Invites you to
The dance of the Giglio is a 1600-year-old Italian celebration that combines folk art, “popular spirituality,” and cultural identity in both Italy and the Italian-American community of Williamsburg. The feast reenacts a powerful tale of heroic sacrifice and home-coming: the historical tale of St. Paulinus, who saved Nola’s men from enslavement by North African conquerors in the fifth century.
The Giglio festival was brought over by the Nola immigrants who settled in Williamsburg more than one hundred years ago. In Nola, the 75-foot Giglio is still danced on the Sunday on or nearest June 22; in Williamsburg on the Sunday after July 4th.
About Stephanie Trudeau:
Stephanie Trudeau is a singer/actress/writer who worked nine years as a music educator at several Catholic elementary schools in Brooklyn. After completing her B.S. in 2005 in the History and Performance of American Popular Song, she began a research project on the continuity of Italian culture and traditions in Italian-American communities. In 2006 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Italy to continue her Festa research, in which she compared and contrasted the traditions of the feasts as they are celebrated in both Italy and the U.S. After completing her Fulbright she began working at The Bronx Museum of the Arts as manager of the museum book/gift shop. After leaving the Bronx Museum Stephanie created a company, Stevie’s Artisans Urban Folk Art, which sells the work of four artisans. She has presented her Festa photos at DeVry College in New Jersey and at the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School where she currently works as an administrative assistant. Her article, Born to Giglio, published in 2005 in “Voices, The Journal of New York Folklore,” was the start of this Festa journey.