Portsmouth's Little Italy Carnival a time of celebration and 'healing'

PORTSMOUTH — To get to the Little Italy Carnival on Sunday, you had to walk the streets of the city’s North End, where the past haunts this changing face of the city. You couldn’t help thinking about the neighborhood, the homes, the families whose long ago footsteps you were walking in to a celebration in honor of them.

The Little Italy Carnival, one of the four signature events of the city's yearlong 400th anniversary celebration, was filled with children, families, food, street performers, live music and fun, all to pay homage to the Italian community that once lived in the city’s North End.

The neighborhood’s families were forced to leave their homes due to urban renewal. The city razed hundreds of homes and businesses in the North End in the 1960s and 1970s.

Organizers worked for two years to bring Sunday's carnival to life, fundraising, planning and literally moving mountains to create a classic street carnival where the salt piles normally tower on the Portsmouth waterfront.

“I remember talking to people impacted by urban renewal and it was still such a wound,” said volunteer Paula Rais of Portsmouth, who had been involved in a theatrical project “Neighborhoods” in the 1990s and who volunteered to run an information booth at the carnival to teach people about the history.

Lifelong Portsmouth resident Francesca Marconi was volunteering at the booth and is a member of the Little Italy Celebrations committee that planned the carnival with Portsmouth 400. Her mother grew up in the North End on Russell and Green streets.

“We need to celebrate the resiliency of the Italian community that got obliterated. Today’s the beginning of that celebration and of the healing of the Italian community,“ she said, noting this is the first of what will become an annual street festival honoring the North End’s Italian community. “It’s an event for the community. We all did it, and it needed to be done.”

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Dan Allen of Portsmouth attended the carnival with his family. He said they’ve been talking with his son this week about going to the carnival, what it’s about, and why it was happening. “It’s been an excellent opportunity to talk about the Italian culture, and about the people that used to be here,” he said. “It’s been a great experience the whole week even before today.”

“And I can’t believe they moved the saltpiles for it,” he added.

Shelagh Mahoney, president of Granite State Minerals, confirmed they did indeed move salt to several other locations to make way for the festival.

“We are just happy to support the community, and to support the 400th anniversary celebration,” she said.

The carnival featured a tent of children’s games and crafts, provided by Sages Entertainment. Another was dedicated to performances by the Boston Circus Guild acrobats, aerial dancers, clowns and live band as well as face painting, balloon animals and other children’s crafts and games. Another tent featured food and drink, performances by DJ Skooch and the Jumbo Circus Peanuts, and a Sicilian Sizzle Cook-off. At the heart of the carnival was the History Tent, where you could learn the neighborhood’s history.

Cure owner and executive chef Julie Cutting organized the Sicilian Sizzle Cook-off to celebrate Italian cuisine.

“I am from this area and never moved away. I love to celebrate its heritage,” Cutting said. “This was an opportunity to celebrate the history of its Italian community, and it’s fun to be a cooking competition host and not a competitor for once.”

The competing chefs were Laura Van Hook, sous chef at Abenaqui Country Club in Rye; Matt St. Peter, executive chef at Toscana Italian Chop House in Portsmouth; and Ben Solomon, executive chef and owner of PARKD in Rye. Celebrity judges were Evan Hennessey, executive chef and owner of Stages in Dover; Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern; Andrea Pruna, Senior Vice President of Northeast Credit Union; and Anna Rossi, TV personality and culinary host of Boston’s The Hub show.

Massimo Morgia, owner of Ristorante Massimo in Portsmouth, co-chaired the carnival planning committee with Robyn Aldo and Dawn Przychodzien.

“I didn’t know a lot about the Italian community that had been displaced when we began planning the carnival. But the more I learned, the more I became passionate about this and how important it is to pay homage to the Italian families who lived here,” he said. Born in Italy, his family moved to Portsmouth when he was very young. “Everybody knew each other, everybody looked after each other, everybody helped each other. They really lived together. My mother would not have survived without the help of her community here.”

His family moved before urban renewal, but he has heard the stories of some of the people who lost their homes in the North End through his work with Little Italy Celebrations, which is making a documentary about the neighborhood before urban renewal. “We need to honor their resilience. They went on to become parts of the community and business owners,” he said. “It means a lot to me to celebrate them.”

Of planning and fundraising for the festival, Morgia said, “The spirit of the people of this community is unbelievable. ‘What do you need, Massimo?’ is all I kept hearing,” he said. “This filled my heart and we wanted to do this right for everyone involved, to honor the sponsors, donors and the people who lived here.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth NH celebrates Little Italy Carnival, North End's past