NIAF essay I

I am scheduled to graduate Phi Theta Kappa from Lakeland Community College in August 2010. I am planning to attend Kent State University in the fall. I am double majoring in English and Creative Writing and minoring in Italian studies. I plan to write about my Strega lineage in the form of creative non-fiction in order to keep Stregheria alive in Italian-American culture. I want to write prose that continues the popular trend of modern witchcraft literature, and dispel some of the negative connotations the Strega tradition has suffered from over the years. Kent's Honors college would afford me the opportunity to study in Italy for at least one semester. Studying in Italy would enhance both my research and language skills.
I began writing as a child. My first published work was in a 1977 issue of a Catholic newsletter. It was about the marriage between the sun and the moon and how sad they were because they could only see each other once a month during the third quarter. In 1993 I won the Marshall B. Woods literary award for a one act-play about Stregheria entitled “Ave Maria.” In 1995, the Ensemble Studio Theater in Manhattan performed a staged reading of my full length play, “Venus Rising.” Although I was experiencing some success as a writer, I realized to progress further I needed to pursue higher education. In addition, as my definition of what it means to be both Strega and first generation Italian-American has developed, my urge to share this knowledge as a storyteller has also blossomed.
My professional plans include setting the record straight about what Stregheria is and is not. There have been some books published recently that do not accurately reflect Italian pagan traditions. I hope to learn the skills necessary to combat this misinformation by telling my story through prose. I also have plans for a one-woman show on my experiences as a first-generation Italian-American. My mom was born in Split, Yugoslavia during World War II. (My grandfather worked with the occupation force stationed there.) As a result of growing up in that environment, she doesn't fit the stereotype of the excessively affectionate Italian mother. She did not speak English fluently until I was about four. She has since graduated from Harvard and is an anthropologist. Watching her get taken advantage of when I was a child and then juggle college in a foreign language has solidified her role as my idol. I want to pay tribute to her in both performance and prose. I would also like to contribute my personal narrative to the Italian-American story. I have noticed that third and fourth generation Italian-Americans lose touch with their ethnic identity and thus themselves. Without self knowledge, we are not whole. We become shadows of ourselves, stereotypes, and tacky ones at that.