L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JULY 27, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 6 VALERIO VIALE I n a world like today's, in which social media rule and, generally speaking, the virtual aspect of our relations is predom- inant over the traditional face-to- face meetings, I AM Books - Italian and Italian-American bookstore and cultural hub - brainchild of Nicola Orichuia and Jim Pinzino, looks like a green oasis in the core of Boston's North End, where all the Italophiles can meet in per- son, listen to book presentations, or to good music performed live, in the desert of ever withering get-togethers. In 2015, in the course of an award ceremony, Nicola got to know Jim, as the latter was being recognized for his dedication and contributions to the local Italian- American community. They, then, met a few more times and the idea that sparked the book- store came from one of those meetings. Jim comes from the IT world, while Nicola was a journalist before going into I AM Books. It doesn't happen often that a wiz of logic and a wordsmith join forces to create not only a book- store, that is both a physical place and a web portal on which ordering books and having them delivered to your front door, but also a cultural hub where dis- cussing about the latest titles, practicing your Italian skills, and, who knows, meeting your future business partner, best friend, or even your special one. We from L'Italo-Americano got immediately enthralled by Nicola's account and hope to see soon, also along the West Coast, a similar initiative catching on. How did the I AM Books' concept of the first Italian- American bookstore/cultural hub in the U.S. come to be? Boston features a very partic- ular neighborhood, the North End. This is where most of the Italian immigrants to the Boston area would gravitate towards over the past century or so. You still get the feel and atmosphere of a true Little Italy, but we felt what was missing was a cultural component, such as a bookstore. It was important that the book- store also had an active role in the cultural discourse of the neighborhood, offering readings, music and more. That's why we decided to call it a "cultural hub." What are the day-to-day challenges and satisfactions of your endeavor? A bookstore is like a living creature, you need to take care of it constantly. There are books to order and organize, we need to know what books we're running low on. We're always thinking of our calendar of events as well, inviting authors and musicians to participate. The greatest satisfaction is selling a book, any of them. When someone buys a book, I cannot help wondering what inspirations and new worlds that literary work will lead the reader to: they're taking home a little galaxy of ideas that will take them in new directions. Let's delve more into the catalogue of books you offer. Beside the more established authors, how do you scout for fresh talent? We only sell books that have some connection to Italy. We have sections dedicated to Italian authors translated into English, as well as adult fiction in Italian. Our children's section is divided among Italian language books and books in English by Italian or Italian-American authors and illustrators. We have sections on food, history and travel, as well as entire shelf dedicated to Italian American culture and studies. As for young talent, we always offer the possibility to new authors to sell their books in our bookstore, as long as they still have that Italian connection. So some authors may be of Italian heritage, while others may have written about Italy. As long as Italy shows up somewhere, we're good to go! Your bookstore is also a center of aggregation for learning to speak Italian, or just making conversation and practice the language. Could you elaborate? We want to take part in a larger cultural conversation, even though we are dealing exclusively with Italian and Italian American cultures. In order to do that, we offer our many events, but we also pro- vide Italian language and con- versation courses. And although it's not required, for some reason we have been very fortunate to employ people who speak Italian, so anyone walking through our doors can practice on the spot! An essential part of your cultural and entertaining offer is represented by a rich calen- dar of events. Could you give us some highlights of the past and future "menu"?  We've had many authors, poets, musicians and artists pre- sent their work at I AM Books. Shortly after opening, famous children's author Tomie dePaola stopped by for a signing, and we attracted more than 300 people! One year later, he came back and we had twice as many people show up. This year he's coming back on November 11 th . Let's hope we continue the growing trend! Just to name some others, we've had Mary Ann Esposito, Marianne Leone, Edi Giunta, Maria Lisella, Marisa Labozzetta, Andrea Molesini, Valeria Petrone, and many others. What does your typical readers/audience/students look like? Do you have any anec- dote you'd like to share, or anything that struck you? It's really hard to define a typical reader, because everyone who comes to I AM Books has different tastes. For example, we have many families or grandpar- ents who gravitate towards the children's section, while tourists might be more interested in our Boston-focused books. We have people who come specifically to find a particular textbook, or a guide to some odd part of Italy. Once, we had a young woman buy Harry Potter in Italian, but she told us she didn't speak Italian. She only bought it, because she was a huge fan and wanted to have a copy in Italian! Another time, we had a popu- lar TV show feature us for a cou- ple of minutes. I showed Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham (in Italian, obviously), and for the following couple of months peo- ple stormed in looking for the book. Good thing we had plenty in stock! In an era like today's, in which people mostly order books through Amazon or such and "meet" only virtually, how do you visualize the future of cultural hubs like yours?  It's true that people order more online nowadays, and that is how it's going to be. In fact, we have set up our website as an online store, with most our inventory available and for sale. But there is a resurgence of physical bookstores, and meeting places in general. People still want that personal interaction, they want to have a dialogue, a conversation. Most of our cus- tomers have a story to share and we love to hear each and every one of them. But most of the times they just want a recom- mendation for a good book. And we're here to help! Nicola Orichuia and Jim Pinzino in front of I AM BOOKS italian bookstore in Boston I AM Books - Italian and Italian-American bookstore and cultural hub Nicola's and Jim's I AM Books is revitalizing Boston's Little Italy LIFE PEOPLE MOVIES MUSIC BOOKS

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