Alissandru Francesco "Alex" Caldiero (born 1949) is a poet, and intermedia.

Life

Caldiero was born in the ancient town of Licodia Eubea, near Catania, Sicily, in 1949. He immigrated to the United States at age nine and was raised in Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York. He attended Queens College in Flushing, New York, and was apprenticed to the sculptor Michael Lekakis and the poet-bard Ignazio Buttitta. Caldiero has traveled through Sicily, Sardinia, Turkey, and Greece collecting proverbs, tales, and folk instruments. He is co-founder of Arba Sicula, the society for the preservation of the Sicilian language and traditions, and is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Utah Performing Arts Tour, and the Best Poetry Award from the Association for Mormon Letters. Caldiero has lived in Utah since 1980 with his wife and children - including Isaac Caldiero and Sara Caldiero - shortly after converting to Mormonism, and is poet/artist-in-residence at Utah Valley University. His work has been reviewed by The Village Voice and The New York Times and he is included in A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes.

Publications

Anthologies Exhibitions

Performances

Caldiero has performed at the Utah Arts Festival, several times on National Public Radio on the Poetry Bus Tour in 2006, at The New School for Social Research, the Pritchard Art Gallery, the Salt Lake Art Center, Utah Valley University, the Kiva Koffeehouse in the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, and on Brazilian TV. His notable performance of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" on the 50th anniversary its first reading drew a record poetry crowd at a local book store. Recently, Caldiero has performed together with various members of Theta Naught, an ensemble that describes their music as "psychodelicious music". Caldiero intones his poetry while the band plays.

Films and documentaries

Audio/video

Videotapes

Audio tapes / CDs