Michael Curtotti's Author Website

"No lines sector off the sky so high above, though all the nations of the Earth be bound about with borders."

  • Books and Interviews
  • About
  • Latest Articles
  • poetry
  • Shakespeare Begins
  • Books and Interviews
  • About
  • Latest Articles
  • poetry
  • Shakespeare Begins
  • Home
  • About
  • Books and Interviews
  • Poetry
  • Italian Stories
    • Italian Art
    • Italian Food
    • Faith and Religion in Italy
      • Paganism
      • Judaism
      • Christianity
        • Arianism
        • Catholicism
      • Islam
    • Gender in Italy
    • Italy – History
      • Italian Neolithic
      • Italy Bronze Age
      • Italy during the Roman Empire
      • Italy – Early Middle Ages (550 – 1000)
      • Italy – Late Middle Ages (1000-1400)
      • Italy – Napoleonic and Restoration (1799 – 1850s)
      • Italy – Renaissance (1400 – 1700)
      • Italy – Enlightenment (1700-1800)
      • Italy Risorgimento (1840s – 1900)
      • Italy Modern (1900 onwards)
    • Italian Identity
    • Italian Languages
    • Italian Literature
      • Early Vernacular
      • 14th Century
      • Renaissance Humanism
      • Verismo
    • Italian Peoples
      • Gothic Italy
      • Neolithic Farmers
      • Normans of Italy
    • Italian Regions
      • Abruzzo
      • Basilicata
      • Campania
      • Emilia-Romagna
      • Friuli-Venezia Giulia
      • Lazio
      • Liguria
      • Lombardia
      • Marche
      • Puglia
      • Molise
      • Piemonte
      • Sardinia
      • Sicily
      • Tuscany
      • Umbria
      • Valle d’Aosta
      • Veneto
  • Shakespeare Begins
  • Articles
    • 200th anniversary articles
      • Bahá’u’lláh’s Life
      • Principles of Bahá’u’lláh
        • The Oneness of Humanity
        • Oneness of Religion
        • Independent Investigation of Truth
        • Abolition of Prejudice
        • Equality of Men and Women
        • Harmony of Science and Religion
        • World Peace
        • World Language
        • Abolition of Extremes of Wealth and Poverty
        • Universal Education
        • Materially and Spiritually Balanced Civilization
      • Bahá’u’lláh’s Writings
      • Life of the Spirit
      • Lives Inspired
      • Specific Teachings
      • Visions of the Future
    • Movie Reviews
    • Foreignness
    • Gender Equality
    • Human Rights
    • Human Rights Forebears
    • Human Rights Practice
    • Immigration
    • Migrant Workers
    • Peace
    • Refugees
    • Racism
    • Slavery
  • Prendiamo un caffè? Italian Coffee Culture

    Let’s face it without the caffè this morning (yes, made with a traditional Italian caffettiera), I wouldn’t be writing this. Names like espresso, cappuccino, latte, and the now ubiquitous Italian espresso machines are a standard part of Australian cafe culture. So it’s natural to assume there is something quintessentially Italian about coffee. As Simona Lidia, a blogger on Italian culture jokes “an Italian will always believe deep inside that coffee grows spontaneously in Italy, and only in Italy, since the Lower Paleolithic.” Living Italian Coffee If my experience is anything to go by Italians, even in diaspora, can’t escape Italian coffee culture. Growing up, the tiny white cups were there…

    read more

    You May Also Like

    Snow Harvesters and the Origins of Gelato

    December 20, 2018

    Pasta in Japan as good as Italy? You bet.

    April 8, 2023
    tomato in italy

    The Tomato Conquers Italy

    October 15, 2018
  • Queen Victoria

    Bahá’u’lláh’s letter to Queen Victoria: Reform the World

    Of all the sovereigns who received letters from Bahá’u’lláh, the only one who is recorded to have responded thoughtfully was Queen Victoria. She is reported to have said, “If this is of God it will endure; if not, it can do no harm.”  Bahá’u’lláh’s letter to her was written around 1868, after his arrival in Akka, and is one of the letters that Baha’u’llah compiled together with the Suriy-i-Haykal (the Tablet of the Temple). In Bahá’u’lláh’s words to Queen Victoria we see another unfolding dimension of Bahá’u’lláh’s mission and teachings. As in letters to the other sovereigns to whom he wrote, Bahá’u’lláh explicitly sets out the purpose of his mission: to “quicken…

    read more

    You May Also Like

    Thomas Breakwell

    Right Livelihood: The Case of Thomas Breakwell

    July 31, 2017
    Gardens of the Mansion of Mazra'ih - Ishraqat

    Ishraqat – What is Religion For?

    September 21, 2017
    the problem of religion

    When Religious People do Bad Things

    July 21, 2017
  • Louis Gregory

    Louis Gregory – Service to the Oneness of Humanity

    Slavery was not a tale read from dusty history books for Louis Gregory. It was a close family memory. Louis Gregory was born in 1874. Both Louis’ parents had been freed from slavery by the civil war. His grandmother on his mother’s side, was an African transported to America as a slave in the Atlantic slave trade, and his grandfather was her white master. When Louis was four his father died. At age 7, Louis Gregory witnessed the murder of his African American grandfather by the Ku Klux Klan, because of his grandfather’s success as a blacksmith.  At age 17 Louis lost his mother, who died in child birth. From these difficult beginnings, his life began…

    read more

    You May Also Like

    prison poems mahvash sabet

    Nine Years: Prison Poems

    July 6, 2017

    Good News — Bahá’u’lláh’s Glad Tidings

    May 18, 2017
    to be a Baha'i

    What does it mean to be a Baha’i?

