Sabato Rodia''s Towers in Watts - Art, Migrations, Development

This volume gathers groundbreaking critical essays on Sabato (Simon) Rodia's renowned Watts Towers (Los Angeles, California) from diverse disciplinary perspectives, extensively highlighting his migration context as never before, as well as the Towers in the context of human and community development within the "Watts Towers Common Ground Initiative."

List of contents

i. Table of Contents ii. Acknowledgements iii. Contributors Introduction Luisa Del Giudice, Sabato Rodia's Towers in Watts and the Search for Common Ground 1. Situating Sabato Rodia and The Watts Towers: Art Movements, Cultural Contexts, and Migrations 1.1 Jo Farb Hernandez, Local Art, Global Issues: Tales of Survival and Demise Among Contemporary Art Environments 1.2 Guglielmo Bilancioni, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere: Simon Rodia and Fantastic Architecture 1.3 Paul A. Harris, The Poetic Concrete of Sam Rodia's Watts Towers and the Concrete Poetry of Ronald Johnson 1.4 Thomas Harrison, Without Precedent: The Watts Towers 1.5 Richard Candida Smith, An Era of Grand Ambitions: Sam Rodia and California Modernism 1.6 Laura E. Ruberto, A California Detour on the Road to Italy: The Hubcap Ranch, the Napa Valley, and Italian American Identity 1.7 Felice Ceparano, The Gigli of Nola Festival in the Nineteenth Century 1.8 Kenneth Scambray, California and the Italian Immigrant Experience: The Artistic and Literary Contexts of Simon Rodia's Watts Towers 1.9 Luisa Del Giudice, Sabato Rodia's Towers in Watts: Art, Migration, and Italian Imaginaries 1.10 Joseph Sciorra, "Why a Man Makes the Shoes?": Italian American Art and Philosophy in Sabato Rodia's Watts Towers 1.11 George Epolito, Parallel Expression: Revealing the Artistic Contributions of Italian Immigrants in South America During the Era of Simon Rodia 2. The Watts Towers Contested: Conservation, Guardianship, and Cultural Heritage 2.1 Jeanne Morgan, CSRTW- Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts: Fifty Years of Guardianship 2.2 Jeffrey Herr, Simon Rodia's Towers: A Status Report 2.3 Sarah Schrank, Nuestro Pueblo: The Spatial and Cultural Politics of the Los Angeles' Watts Towers 2.4 Monica Barra, Reading the Watts Towers, Teaching Los Angeles: Story Telling and Public Art 2.5 Katia Ballacchino, Spires and Towers Between Tangible, Intangible and Contested Transnational Culture/Heritage 3. The Watts Towers & Community Development 3.1 Artists in Conversation: John Outterbridge, Judson Powell, Charles Dickson, Augustine Aguirre, Betye Saar, Kenzi Shiokawa (Panel moderated by Rosie Lee Hooks, Saturday, October 23, 2010, 121 Dodd Hall, UCLA) 3.2 Gail Brown, From Where I'm Standing Photo-Documentary Workshops at Watts Towers Arts Center: Building Community Through Self-Awareness and Self-Expression 3.3 Shirmel Hayden, The Watts Towers: Simon Rodia Fights Back Afterword Luisa Del Giudice, Personal Reflections on the Watts Towers Common Ground Initiative Appendices Appendix A1 - Conversations with Rodia 1953 - 1964 A.1.1 Interview of S. Rodia, with William Hale and Ray Wisniewsky, Watts, 1953. A.1.2. Interview with Simon Rodia (Excerpts) by William Hale and Ray Wisniewsky, Watts, 1953. A.1.3. Conversation with Sam Rodia, by Mae Babitz and Jeanne Morgan, Martinez, California, September 1960. A.1.4 Interviews, Part A, B, C with S. Rodia, by Ed Farrell, Jody Farrell, Bud Goldstone, Seymour Rosen, Martinez; University of California, Berkeley; and San Francisco Museum, California, September 1960. A.1.5 Report on Visits to Simon Rodia to CSRTW, from Jody Farrell (Bud Goldstone, Seymour Rosen, Ed Farrell and Jody Farrell), Martinez and Berkeley, California, October 17, 1961; and San Francisco Museum of Art, October 19, 1961. A.1.6 Letter to the CSRTW, by Claudio Segre [Segre], Re: Visit with Rodia in Martinez, California, January 25, 1962. A.1.7 "New Yorker Reporter Visits Rodia," Report to the CSRTW, Re: Interview with Simon Rodia and Relatives, by Calvin Trillin, Nicholas King, Jeanne Morgan, Beniamino Bufano, Martinez, California, August 30, 1964. A.1.8 Conversations with Rodia, Report by Jeanne Morgan, Re: Visits in Martinez, California, May 20, June 15, July 5, August 10, Sept. 10, 1964, and comments on New Yorker visit of Aug. 30, 1964. A.1.10 Last Conversation with Sam Rodia, Report by Jeanne Morgan, Re: Visit in Martinez, California, December 22, 1964. A.1.11 Interview, Part A and B, with S. Rodia, by Norma Ashley-David, Martinez, California, March [1964?]. A.1.12 Interview (Excerpts) with Rodia's Neighbors, Long Beach, California, by Bud Goldstone, 1963. A.4.13 Interview with S. Rodia, by Nicholas King, Martinez, California, September, 1990. Appendix A2 - CSRTW Campaign to Save the Watts Towers A.2.1 Nancie Cavanna Song Score, "Please Don't Tear Down the Towers" A.2.2 Campaign to Save the Watts Towers: Correspondence A.2.3 Miscellaneous Documents

About the author

Luisa Del Giudice is an independent scholar, former university academic (University of California Los Angeles, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia), public sector educator (Founder- Director of the Italian Oral History Institute), and community activist. She has published and lectured widely on Italian and Italian American and Canadian folklife, ethnology, and oral history, and has produced many innovative public programs on Italian, Mediterranean, regional, and folk culture, and local history in Los Angeles. In 2008 she was amed an honorary fellow of the American Folklore Society and knighted by the Italian Republic. She is the coordinator of the Watts Towers Common Ground Initiative.

Summary

Offers a collection of seventeen connected structures that center on several towers, one of which a 99-foot high, all made from concrete-encassed iron adorned in found glass, ceramic, and shells, the Towers were made by the hands of Sabato (Sam) Rodia an Italian immigrant who built his dream world over thirty three years.

Product details

• Authors: Luisa Del Giudice, Luisa (EDT) Del Giudice, Luisa Del Giudice
• Assisted by: Luisa Del Giudice (Editor), Luisa Del Giudice (Editor)
• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 15.06.2014
• EAN: 9780823257973
• ISBN: 978-0-8232-5797-3
• No. of pages: 496
• Series: Critical Studies in Italian America (FUP); Critical Studies in Italian America; Critical Studies in Italian America; Critical Studies in Italian Am
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art; Social sciences, law, business > Ethnology > Ethnology