HP_041819

20 | April 18, 2019 | The highland park landmark life & Arts
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singer
From Page 19
letta said, “Now, let’s play
together,” as they launched
into another song popularized
by an Italian film,
“What Scoundrels Men
Are!”.
At one point, during
“Mala Femmina,” which
Iovino said translates
to “Bad Lady,” Coletta
pulled up a man from the
audience to join him.
Filippo DiVagno, 75,
sang every word as Coletta
even briefly ceded the
stage to him.
After the show, DiVagno
said, “I like to sing all the
time. If you want to live
long, sing all the time.”
A retired Highland Park
High School employee,
DiVagno said he was
known for singing while
working and he wrote
songs for his children’s
weddings. DiVagno, a native
of Italy whose wife’s
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maiden name is also Coletta,
said he moved to the
area in the late 1960s. He
heard about Gianni Coletta
at the Highwood Bocce
Club and saw his first performance
in 2017.
After DiVagno’s impromptu
sing-along, Iovino
said Italians are an
emotional people.
“When people find out
you’re Italian, they want
to come over,” she said.
“When you cook, you can
feed 50 people.”
Throughout the rest of
the performance, other audience
members joined in
and danced in the aisles as
they played Italian standards
such as “Volare” and
“O’ Sole Mio.”
Clearly enjoying himself,
Coletta said, “This is
the first time a concert has
been like this for me.”
“Welcome to America,”
Iovino replied.
“This is a cabaret,” Coletta
said.
“We’re going to take it
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on the road,” Iovino said.
After the show, Coletta
greeted fans, many of
whom spoke Italian with
him.
Wolfe said, “He’s talented
and gracious. He’s a
real jewel.”
Speaking in English,
Coletta said, “Every time
I come to Chicago it’s fantastic.
I love to sing here.”
Coletta, 42, said it
wasn’t the first time he has
performed in a library, and
he appreciated the enthusiasm
of the Highland Park
audience.
“This was a party tonight,”
he said.
Coletta has performed
all over the world and is
the artistic director of AC-
TEA, a charity that promotes
artistic and cultural
activities. While in Chicagoland,
he also performed
at 210 Live Tuesday night,
Pescatore Palace Thursday
night, and a dinner concert
at Highwood Bocce Club
Friday.
HP resident publishes
memoir-turned-novel
Erin Yarnall, Editor
“Seven Photographs” is available now.
photo SUBMITTED
Alan Rossman didn’t set out to be a novelist.
In fact, he didn’t set out to be a writer
at all. For years, Rossman was a college
professor, teaching pedagogy to prospective
science teachers.
But once he retired, Rossman turned to
accomplishing lifelong goals, including
writing a memoir.
“I recently retired and had some time and
what I thought was a good idea,” Rossman
said about his novel, “Seven Photographs.”
“I wanted to see if I could do it, and I’m
really happy with the fact that I put in that
time and effort to fulfill that lifelong goal.
I feel great.”
For Rossman, the first step of writing his
novel was putting pen to paper, or in his
case, finger to keyboard. But he said once
the first word was down, the rest continued
to flow to fill out the story.
“At a certain point, it develops this momentum
which was irrepressible,” Rossman
said.
He was inspired by visual literacy.
“Visual literacy is how looking at a photo,
or an image can reveal all sorts of hidden
meanings about the moment in which
that picture was taken,” Rossman said.
His novel was initially intended to be a
memoir, as Rossman wrote about themes
in his life, based on photographs that he
found.
While writing his memoir, he started to
craft another story, and instead of writing
about himself, began to follow different
characters.
“Seven Photographs” follows Wilson, a
“profoundly sad guy,” according to Rossman.
“[He] uses [visual literacy] as a way of
recognizing the magic that can brew inside
life’s smallest moments, like the moments
captured in a photograph,” Rossman said.
“The story is wrapped around these two
friends, both of whom are sad people and
have recently experienced traumas in their
lives, but come together through a bond of
friendship to expose the story of their lives.”
As a first-time writer, Rossman went
through a hybrid publisher, a version of
self-publishing.
“I had the strength of this hybrid publishing
company behind me to help with
some editing, some marketing and the design,”
Rossman said. “They provide that
kind of support, which for me was really
important.”
He said he hopes his novel can be picked
up by a big publishing house, but said it
might be “a bit of a pipedream, but it’s a
possibility.”
Rossman, a longtime resident of the Ravinia
neighborhood, said there are some
Highland Park Easter eggs that readers
might be able to catch.
“I suspect that first-time writers write
what they know,” Rossman said. “I’ve been
a Highland Park resident for 33 years and
love the area. The story takes place in a setting
that is very much like the setting outside
of my living room window — a tightly
knit neighborhood of people who are out
and about for 1,000 different reasons and
occasionally bump into each other, and
sometimes those chance and happenstance
encounters lead to something deeper.”
A big fan of Norton’s Restaurant in
Highland Park, Rossman has a restaurant
setting in the novel not unlike his favorite
local establishment.
He also said the “general sense of neighborliness”
rings true to the Ravinia neighborhood.
“Seven Photographs” is available online
at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.