By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
If America is a melting pot of cultures, Western Massachusetts is its microcosm. Since the turn of the 19th century, countless ethnic groups have come to this valley to find work and make their homes, bringing with them their languages, recipes, music, dances and traditions. Today we see these cultures reflected in special celebrations, such as the Greek, Armenian and Portuguese Festivals that take place locally each fall, the Moon Festival that celebrates Asian culture at the beginning of the Lunar New Year each February, the recurring summer Caribbean Festival and Springfield’s annual Puerto Rican Parade.
And of course, there’s the annual Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade – one of the largest in the country – that celebrates the longstanding Irish influence in Western Massachusetts.
Beyond these annual celebrations, many groups also have cultural organizations that support and actively work to keep their cultures alive, including the Puerto Rican Cultural Center on School Street in Springfield – established in 1978, which focuses on promoting the music and arts of Puerto Rico – and the Asian American Cultural Center – which teaches lion dancing, martial arts and Tai Chi in the traditional Asian forms.
Among those groups preserving their traditions and cultures here in Western Massachusetts are three legacy groups of immigrants – the Italians, the Polish and the Irish – all of which have cultural centers celebrating anniversaries or a grand reopening in 2019.
The Italian Cultural Center – planning for a grand reopening
The Italian Cultural Center – or ICC for short – was established in 1985, according to its website, “to promote and celebrate our Italian culture and heritage in all its facets.” The latest in a series of dozens of Italian clubs, religious organizations and veterans groups that had promoted and preserved the local Italian culture over the years, the new non-profit brought the preservation and promotion of all things Italian under one roof that year in a building on Acushnet Avenue in Springfield’s South End.
The ICC operated out of that building for many years, offering language and cooking classes, lectures and gatherings that promoted the Italian culture and its ties to Springfield. The ICC also recognized Italian-Americans for outstanding service to the community with its annual Serviam Award.
In 2006, the ICC relocated to a new site on Margaret Street. In January of 2018, that location suffered heavy damage from a burst water pipe, causing the ICC to suspend much of its activities for the year, as well as suffering the loss of significant materials.
“That was traumatic,” Lucille Brindisi, a member of the ICC Board of Directors, told Prime during a recent interview about the status of the center. “We’re still not 100 percent – the [reconstruction] work is not completely finished – but we hope it will be done soon.
“But we are going to start running programs in March,” she added.
Brindisi said one of the first events the ICC will be reinstituting is a return of their Friday night Italian Cinema screenings.
“We’ll be showing La Dolce Vita on March 1,” she said. The event begins at 6 p.m., the cost is $3 for ICC members, $6 for non-members, and tickets include a choice of snack and beverage.
Brindisi said current plans also include reinstating the ICC’s Italian culture lecture series. The first lecture, slated for March 24 at 1:30 p.m. titled “Then Opera on King Street,” will feature Martin C. Balboni reminiscing about growing up Italian in the 1950s and 60s. Brindisi said the ICC also has plans to host a lecture with Lou Del Bianco, the grandson of one of the carvers of Mt. Rushmore, Luigi Del Bianco, in the near future.
“He said his grandfather never got credit for his work because of discrimination against Italians at the time,” Brindisi explained.
She said the ICC would also be reinstating its popular cooking classes shortly as well, with the first offering being a gnocchi-making class slated for April 6 at 1 p.m.
These make-and-take classes for such Italian favorites as tortellini, aranchi and lemoncello often attract entire families, Brindis said, and prove to be among the most popular offerings the ICC hosts.
“I’m going to try to offer a biscotti class,” she shared.
The ICC will also be bringing its Italian language classes back to the Margaret Street building as soon as more repairs are complete, Brindisi said. “While the building has been under construction, we’ve held classes in the school next door at night. They graciously allowed us to use the building,” she explained.
And though many of the individuals who come to the ICC for cooking and language classes – and other events such as the bus trips to visit famed Italian-American neighborhoods throughout the Northeast – have Italian heritage; she said that’s not always the case.