    June 19, 2017
  • a wall of chains - abolition fo slavery

    Bahá’u’lláh’s Abolition of Slavery

    Bahá’u’lláh came to emancipate human beings from slavery. This statement is true in more senses than one. Bahá’u’lláh explicitly institutes an abolition of slavery in his teachings. It is forbidden you to trade in slaves, be they men or women. It is not for him who is himself a servant to buy another of God’s servants, and this hath been prohibited in His Holy Tablet…. Let no man exalt himself above another; all are but bondslaves before the Lord, and all exemplify the truth that there is none other God but Him.[1] He also freed slaves in practice. Bahá’u’lláh was the son of a noble family of Iran. In his early life, the…

    read more

    You May Also Like

    shrine of Baha'u'llah beatitudes

    The Beatitudes of Bahá’u’lláh

    October 12, 2017
    world language

    Further Reflections on a World Language

    October 4, 2017
    a stronger thought of peace

    A Stronger Thought of Peace

    July 25, 2017
  • Students and teachers of Tarbiyat Girls school - gender equality

    Women and Men Have Been and Will Always Be Equal

    “Women and men have been and will always be equal in the sight of God.”[1] With these words, Bahá’u’lláh challenges the age old oppression of women. Thus, the following concept applies as much in respect of gender equality as elsewhere: Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other.[2] The general assertion of gender equality is addressed by Bahá’u’lláh in a diversity of fields in which, historically, gender equality has been denied. On work, Bahá’u’lláh states: … It is incumbent upon each one of you to engage in some occupation – such as a craft, a trade or the like.[3] There is no distinction…

    read more

    You May Also Like

    Ridvan garden entrance - ishraqat

    Ishraqat – Universal Education, World Language and Global Institution

    September 21, 2017
    galileo - new paradigm

    The Kitab-i-Aqdas: A New Paradigm

    September 5, 2017
    to be a Baha'i

    What does it mean to be a Baha’i?

    June 19, 2017
  • Martin Luther King Jr – Civil Rights Leader and Peace Advocate

    Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life for the poor of the world, the garbage workers of Memphis and the peasants of Vietnam. The day that Negro people and others in bondage are truly free, on the day want is abolished, on the day wars are no more, on that day I know my husband will rest in a long-deserved peace. —Coretta King This article is part of a series on human rights forebears.  Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived a life beyond the ordinary and writing about him is challenging.  His life made the world that came after him better.  This article will not do justice to his…

    read more

    You May Also Like

    The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: insights from its first draft

    October 21, 2014
    Image licensed under creative commons https://www.flickr.com/photos/buckaroobay/3721809183

    Upgrade Our Social Operating System

    June 22, 2015

    Belle

    July 18, 2014
  • The Peace Advocacy of Martin Luther King (Part 4 of 4)

    To appreciate Martin Luther King’s thoughts on peace, we must understand his thoughts about the relationship between human beings. He saw all human beings as caught “in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” He expands on this thought in his 1964 speech, “The American Dream”. All I’m saying is simply this, that all life is interrelated. And we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny — whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you…

    read more

    You May Also Like

    Image from heatherlindayoung.wordpress.com

    How old is the idea of abolishing foreignness?

    October 31, 2011

    Belle

    July 18, 2014
    peace dove - church window - against violence

    We Are One – Bahá’u’lláh’s Teachings Against Violence

    April 29, 2017
  • Martin Luther King and Non-violence (Part 3 of 4)

    Martin Luther King thought deeply about the best methods to use to overcome the injustices facing African Americans. This in itself is an important observation. It is appropriate for us in the 21st century to also think deeply about questions of method. His speeches frequently describe and defend nonviolence as the method he felt was both effective and moral for the issues on which he worked. Sometimes the description was in response to criticism of the method as “too extreme”, at other times it was to reject the violence advocated by some. His explanations were patient and detailed. The basic steps of the method are outlined to his fellow ministers…

    read more

    You May Also Like

    The Crisis of Human Rights: Discrimination Against Non-Citizens

    October 2, 2010

    Gattaca dystopia: future, present or the past?

    October 10, 2013

    The Duty of Kindness and Sympathy Towards Strangers and Foreigners

    October 18, 2011
  • Martin Luther King Jr. – What role did Christianity play in his civil rights advocacy? (Part 2 of 4)

    Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta Georgia, the second son of Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. Martin Luther King Jr. was by vocation a Baptist minister. He was in the fourth generation of his family to take up this vocation. It is impossible to fully appreciate Martin Luther King’s work without understanding the role that Christian thought and inspiration played in his advocacy of human rights. Martin Luther King’s letter from a Birmingham prison to fellow Christian clergymen gives insight to the role his religious commitment played in generating and sustaining his commitment to work for justice. Further, the people from whom he came, the…

    read more

    You May Also Like

    Image from heatherlindayoung.wordpress.com

    How old is the idea of abolishing foreignness?

    October 31, 2011

    Elysium – The Future of Human Rights is Now

    October 28, 2014
    patriotic cosmopolitanism - astronaut with international flag of planet earth designed by Oskar Pernefeldt

    Patriotic Cosmopolitanism

    August 22, 2015
 Older Posts
Copyright © 2025 Michael Curtotti. This is a publication of Aldila Press.
Ashe Theme by WP Royal.