By Karen Tintori (Contributor)
Ethnic literature has, at times, relied on rhetoric imbued with folklore, grandmothers, recipes, and prejudices. That’s not the case here. While grandmothers, ...
By Karen Tintori (Contributor)
Ethnic literature has, at times, relied on rhetoric imbued with folklore, grandmothers, recipes, and prejudices. That’s not the case here. While grandmothers, ...
Featuring Down Under By Karen Tintori
Twenty-eight leading voices in fiction - Including eleven New York Times Bestselling Authors - join together In a celebration of great storytelling. We ...
By Jillian Karr (pseudonym of Karen Tintori and Jill Gregory)
Miss America has vanished and photographer Cat Hansen refuses to sit and wait for someone to find her missing sister. Charging ...
By Karen Tintori
Featuring two accounts by Karen Tintori, this latest book from Casa Italia is an anthology about the Italian American experience as seen through the eyes of women. The first ...
By Karen Tintori and Jill Gregory -- originally published under the pseudonym Jillian Karr
Four glamorous women. Four perfect brides. Four deadly secrets. When Perfect Bride magazine ...
By Jill Gregory and Karen Tintori
David Shepherd knows the names of the thirty-six Righteous Souls, upon whose existence -- the Talmud says -- God keeps the world in existence. Thirty-three of ...
By Jill Gregory and Karen Tintori
Museum curator Natalie Landau fights to learn who murdered her reporter sister in Iraq -- and battles powerful forces pursuing the mysterious gift her sister ...
By Karen Tintori
One of the Chicago Tribune's Favorite Books of 2002, Trapped is the story of the worst coal mine fire in U.S. history, and still stands as that country's third worst coal ...
By Karen Tintori
Unto the Daughters is the story of a secret guarded so fiercely for nine decades that members of Tintori’s family died without ever learning of it. Unto the Daughters ...
By Rabbi E.B. Freedman, Jan Greenberg and Karen A. Katz
Is everything in the Bible true? Why are there bad people in the world? Can't God stop them? Why do I need to learn to read, write, and ...
Many thanks to the listener of Erik Rivenes's Most Notorious Podcast who suggested he read TRAPPED: THE 1909 CHERRY MINE DISASTER. Taken with my account of the United States's worst coal mine fire, its human drama, the vast changes in labor, child labor, mining and mine safety legislation that followed, Rick invited me to talk about the disaster. I'm pleased to join the list of impressive guests he's featured, and fascinated by Erik's choice of topics to bring to his listening audience.
I love that nearly 20 years since TRAPPED was published, this important story is still generating interest. I've always likened the tragedy to Titanic in a coal mine. It was while sitting in the theater watching that film that I decided I had to write this book. Although the disaster occurred not 100 miles from Chicago, it is surprising how little attention this historic event has received, even within Illinois. Comparable in era and impact to The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the disaster at Cherry took the lives of immigrant workers trapped in flames they could not escape. Cherry, now home to perhaps 500 residents, lacks the visibility of Manhattan, where students and professors commemorate the dead seamstresses yearly with well attended projects and events.
Perhaps one day, professors and students in Illinois will join with the descendants of Cherry's victims and survivors at the yearly November anniversary memorial, to help broaden the memory of Cherry's immigrant miners, and the lessons learned in the disaster's aftermath.
Here is the link to my conversation with Erik: Most Notorious: TRAPPED.
"In her brilliant book Truth or Dare, the poet, philosopher-feminist Starhawk, explores the emerging feminine voice and its language of feeling after two thousand years of authoritarian patriarchy, as well as the terrors that needed to be faced and conquered after generations of silence and isolation. In the Chapter "Finding a Voice: Breaking the Censor's Silence” Starhawk writes, "The powerful weapon of the Censor is to deny actual events and paralyze us so eventually we forget or repress what happens." [i] The resulting loss is immeasurable, especially when the censor has been internalized as it has been in traditional cultures. If we are never told about an ancestor, who may have broken with convention, or broken the rules or laws of their time, or as in the case of Unto the Daughters been murdered by her brothers, we are denied a greater understanding of ourselves and our true history.
Families share patterns, but when we are kept from the truth of our family patterns, as a result of repression, shame and authoritarian rule, we subtly internalize a self hate and a tendency to perpetuate the same. "To be silenced is to be kept isolated...Breaking our silence releases us. When others know the worst about us, and accept us, we can believe we are truly valued. "[ii] Truth or Dare
Karen Tintori dared to search for and reveal the truth of her family’s and her own story in Unto the Daughters, a powerfully written memoir of discovery and recreation of her lost ancestor, Francesca Costa, who was erased from her family’s history after being brutally murdered by her brothers and discarded in the waters off Belle Isle in the Detroit River in 1919. The author, Karen, whose very act of uncovering the truth and publicly sharing it, calls forth the power of story telling to heal our past and ourselves also tells us her own story and struggle, as a Sicilian American daughter and writer, who despite being raised in contemporary America, would lose connection with her disapproving relations."