“Lots of the people are those who are going to travel to Italy and want a little knowledge before they go,” she said.
She added the ICC is planning to host a big grand re-opening to highlight its classes and events shortly, once the final repairs are done to the Margaret Street center.
“We don’t have a date yet. We hope to have it before spring, but the building isn’t quite ready,” Brindisi said. “We want to have our library and our gift shop ready when people come in.”
For more information on the Italian cultural Center, visit their website at http://iccwm.org or find them on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/Italian Cultural Center of Western Mass Inc.
The Irish Cultural Center of Western New England – celebrating 20 years
Much like the story of the Italian Cultural Center, many Irish cultural groups have preceded – and still coexist – along with the Irish Cultural Center. The Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade for example – which celebrates its 68th year in 2019 – was started in 1952, according to the parade website, by members of the Brian Boru Club and the Ancient Order of Hibernians with help from local Catholic schools and parishes, and the Holyoke Police and Fire Departments. The initial investment in what has become the largest Irish parade in the Northeast, was a mere $200. Those groups – and scores more including the Irish Cultural Center – now take part in the extravaganza on a regular basis.
The Irish Cultural Center itself sprang from a research project, according to information on its website. In the 1990s, an Irish filmmaker, Breandán Féiritear, came to Western Mass. hoping to interview émigrés from Ireland’s Blaskett Island – and their children – for a documentary. Working with Elms College history professor Thomas Moriarty, Féiritear brought the finished film to the Elms for its American premiere – during a terrible snowstorm. Noting the large interest in this historical project despite the terrible weather, then Elms College President Kathleen Keating, SSJ, Moriarty, and Sean F. Cahillane – whose mother had emigrated from Great Blaskett – formed a group of locals of Irish descent to preserve Irish culture in conjunction with the college. The original Irish Cultural Center opened in a former library building on campus in 1999.
With a mission “to cultivate a connection with Ireland, through the arts, culture, history, language, and heritage,” the scope of the Center’s programming – and its membership – quickly grew to include language classes, artists, guest speakers, musicians, travel, cultural exchanges both with Ireland and other Irish groups throughout the Northeast, and a project that brings Dingle merchants to the Big E annually. By 2015 the scope of the Center had outgrown the space that Elms College could afford to provide, and began negotiating with the Town of West Springfield to take over the former Elks Lodge property on Morgan Road. The Center signed a 20-year lease with West Springfield in July of 2015.
“The Irish Cultural Center had been looking for a new home with enough space to hold lectures and meetings, concerts, as well as a museum and library,” Katie Doe, a member of the Center’s Board of Directors told Prime. “When we saw the opportunity for expansion at Morgan Road, we felt this would allow our patrons and the community a space to gather in and enjoy our Irish cultural offerings.”
Doe said The Irish Cultural Center of Western New England, and the Irish House Restaurant and Trinity Pub, opened at the Morgan Road site in March of 2017, after two years of construction. She said the Board felt including a restaurant and pub in the new Center was an important aspect of preserving and promoting the Irish culture.
“A pub is the perfect place to connect with friends, or relax at the end of the day. In Ireland, one of the great appeals of pubs is their traditional music. Every Wednesday, we have a traditional Irish session (or seisiún) with a group of fantastic local players. The Trinity Pub includes many touches that bring to mind an early 1900s Dublin pub – a handcrafted bar with custom woodwork, antiques and glass, a fireplace and snug,” Doe said.
But the cultural offerings at the Center expand far beyond the weekly Pub music and other specialty events in the restaurant. According to Doe, who also maintains the Center’s social media presence, the Center also provides the local Irish community with the opportunity to attend talks and lectures with historians, authors, poets, professors and politicians; take in concerts with local musicians and also internationally-known Celtic groups performing both traditional and popular music and, in a partnership with Elms College, take a range of Irish language classes at the college each academic year.
