Keeping Italian Traditions Alive Through Photography in East Harlem

We have much to be thankful to Bobby Maida the photographer for capturing and keeping alive the visual memories of celebrated Italian Traditions in East Harlem.

Say It With Photography ( "The photos show us things we would otherwise have to imagine from verbal descriptions." "That's why photos are so important they tell us so much more than any text does.") Professor Norman Thorpe

Experience shows that pictures communicate in a way text does not.

A website which I would like to mention that is dedicated to Italian Traditions, the Giglio di San Antonio in East Harlem, which is an Italian Festa in continium since the early 19th century. Bob Maida, who is an active member and photographer of the East Harlem Giglio Society has done a fantastic job of providing pictures, current as well as historical which can be viewed by the public. Bobby also helps promote the festival.

Visit Bobby Maida's East Harlem Website, a fantastic worthwhile learning experience of visual arts and information.

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Once the largest Italian community in NYC, East Harlem is a pleasant memory for countless former inhabitants. To renew that memory, thousands of former residents along with their children and grandchildren return to renew that bond and meet up with friends in the old neighborhood for the Feast of Giglio di Sant’Antonio sponsored by the Giglio Society of East Harlem.

The Giglio Society of East Harlem is a group of men who have dedicated their lives to honor Sant’ Antonio, their beloved saint. Their love and devotion is on display each year during their Annual Festival held in East Harlem, . They honor their Patron Saint in very much the same fashion as their ancestry did and still do annually today in by building a Giglio and dancing it in the streets of East Harlem.

Also for pictures of the past feasts visit the Giglio Society of East Harlem Photo Gallery.

To contact: miriammedina@earthlink.net