I am an author, journalist and blogger living in New York City. I have been a professional writer (and editor) for 30 years, contributing to a wide range of print and digital publications. My passions are culture and the arts, politics, social theory, social science, and media. I have written about all these topics, for such publications as The Nation, Film Comment, Newsday, Gay City News, The Advocate, Cineaste, In These Times, The Italian American Review and Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide. I also am a contributor to the online publications PopMatters, The New York Journal of Books, La Voce di New York, Rootsworld, and I-Italy.

My well-reviewed non-fiction book , "An Offer We Can’t Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America," explores some of my longstanding preoccupations as a writer: cultural mythologies and their social impact; ethnic identity and stereotypes; popular culture, especially film, and how such social categories as race, class, sexuality and gender interact in American society. I also am a contributing author to many other books, including The Essential Sopranos Reader (University of Kentucky Presses), Mafia Movies (University of Toronto), Our Naked Lives (Bordighera Press) and the forthcoming Routledge History of the Italian Americans (2018).

I also have written about the AIDS pandemic, Latin American literature, Spanish film, Italian politics, Afro-Cuban, African, and other world music and jazz.

I have been a consultant to, and on-camera interviewee, in several documentaries, including the acclaimed PBS four-part series, The Italian Americans (2015). I also have presented research and cultural criticism at conferences and film festivals in the US and Europe.

I am currently working on "Gumbo Italiano: How the Sicilians Made New Orleans," a book about the Sicilians/Italian Americans of New Orleans, from the late 19th century immigration era to the present. It will present new perspectives on the Sicilian experience in New Orleans, focusing on immigration/assimilation, race and racism, culture (particularly music, including jazz and R&B), politics, and organized crime. It will include new interviews with famous and not-so-famous but notable New Orleanians, Sicilian/Italian and otherwise, speaking about their lives and experiences and about the significant impact of Sicilians on New Orleans.

The book will be published by Fordham University Press.