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About Us
The goal of this oral
history project is to collect and preserve the precious traces of the
Italian American experience in Montclair, New Jersey, throughout the
community's history from the late 19th century to today. Tracing the history
of the Italians of Montclair is only one component of an initiative that
will identify and revalorize all the stories of the various communities
whose unique experiences, woven together, form the rich tapestry that is the
multiethnic Montclair experience. What is particularly unique about this
component of the project is that it constitutes the first concerted effort
to formally document and commemorate the Italian American presence in and
contributions to this community. Who were, and are, the Italians of
Montclair? What did they bring to the community, and what have they left
behind? How do they practice their culture and how has their unique ethnic
identity shaped their American experience?
Where there is a diminished sense of community and of
identification with a particular geographical place, and where there is a
need for documentation of historical experiences that have been previously
marginalized, a project like Montclair Memories: The Italians of Montclair
Oral History Project can play an important role of recovery. Lawrence
Ferlinghetti's famous poem "The Old Italians Dying" may paint a lugubrious
image of the old Italians "dying out in Little Italys all over America,"
"One by one / Year by year / they are carried out / The bell never stops
tolling," but projects like this one can make them live again in cultural
memory. As Robert Viscusi, scholar and poet, once wrote, "In the new age,
Little Italy can be anywhere." This project will preserve its place in
memory, by recording its voices and making a virtual community pulsate with
new life.
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