George De Stefano - From Lagos to Palermo and Back Again: Chris Obehi Returns to his Motherland

My Works

Book Reviews

Martin Scorsese’s Documentary Histories: Migrations, Movies, Music.

Review of Martin Scorsese's Documentary Histories: Migrations, Movies, Music by Mike Meneghetti

Crime and Prejudice: the NYPD's Italian Squad

Review of The Italian Squad: The True Story of the Immigrant Cops Who Fought the Rise of the Mafia

Ain't But a Few of Us: Black Music Writers Tell Their Story

Review of a collection of essays by and interviews with Black writers about the dearth of Black jazz critics

The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide

Review of Steven W. Thrasher's The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide

States of Liberation

Review essay about Samuel Clowes Huneke's groundbreaking study of gay life and activism in a divided Germany

The Unmentionable Whiteness of Americanaland

Review of John Milward's Americanaland: Where Country Met Rock 'n Roll

Love's Next Meeting: The Forgotten History of Homosexuality and the Left in American Culture

Review essay about Aaron S. Lecklider's 2021 book

Which Side Are You On? 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs

Review of James Sullivan's Which Side Are You On? 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs, in which the author sets out to "tell the story of modern American democracy" through 100 songs that "span a century of petition in the name of social progress."

Camp, Satire, and Serious Artistry in Carnival Krewsing

Unveiling the Muse documents how a stigmatized but resilient social minority asserted its presence in New Orleans' foremost cultural celebration, Mardi Gras

October: The Story of the Russian Revolution

PopMatters review of October: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Miéville,

The Original Blues

The Original Blues: The Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville debunks popular notions about the origins of the blues.

Journalism

A Wank Through History

A Wank Through History: My experience as an editor with gay magazine publisher (Mandate, Honcho) George Mavety

Farewell to the "Father of Montalbano"

My feature article about Andrea Camilleri, the Sicilian author of the internationally p[opular "Inspector Montalbano" novels.

Sleeping with a Celebrity: Frank Merlo, Tennessee Williams’ partner, gets his story told

Interview with Christopher Castellani about his novel Leading Men (2019)

Southern Decadence in the Vieux Carré

The history of New Orleans' third-largest festival and a report from the 2018 edition

The Poetics of Displacement

Professor and poet Michele Messina Reale documents the complex lives and struggles of refugees in Sicily

From the Brooklyn Docks to the State Supreme Court: Recalling Frank Barbaro's Radical Life

Commentary on the life and political career of Frank Barbaro, the former Brooklyn dockworker and labor organizer who became a New York State representative and Supreme Court justice.

Addio, Cosimo

Remembrance of the late Cosimo Matassa, who recorded many of the great R&B and rock 'n roll hits that defined the New Orleans Sound.

Music Features

Super Taranta Issues a Salentine manifesto

Mauro Durante and Antonio Castrignanó talk about the changing world of southern Italian music and how their new project, Super Tarana Orchestra, avoids the pitfalls of folkloric purism and pop commercialization.

Robert Finley and Bobby Rush: Affirming the Vitality of the Blues

For Rootsworld, I take a deep dive into the 2023 albums by two veteran blues artists, Robert Finley and Bobby Rush

Marco Cappelli, Between Naples and New York

Interview with Brooklyn-based (and Naples born) musician Marco Cappelli, a genre-defying guitarist, composer, and bandleader.

GlobalFest 2023: On Stage and On Tiny Desks

This year Globalfest, the twenty-two year old festival of international music, moved to Lincoln Center. For the third year, the festival also presented a series of video performances on YouTube.

From Lagos to Palermo and Back Again: Chris Obehi Returns to his Motherland

Interview with Chris Obehi, a young Nigerian who fled his homeland and emigrated to Palermo, Sicily, where he has begun a new life and career as a musician and recording artiust.

12 Essential Contemporary Blues Artists

A roundup of 12 contemporary blues artists who are keeping the genre alive and relevant

La Notte della Taranta: Reviving the Tradition

Italy's La Notte della Taranta has become the country's biggest music festival and one of the largest in Europe. But has success spoiled La Notte, which began as a celebration of southern Italian traditional music?

Sicilian Musicians Fratelli Mancuso: After a 10-Year Absence, Manzàma

Interview in La Voce di New York with the Sicilian singer-songwriters about their first album in more than 10 years, their work in theater and film, and their own experience as emigrants.

