fascists decided to target the particular Greeks and Greek-Americans because they ‘dared’ to give their opinions about Golden Dawn in the documentary, “Golden Dawn, NYC.” They dub it, ‘a propaganda film against Golden Dawn pretending to be a documentary’ and attack all those who speak against the group in it. They don’t restrict themselves to slander however. They proceed to publish personal details, asking that their readers call them and… take to task all those who dared speak out."

See, http://www.thepressproject.net/article/64524/Golden-Dawn-witch-hunt-targets-members-of-the-Greek-American-community

Spaces of Greek America _ "Get your Greeks on Route 66" – Text by Lamprini C. Thoma, Photos by Nickos Ventouras

"Old Route 66 passed through Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, where you cannot miss Evangelo's Bar. It has a big neon sign featuring the Greek flag and the face of a young American soldier, a cigarette between his lips and a determined stare. It's a picture familiar from numerous reproductions, from LIFE magazine to a recent memorial stamp - the famous photo taken by world class photographer Eugene Smith in 1944 that became the unofficial icon of the American ‘unknown soldier’. Entering the bar, you will soon learn that the iconic American soldier was in fact Greek; he managed to get American citizenship only several years after the war. This little bar, considered one of the best live music spots in Santa Fe, was his way of earning his living and is now in the hands of one of his three sons, Nick.Old Route 66 passed through Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, where you cannot miss Evangelo's Bar. It has a big neon sign featuring the Greek flag and the face of a young American soldier, a cigarette between his lips and a determined stare. It's a picture familiar from numerous reproductions, from LIFE magazine to a recent memorial stamp - the famous photo taken by world class photographer Eugene Smith in 1944 that became the unofficial icon of the American ‘unknown soldier’. Entering the bar, you will soon learn that the iconic American soldier was in fact Greek; he managed to get American citizenship only several years after the war. This little bar, considered one of the best live music spots in Santa Fe, was his way of earning his living and is now in the hands of one of his three sons, ..."

http://www.thepressproject.net/article/58093/Get-your-Greeks-On-Route-66

Finding and Listing (Greek American) Oral History Projects

"I would like to suggest the use of ArchiveGrid as the location for listing – and finding – oral history projects and archival collections." 

Please visit http://184.168.105.185/archivegrid

In the search box, type what you are looking for.
You can search for any theme, project, archive, or collection by type or name. If you're a museum, library, or primarily maintained collection, look at the top right of the window and click on “Include Your Collections.” This takes you to a form at http://184.168.105.185/archivegrid/collections/

For a description of ArchiveGrid see http://184.168.105.185/archivegrid/about/#about

Many thanks to Elaine Thomopoulos for identifying this resource