When immigrants from Tindari and Patti, Sicily came to New York at the turn of the 20th century, they brought with them the tradition of celebrating the Black Madonna or “Madonna Bruna.” Although East 13th Street has changed significantly in the last 50 years and Sicilians en masse no longer live in the East Village, for more than a decade annually on September 8, a group of New York artists, musicians, poets, and Italian Americans gather where immigrants once had a shrine dedicated to the Black Madonna of Tindari in order to recognize this piece of New York and Sicilian immigrant history and celebrate the power of connecting once again with each other.