The Two Louis: "Pops" and "The Wildest"

My PopMatters report from New Orleans about the annual Satchmo Summerfest and the New Orleans' Jazz Museum's new Louis Prima exhibition.

The Sicily-New Orleans Connection: Jazz is the Art of Encounter par Excellence

Sicilian jazz virtuoso Francesco Cafiso talks about New Orleans jazz

What is Carlo Ditta Talkin' About?

Profile of New Orleans producer, songwriter and performer Carlo Ditta (PopMatters)

Rocking Chair Blues

Howlin' Wolf's Rocking Chair -- a track-by-track appraisal of a blues classic (PopMatters)

Bread, Wine, and Soul

An Interview with jazz master Joe Lovano

Cultural Criticism and Reporting

Heaven Stood Still: The Incarnations of Willie DeVille

Feature/interview about "Heaven Stood Still: The Incarnations of Willy DeVille," a 2023 documentary about the late rock musician.

I Cento Passi

From Mafia Movies: A Reader, my essay about I cento passi, a film that represented a return to Italy's tradition of politically engaged cinema.

"A Finook in the Crew"

"A Finook in the Crew: Vito Spatafore, The Sopranos, and the Queering of the Mafia Genre" (from The Essential Sopranos Reader

Music Reviews

Queen of Sheba

Review of Ibrahim Maalouf and Angelique Kidjo's Queen of Sheba, a suite that reinvents the legend of Solomon and Sheba.

Babilonia

Babilonia, Antonio Castrignanò's first full-length album since 2014's Fomenta: Ilenu De Taranta (he released a six-track EP, Aria Caddhipulina, in 2018), Babilonia comprises ten new compositions performed by Castrignanò and an ensemble of Italian and non-Italian musicians.

Bettye Lavette's "Things Have Changed"

Bettye Lavette's new collection of 12 Bob Dylan songs confirms her longstanding reputation as a great interpreter; her supremely soulful renditions make us hear them anew.

Fiction

A Sicily Story

My short story about an aspect of Sicily that may surprise. "The summer before he went away to university Lorenzo got a phone call that made everything clear..."

The Kingdom of Two Sicilies

My short story published in 2018 in the online literary journal Ovunque Siamo

Essay

Fuori per sempre: Gay and Lesbian Italian Americans Come Out

This essay is my contribution to The Routledge History of the Italian Americans (2018)

Pane, Vino, e Finocchio: In (Gay) Sicilia

A personal essay about my first trip to Sicily (from VIA, Voices in Italian Americana)

Film Criticism

Marco Tullio Giordana's The Hundred Steps: The Biopic as Political Cinema

Essay from Mafia Movies: A Reader (University of Toronto)

Nonfiction

An Offer We Can’t Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America

"Finally, a book that helps to explain America’s enduring fascination with the mythology of the Mafia."

--JOHN TURTURRO

Quick Links

Routledge History of the Italian Americans

I am a contributor to this landmark collection of essays documenting the history of one of America's largest ethnic groups.

La Notte della Taranta: Musicking as a Social Act and Metaphor for Social Relationships

My talk at "Italian Sonorities," the 2017 Annual Conference of the Calandra Italian American Institute, CUNY

Rootsworld: Listening to the World

I contribute reviews and essays to this great world music site

Mafia Movies: A Reader

Mafia Movies explores the rich variety of classics and rarities within the genre with provocative analyses of more than forty films.

Short Italian Tales: George de Stefano

A segment about me, from I-Italy-TV (NYC cable)

PopMatters

I write features and reviews for PopMatters, a great site featuring smart and wide-ranging cultural reporting and criticism

George De Stefano Author Page

My author page at Amazon

An Offer We Can't Refuse at I-Tunes

Download on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iBooks and on your computer with iTunes

E-mail the author

Authors Guild

From Lagos to Palermo and Back Again: Chris Obehi Returns to his Motherland

From-Lagos-to-Palermo-and-Back-Again-Chris-Obehi-Returns-to-his-Motherland---La.pdf (725 KB)

In 2015, Chris Obehi, a young Nigerian, fled his homeland and emigrated to Palermo, Sicily, where he has created a new life as a musician and recording artist.