Category Archives: News Americas

Santo Spinelli in NYC

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Santo Spinelli in NYC

On the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Concert for the Day of Remembrance / Samudaripen, promoted and organized by the Union of Romani Communities in Italy (UCRI), will be held on February 2 at 8:00 p.m. at Carnegie Hall in New York. The event, organized with the patronage and support of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, UNAR at Palazzo Chigi, and the major European Roma and Sinti organizations—ERGO Network, ERIAC, and IRU—is intended to contribute to the recognition of Samudaripen, the genocide of the Roma people during World War II, alongside the Holocaust, through the universal language of music. The concert features two internationally renowned artists, Gennaro Spinelli, violin soloist, and Santino Spinelli, accordion soloist, accompanied by members of the European Peace Orchestra. This ethno-symphonic project combines revisited classical repertoire and traditional Romani music, along with several original compositions, offering a musical journey of strong symbolic and cultural value.

Urban Segregation and the Making of Roma Marginality in Türkiye: The Case of Urla

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Urban Segregation and the Making of Roma Marginality in Türkiye: The Case of Urla

Dr. Uştuk will present his ethnographic research of the Roma community in Urla, a town near Izmir. The talk will begin with a brief overview of the evolution of Romani Studies in Türkiye, situating the emergence of the field within the broader political transformations prompted by EU accession processes and the Roma civil society movement. Against this contextual background, an ethnographic case study from Urla, İzmir region, demonstrates how gentrification policies led to an “exile strategy” against the Roma community, framing them as the “unwanted others.” The research indicates that structural exclusion operates simultaneously through policy frameworks and everyday narratives of blame, sustaining a long-lasting politics of exclusion.

One can register for this conference.

  • https://romanistudies.ch/seminar-series/2025-2026/29-october-2025/

Ukrainians, Trump, and Roma

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Ukrainians, Trump, and Roma

Ukrainians are mocking the pompous style of the White House under Trump and comparing it with rich Romane Interiors. A series of memes.

US Report on Bulgaria

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US Report on Bulgaria

Murder, torture, cruel treatment or punishment continue to be major human rights violations in Bulgaria. This is stated in the new annual report of the United States on the state of human rights in 2024.

However, the document does not mention corruption, as well as discrimination based on ethnicity and sexual orientation, which remain a serious problem in Bulgaria. The news comes more than a year after the last report on the topic, which pointed to corruption, police violence and discrimination as the main problems in Bulgaria.

Unfortunately, a predictable outcome…

Ballerina

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Ballerina

The upcoming John Wick film “Ballerina”, featuring actors Ana de Armas, Ian McShane, Norman Reedus and Anjelica Huston. What does this have to do with Roma?

Well, the main character “has been trained in the assassin methods of the Russian Roma”. This is de-facto profiling Roma and misrepresenting them.

Besides the fact that killing people is not part of Romani culture.

PROTEST

Roma Memory Map

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A delegation of Roma human rights defenders from five countries in North and South America visited Poland and the Czech Republic from August 1 to 11. The main reason for her arrival was the 80th anniversary of the extermination of the so-called “gypsy camp” in Auschwitz-Birkenau. During its trip, the delegation also presented the Roma Memory Map in America project, which shows places associated with Roma life in North and South America. So far, 29 places are described on the map, and their number will continue to expand.

Roma Memory Map

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Presentation of the Roma Memory Map for America, which is a project created from the contributions and engagement of Roma, Roma and pro-Roma civic organizations, human rights defenders, academics, public officials and other members of the public, August 8, 2024, Prague.

Roma Memory Map

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Making the presence and history of the Roma community in South and North America visible is the goal of the Memory Map Roma for America. It captures the places that are important to the Roma communities living in the given countries. Martin Fotta from the Ethnological Institute of the Academy of Sciences, who participated in the creation of the map, said this at today’s presentation.

Roma in the USA

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The Roma organization Rom Sam Yekh organized a debate in New York about the future of the Roma in the USA. The event was organized on the occasion of International Roma Day. The main meeting of activists and experts took place on April 22 in Brooklyn and discussed the education, identity, traditions and rights of the American Roma.

“This evening is not about me, it is not about my family, it is not about my community. This evening is intended to raise awareness of the fact that Roma are united, that is, all Roma are one nation. Even though we have different cultures, we are all one,” said Michael Ciuraru, the main organizer and co-founder of the Roma Sam Yekh group, which deals with the education, culture and history of the Roma in the United States, in an interview with ROMEA TV.

Ethel Brooks

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Ethel Brooks is now a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. People of Roma origin often face racist prejudices that make it impossible for them to rise in the professional hierarchy. Ethel also had such problems. “It very often happened to me that some of my classmates told me: “Gypsy, your place is in the corner!”, she says. When she tells the story, there is no anger in her voice, but the sadness is palpable.

Well done.

Google Translate Romanes

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Nice to see that google translate allows for translations in Romanes. It definitively has a bias towards Vlach Romanes, which is not the most common Romanes, but this is a good start! The choices of words on World, to think, and a few others show this bias, but on the other hand, they still use the old Romanes for “life”, which is not Vlach.

Wonder how this was compiled…

Google and Romanes

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Romanes is finally in Google Translate: The biggest language expansion in history! Google added 110 new languages.

Whoopi Goldberg

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A plethora of articles in the press about Whoopi Goldberg use of the term “gypped” on live TV. She was referring to Donald Trump’s follower who, according to Whoopi are “people who still believe that he got, you know, gypped somehow in the election.”

She apologised.

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