So begins Louisa Calio's thoughtful, well-researched exploration of scapegoating, secrets, silences in relationship to the book of my heart, the story of my great-aunt Francesca, a woman who had been lost to history -- a scapegoat. I invite you to read the entirety of her insightful and important essay at Louisa Calio LinkedIn. She has much to share.
I am deeply honored by Louisa's conclusion to her thoughtful and well-researched essay:
"By Tintori’s courageous act of commitment to recreate Frances’ tale, we witness a movement from power over and its denial to reconciliation and more space for honesty in our Italian American community and an ever expanding body of work upon which we can all stand.
Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum in her book, The Future has an Ancient Heart, writes “in forming this story has been my hope that in trying to tell or write a truthful story in a world manipulated into violence by untruths, I am working toward a more equal and therefore more just world.”
I believe Unto the Daughters has achieved this."
Louisa and I met fourteen years ago when she introduced herself after my Unto the Daughters reading at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute in New York City. Of her many award-winning works, my favorite still remains her memoir in poetry, Journey to the Heartwaters. You can purchase this memorable and evocative book by clicking here.
Louisa Calio-- poet, writer, performer, photo artist
Many thanks to Stephanie Longo and Ovunque Siamo for the generous praise in her review of Unto The Daughters, which reads, in part:
"This book should be required reading in any Italian-American History class, as well as anyone wishing to study the female’s role in the Italian family. This book, while not an exercise in journalism, could also prove beneficial to students of the craft as Ms. Tintori’s prior training in the field served her well while untangling her great-aunt’s mystery."
"Unto the Daughters proves that all stories of our ancestors deserve to be told, the good, the bad and the ugly…and perhaps that is Francesca Costa’s legacy to us all."
You can read Longo's entire review here.
If you are an educator using Unto the Daughters in your curriculum, I would love to know. I have visited several classrooms both in person and via Skype. Grazie tanto.
There is nothing like a Book Club, and the one I currently read with is small and phenomenal. The extent to which our exceptional leader researches the authors, locations, incidents, concurrent world history, and nonfiction characters never ceases to amaze us. Her dining room table is a tableau straight from the book, leaving just enough room for the potluck dinner we bring. Recipes derived from the book, of course. The first one to use the powder room insists the rest of us go to check out the quotes or photos rimming the mirror set above the pedestal sink and those that our hostess has taped onto the back of the bathroom door, which faces the commode.
Over the years, I have been lucky to have been a guest at numerous book clubs in the Metropolitan Detroit area. Many, like mine, share lunch or dinner before the discussion, each member bringing a dish mentioned in the book. Next to fan mail, Amazon and Goodreads reviews, sharing several hours with my readers is the most inspiring and uplifting way to feed my muse.
Writing is a solitary and brain-wracking task. Many authors often take a year to write the book that you might read in one sitting. Day after day, it's just us and our keyboards or legal pads and pens. We slog on, often with no feedback other than from that pesky little editor on our shoulders. The one we should ignore. The solitariness is the main reason I love opportunities to share time with my readers, whether in person, by phone or Skype. I've been honored and amazed to hear from you that you've devoured my books -- especially Unto the Daughters -- in one fell swoop. There is no greater joy for an author than to hear that. During book club visits, I usually share some backstory on the book the club has just read and then suggest that they "do their thing" as if I wasn't there. Some ask me to lead the discussion, but most allow me the joy of being the spider on the wall listening in. I welcome comments and criticism. Constructive criticism was a lesson learned in grade school under the tutelage of the Dominican nuns who sparked my love of writing. How else can I learn to better my craft than by listening to the honest assessment of my work by people who love to read?
While I have forgotten to take photos with many book clubs over the years, mainly because we've been so engrossed in talking books that I forget to get a group shot, I do have some memories to share. If I have visited with your club and you have photos that are missing from my collection, please email them to me and I'll be happy to add them here. Of course, I have no group photos from clubs with whom I have visited by Skype or by phone, but am always eager to chime in if your meeting date is clear on my calendar. Please reach out and let's talk books!
Currently, my group is reading A Day in June by Marisa Labozzetta -- and I'm dithering about whether to make something Italian or something Jewish for book club. (I ended up making aglio olio -- recipe in my Blog.)
Happy reading!
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