“All of these types of events help to get the community engaged in learning and participating. Our plan for the future is to expand our yearly offerings with a focus on Irish culture,” Doe explained, adding that in addition to the monthly slate of events and programs, “The library and museum will be opening soon to showcase our collection of literature, films, music, archival materials and historical artifacts.”
Looking to the future, Doe said the Irish Cultural Center is planning to expand on activities that will appeal to the next generation, including expanding its Irish heritage summer camp offerings for students in grades one through nine, selecting bands and music with a broad appeal for all ages when booking concerts, and insuring its newly created Irish Cultural Festival, which launched this past August, maintains a family focus.
Doe also noted that 2019 marks the 20th year of the Irish Cultural Center, and that a big celebration was in the works.
“Yes, we are going to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We are in the initial planning stages now,” she said.
For more information on the Irish Cultural Center of Western New England, their programming and their pub and restaurant, visit their website at irishcenterwne.org or find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IrishCulturalCenter
The Polish Center of Discovery and Learning – celebrating 20 years
Like the Irish Cultural Center, Stas Radosz, executive director of the Polish Center for Discovery & Learning, said the Polish Center got its start on the grounds of Elms College in 1999, when it was afforded space in the third floor of Berchmans Hall to display a growing collection of Polish historic artifacts, as well as to conduct lectures and events. Faced with outgrowing its donated space in 2004 – following a campaign that raised $600,000 to begin repairs and renovations – the Polish Center relocated from the Elms College campus to the former Holy Name of Jesus Rectory at 33 South Street in Chicopee.
Today the Polish Center occupies three floors of the former church rectory – the oldest in Western Massachusetts according to Radoz – showcasing an amazing collection of Polish cultural and historic artifacts and documents, most of them dating from before 1950. The three floors of the museum house everything from an authentic 18th century Polish cottage to displays of regional costumes, music and art, immigrant’s clothing passports and travel documents, club and organization materials, military uniforms, Solidarity posters and documents, and even hand-written records of Polish soldier’s lives in Siberia after capture by Russian troops during the world wars.
“The purpose of the Polish Center is to illustrate these things,” Radoz told Prime during a private tour of the Center. “We want to say something about the Polish culture, how people came to America, how they established their lives here.
“We try to keep things from being lost [to time],” Radoz continued. “There are historic objects that people don’t recognize, not from a monetary sense, but from a cultural and historic sense.”
At the Polish Center Radoz said they “Try to safeguard these materials from being lost to future generations.
“There is no other museum like ours in the Americas,” he continued as we toured the many galleries. “There is one in Chicago, established in 1930.”
That one, he said, has materials that belonged to a famed Polish pianist, Ignacy Jan Paderewski
“We have grandma’s noodle board,” Radoz shared. “Because that, too, is important to seeing how people lived.”
He said much like America itself, the land now considered Poland was a melting pot of European cultures, incorporating Celt, Scottish, Viking, early Germanic, Jewish, Muslim, French, Italian, Hungarian and Romanian influences over the centuries. All these influence are reflected in different aspects of the culture, language and cuisine, and reflected in the various artifacts – including a collection of over 1,000 photos – at the Center.
Radoz said though the Center does put on lectures and events, the tours to explore the history and culture of Poland that it sponsors are by far its most popular offering, such as the one Radoz plans to lead in late July of this year.
“We go to parts of Poland not usually seen,” he said.
And much like the Irish Center. Radoz said the Polish Center is planning for a 20th anniversary celebration later in 2019. He said it might be similar to the celebration that opened the Center in 1999, one that reflected the foods and culture of the Polish Renaissance of the 16th century.
“Twenty years ago on the opening of the Polish Center, we were trying to make people aware of what they didn’t know about Polish history and Polish culture,” Radoz said. “I hope we have accomplished what we set out to do those 20 years ago.”
For more information about the Polish Center of Discovery and Learning, visit their website at http://polishcenter.net/.
