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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

The point? Columbus Day was never really about Columbus. It was always an Italian heritage celebration.

We don’t need Columbus. We can celebrate our heritage without whitewashing the genocide of imperialism. It’s time for us, as Italian-Americans, to move on from Columbus.

Grazie, amici

Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

When Colorado governor Jesse McDonald recognized Columbus Day as an official state holiday in 1905, Noce responded that McDonald had bestowed “an honor that had never been accorded…by any governor”. Not to Columbus, was this honor given, but to Italian Americans.

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

The Denver Post in 1905 summarized it this way (sorry- I had to put it in notes, couldn’t get a good screenshot from digital archives)

There are in Colorado some 18,000 Italians, most of them very hard working, some of them highly cultured, but the average American child sums up all the sons of the erstwhile mighty Roman Empire in one term of derision, “Dago”, and let’s it go at that. Perhaps, if once a year, this young person should hear something of the struggles, the courage, the indomitable perseverance of Columbus…it might make him a little less bumptious, a little better mannered to his dark-eyed, olive-skinned comrades at school.

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

In other words, Columbus was seen as the “one Italian [who] Americans would not throw rocks at”. That opinion comes from Adelina Mangini, daughter of Denver’s first Italian innkeeper and Noce’s friend, Siro Mangini.

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

In fact, President Benjamin Harris declared October 12, 1892 a one-time Columbus Day commemoration of the 1492 voyage. He did this specifically to placate the Italian consulate, still up in arms over the 1891 lynchings in New Orleans. Columbus was becoming a political symbol for Italian belonging.

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

Italy was a new country, unified in 1871. Its heroes were new, and Americans didn’t care too much. But Columbus was different. He fit the “Great Man” model of nationalist empires, he had a connection to the Americas, and he was popular, enough so that they named the 1893 World Fair after him.

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

Western nations at the time leaned heavily into Great Man models of history, or the idea that civilization progresses through the deeds of exceptional individuals. In an era of intense nationalism, everyone had their champions.

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

Why Columbus? While serving as a representative of San Francisco’s Italian colony in the 1876 Centennial, Noce saw Americans and Italian immigrants from all regions of Italy briefly unite in early October. The cause was a commemoration of Columbus’ voyage.

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

Noce saw not only hatred from nativists, but also disunity among Italians themselves. Fierce regionalism followed Italians wherever they immigrated, leaving northern and southern Italians often violently opposed even in diaspora. Amidst this, Noce started campaigning for a Columbus celebration.

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

Italians at the time could be subject to great violence. When the New Orleans police chief was killed in 1890, 9 Italians were tried for murder. When they were acquitted in 1891, the outraged people of New Orleans lynched 11 Italians in response, the largest mass-lynching to date.

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

Angelo Noce was born in 1847 in Italy, then still not a unified county. His parents immigrated to California, and he later moved to Denver, where he founded the city’s first Italian newspaper “La Stella”. This is the same city where Mother Cabrini would later care for orphans of Italian miners.

Black and white picture of Angelo Noce, a man with graying hair and mustache, wearing a dark suit pinned with a medallion.

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

The history of Columbus Day extends far beyond its inception as a federal holiday in 1968. In fact, the origins of the holiday stem from Denver, Colorado, where the first Columbus Day parade was held in 1909. And that is largely thanks to the work of a man named Angelo Noce.

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 18h

Columbus was a genocidal tyrant with a messiah complex, and is a terrible representative for us as Italian Americans, so why was he ever celebrated?

Settle in, let’s do this

🧵

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 1d

Nobel Prize for Climate Fiction

Climate News @climatenews.bsky.social · 1d

We need Nobel Prizes for Climate

- Nobel Prize for Climate Tech
- Nobel Prize for Climate Journalism
- Nobel Prize for Climate Activism
- Nobel Prize for Climate Infrastructure
- Nobel Prize for Climate Success

Richard Delevan @richard.wickedproblems.earth · 5d

Nobel Prize for Climate Tech. Should actually be a category going forward. But this'll do for today (gift link) - www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

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Reposted by Christopher R. Muscato

Marisca Pichette (she/they) @marisca.bsky.social · 2d

Check out my immersive mushroom poem, "Let the net grow far and deep" 🍄

Penumbric Speculative Fiction Mag @penumbricmag.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you to all the contributors in October's #Penumbric! Carl Scharwath, @authorjoshuaginsberg.bsky.social, Marisca Pichette, Lydia O’Donnell, Garth Upshaw, @maryjorabe.bsky.social, @devanbarlow.bsky.social ...

www.penumbric.com/currentissue...

