The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center on the shared main campus of Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College, in Fairmont, WV will launch the new “Appalachian Italian Folk Cultural Series” with a special event on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012.

The Cultural Series will feature a presentation and display by Dr. Joan L. Saverino titled “Embroidery as Inscription in the Life of a Calabrian Immigrant Woman.” The event, which will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 11, at the Folklife Center, also will include exhibit samplings of the Fiber Arts, an awards presentation and a savory and sweets reception. Admission to the event is free and open to the public. For more information, call (304) 367-4403.

The mission of the new “Appalachian Italian Folk Cultural Series” is to preserve the characteristics of Italian and Appalachian Folklife in West Virginia, to instill the importance of knowing about the region’s rich and diverse cultural heritage and to recruit students and the community at large to pursue cultural studies and issues in order to perpetuate society’s future. Yearly presentations, authors’ chats and films in the series are being sponsored in part from the book royalties of “Italians in West Virginia” (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Press, 2011) by Victor A. Basile and Dr. Judy Prozzillo Byers.