Antonino D'Ambrosio is from Philadelphia, PA, where his parents made their home after immigrating from Coli al Volturno, Italy. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree form La Salle University in 1993 and went on to New York University where he received a Masters Degree in Public Policy in 1997. As a Deans Scholar at NYU, he focused on community media, politics and arts/culture advocacy working with Professors including Neil Postman, Rae Zimmerman and Walter Stafford on media, social justice issues, and policy.

In 1997, he founded La Lutta New Media Collective, a documentary film production and media activist group. With D'Ambrosio as its executive director, La Lutta NMC has 45 creative-activists and more than 50,000 members worldwide. La Lutta NMC has representative branches all around the world ranging from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Istanbul, Turkey. In 2001, The Nation readers chose La Lutta NMC as one of the top independent media groups in the U.S. That same year, La Lutta NMC launched DISPATCH on-line independent media journal, which had an average monthly circulation of 25,000 from 2001 to 2003. During this time, D'Ambrosio launched a series of political popular cultural events aimed at organizing and advocacy around issues of social justice, the arts and culture. To date, the events and program activity has generated the participation of over 25,000 people and over 2,000 community groups, advocacy organizations and arts/culture associations from all over the world. The New York Times described D’Ambrosio’s work as “heroic…creating true democracy” and The Nation magazine selected La Lutta one of the top 25 independent media groups in the U.S.

The events and program activity include:

Speak the Words You Breath: multi-media performing arts event;

This is a Movement featuring The Last Poets;

In Defense of Humans featuring RICANSTRUCTION;

Visual Liberation Film Festival: features films from new, emerging independent filmmakers;

Active Knowledge Youth Program: an outreach initiative aimed at training immigrant youth and youth of color in videography and new media; and

Creative-Activist-In-Residence Program: sponsors six young people ranging from ages 13-18 to work with La Lutta NMC each year.

In 1999, D'Ambrosio became The Nation's and Nation Institute's first Technology Coordinator. He worked closely with the weekly magazine's diverse group of writers, journalists and editors including then editor-in-chief Katrina vanden Heuvel and publisher Victor Navasky.

D'Ambrosio has lectured on the media, political popular culture, music, film and grassroots activism throughout the U.S. and parts of Europe. He has been a panelist/moderator at conferences including the Allied Media Conference based in the mid-west and Socialists Scholars Conference hosted in New York City. He has been an invited lecturer and guest speaker at New York University, Columbia University, Hunter College, Pace University, Long Island University, UCLA, Berkeley, Bowling Green University, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, University of Georgia, University of Chicago, Temple University, University of Vermont, among others. In 2002-03, D'Ambrosio was invited by the Brecht Forum to become its Film and Culture Programmer. He has taught popular education classes at the Brecht Forum on politics, the media, music, film and popular culture.

In 2004 D'Ambrosio was the Art Director for the 3rd Annual HOWL! Festival of East Village Arts. He is a contributor to The Nation, The Progressive, Monthly Review, Colorlines, among many other publications. He has produced scores of social media projects from documentary films to community-based cultural events. A frequent guest on radio and television, D’Ambrosio has been an invited speaker both here and abroad on media popular culture, film, and democracy.

D’Ambrosio is most recently the author of “Let Fury Have the Hour: The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer” which PBS selected as one of the top ten non-fiction books of 2005. He is working on a film project with Tim Robbins and his new book is “Politics in the Drums” to be published in the Winter 2006. He is currently Artist-In-Residence in the Media Arts Department at Long Island University and Special Projects Coordinator for Benjamin Barber’s Citizen’s Campaign for Democracy.