#fiction #poetry #art #scifi #fantasy #horror

Table of contents for October's issue of Penumbric, at https://www.penumbric.com/currentissue/ToC.html

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 2d

Glad to have you join us!

Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 3d

Why are we hyping hope? Why now?

To quote Alexandra Rowland, who coined the term hopepunk:

“in this world of brutal cynicism and nihilism, being kind is a political act. An act of rebellion.”

Read Rowland’s full defense of hopepunk here, ya rebel

festive.ninja/one-atom-of-...

#HopePit

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 3d

Join us to hype some hope!

#HopePit Community @hopepit.bsky.social · 4d

Let's spin visions of hope & resilience!

🌞🌱

We hope you can JOIN US Nov 9 for #Hopepit, uplifting all types of media under the big #hopepunk & #clifi ⛱️ umbrellas.
Here on 🦋.

#solarpunk #permaculture #hopecore #hope
#WritingCommunity #GameDev #IndieDev #TTRPG #Comic
#WriteSky #Writers #MusicSky

Flier for #Hopepit
Sunday, Nov 9
community connect Nov 5 - 8

🌞🌱 Let’s elevate hope! 🌱🌞

An inclusive community-building hype event for voices of light & vision in the darkness.

Open to creators of all media telling stories of hope, resilience, sustainability, mindfulness, climate change, & collapse navigation

#Hopepit

🌞Use the #Hopepit hashtag to share your pitches, books, videos, articles, and art

🌱We encourage the use of additional tags, like: #hopepunk, #solarpunk, #clifi, #IndigenousFuturism, etc

🌳Not sure which genre? JOIN US anyway!

🌱We 💛 resource sharing & discussion threads!

@hopepit.bsky.social

climate fiction hopecore hopepunk clifi #Climatefiction nomadpunk solarpunk #solarpunk #hopecore indigenous futurism pitch hype permaculture

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Reposted by Christopher R. Muscato

Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 4d

People are simple in the end.

Enjoying international cuisines makes people more tolerant, UK study finds

Frequent and varied eating found to reduce likelihood of perceiving immigrants as ‘cultural or economic threats’

www.theguardian.com

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 5d

“The girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa”

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 5d

Unbarbing of Wire

Shared-world Western clifi collection

With:
- solar-powered taco trucks
- dirigible farms (and cats that prowl within)
- lots of prairie grass
- like really a lot of grass
- eating dirt (complimentary)
- Trains!
- vagrants and vagabonds

#DVpit #clifi #scifi #short #collection

Illustration of a person on a horse, towing a hovercart greenhouse, seen from above walking through a field of swaying grass. The text in teal reads “Unbarbing of Wire”. Art by me.

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 5d

All Roads Lead to Roam: a Nomadpunk Collection

Roaming forests! Border-subverting smugglers! Mushroom gardens in the clouds! Cowboy anarchists! And more!

Short climate fiction stories of resilience, hope, and above all, movement

#DVpit #scifi #clifi #solarpunk #short
#collection

Gold mano cornuto charm with topographical lines on a chain, against a black background. The text in gold reads “All Roads Lead to Roam”. Art by me.

Gold text on a black backdrop reading “They tried to catch me once or twice/for crossing their borders/but what are paper lines/when the winds give me my orders?”

Dark blue text on a yellow backdrop reading:

ALL ROATS LEAD TO ROAM

• CLIMATE RESILIENCE THROUGH
NOMADISM
• BORDERS? WHAT BORDERS?
* MINIMALIST LIVING, MAXIMALIST HOPE

Black letters on a yellow backdrop reading:

Nomadpunk

• solarpunk nomadism
• mobility as resilience
• move free and plant things

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 6d

GLAZE is wonderful, I’ll have to look into Nightshade!

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 6d

I think one of challenge facing many is the feeling that high-tech problems are beyond their skill set to effectively dismantle. It’s hard to find a hammer when the machine is backed up.

Sounds like a cool book- excited to check it out

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Reposted by Christopher R. Muscato

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 6d

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

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