Sometime in the ’90s, a woman in cracked, green crocodile skin, gold booty shorts, and a hat of crocodile heads and rolls and rolls of red tickets posed as the camera snapped. Decades later, New Haven artist Edwin Gendron would pick up the black-and-white photo he took, hand-paint the colors in, and make it into something new.
The piece was among several, all transformations of some kind, that Gendron had on display at a pop-up event Saturday afternoon at Fussy Coffee in Science Park.
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Chris Randall |
Mar 10, 2025 10:49 am
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Chris Randall photos
When the apizza is so good, you have to sing about it! Ruben Ortiz, artistic director for Broken Umbrella, serving up both drama and slices.
A Broken Umbrella Theatre kicked off their upcoming production, Family Business: (A)Pizza Play, with a lively and fitting preview party Sunday at downtown’s BAR Pizza. The special event brought together theater lovers, pizza enthusiasts, and supporters of the arts for an afternoon filled with delicious food and engaging performances.
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Maya McFadden |
Mar 10, 2025 9:46 am
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Maya McFadden Photos
Drawing partners Omar and Rosa Gonzales with finished renditions of Pikachu and Sonic characters ...
... in a class that brings Cross art students together with East Rock kindergartners.
Wilbur Cross sophomore Rosa Gonzales and East Rock School kindergartener Omar put pencils to paper to draw Sonic and Pikachu — as part of a monthly class-to-class collaboration focused on cartooning and literacy.
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Jamil Ragland |
Mar 10, 2025 8:00 am
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Real Wall: Bethani Blake
Real Wall: Bethani Blake Real Art Ways Hartford Through March 17
Real Wall: Bethani Blake features the artwork of the titular artist, Bethani Blake, who works additionally as a curator and educator in Hartford. I enjoyed her overall exhibit, but there was one piece that especially spoke to me, in a way I couldn’t have predicted.
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Jamil Ragland |
Mar 10, 2025 7:58 am
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Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) dons the red, white and blue in Captain America: Brave New World
Captain America: Brave New World Apple Cinemas Xtreme Hartford March 7, 2025
I intended to go to the theater and watch Mickey 17, but I misread the schedule and arrived just in time for a showing of Captain America: Brave New World. I decided to go with it; one of the most enjoyable aspects of writing reviews has been the happy surprises I discover along the way.
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Brian Slattery |
Mar 7, 2025 1:39 pm
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The three posters are faded, aged, and wrapped in plastic, but the conviction in the messages — and the strength of the design — remain intact. Notes fixed to the wall, as aged as the posters themselves, offer context for non-Spanish speakers.
One translates the slogan on the left-hand side: “Mother: Wherever your name is spoken, victory is said.”
“For the blood of our dead and the future of our children, we defend the revolution,” the center one reads. “AMNLAE, the national women’s organization, is named for a woman killed by the National Guard under Somoza.” At the time of writing, the organization had 60,000 members and influenced “policies related to health, education, child care, adoption, family law and employment. In León, the Sister City Project was instrumental in opening a women’s legal office under the auspices of AMNLAE.”
The third poster is perhaps the most direct: “The Nicaraguan people will never surrender.”
Operatic and concert soloist and recording artist Adriana Zabala at WNHH FM.
Anton Chekhov and Olga Knipper-Chekhov never made it to a villa they dreamed of on Italy’s Lake Como. Adriana Zabala shed a tear about that the other day.
Zabala, a mezzo-soprano, also lifted her voice. You can argue that she helped make the Chekhovs’ dream come true.
Umut Yasmut brings the kanun to RAWA, all the way from New York.
As Umut Yasmut filled the dining area of Westville’s Mediterranean and Middle Eastern fusion restaurant RAWA with cascading melodies, the New York musician said that his instrument, an intricately carved stringed creation, did not exist.
Decades after an aborted attempt by local officials to deliver an honorary certificate at Toad’s Place, New Haven’s mayor joined an alder onstage to officially express the city’s pride in the 50-year-old legendary York Street rock club.
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Chris Randall |
Mar 5, 2025 10:51 am
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Chris Randall photos
West Hills Alder Honda Smith on her way Tuesday night to accept the Library Champion Award for Community Service.
The New Haven Free Public Library’s annual Mardi Gras fundraiser was filled with vibrant energy, heartfelt tributes, and lively entertainment. The Tuesday night event at the Ives Main Library brought together a passionate crowd to celebrate literacy, community service, and the power of public libraries.
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Laura Glesby |
Mar 3, 2025 1:53 pm
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Mamadi Doumbouya photo
Reginald Dwayne Betts' new poetry collection, Doggerel.
When Reginald Dwayne Betts walks his dog at dawn, he knows that she’s “doing the guiding,” even though he’s the one holding the leash.
Some believe that humans are “masters” of their animals, he writes, “But I know I barely control/My wonder these days.”
That confession appears in one of my favorite poems, “What We Know,” from Betts’ new collection Doggerel, a book full of wonder that’s hard to resist. Published by W.W. Norton, Doggerel is Betts’ fifth published poetry collection. Like many of his other works, the book reflects in part on the eight years in prison he served from the age of 16 on a carjacking conviction. Norton is releasing the collection Tuesday on the 20th anniversary of Betts’ release from prison.
At an album release party Friday night at Cafe Nine, DJs from New Haven’s HEATSYNC all-vinyl collective dropped tracks from their new 4‑track techno dance EPBuddy City. The crowd pulsated as fog and humming beats pumped into the space. Every so often, a dancer would take over the floor for a moment, flowing alongside the distortion and sweet noise.
As DJ 7Ways played one of the original tracks from Buddy City, his voice floated over the crowd: “This record is for sale. And this is the first time a mic has ever been used at HEATSYNC. Goodbye.”
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Karen Ponzio |
Mar 3, 2025 9:14 am
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Karen Ponzio Photos.
Jack Daniel and Brian Ember miming magic.
What do you do when your birthday is on Feb. 29 but it’s not a leap year? Jack Daniel of The Broken Robots threw himself and a raucously receptive crowd a Very Merry Un-Birthday Party at Best Video on Feb. 28 instead, complete with cake, improvised poetic jazz performance art, and the musical stylings of Brian Ember.
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Karen Ponzio |
Mar 3, 2025 9:08 am
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Karen Ponzio Photos.
Party time at Best Video!
While the big winner of Sunday night’s Oscars at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood was the film Anora, the Sean Baker-written-directed-produced-and-edited film about a Brooklyn sex worker who meets and marries the son of a Russian oligarch, there were a host of winners here at home too: the attendees of Best Video’s Oscar viewing party. They got to dress up in their fancy clothes, enjoy a delicious spread of snacks, and cheer on (or not) the movie magic makers, creators, and stars of the best of last year’s films.
Jennifer Klein, Rhoda Zahler Samuel, and Nicole Zador at WNHH FM; Ruth Grannick.
As men rushed off to war in Europe, Ruth Grannick took on a new mission back home — top-secret message decoding for the U.S. Navy. Laura Levine took a job as a lathe operator.
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Karen Ponzio |
Feb 27, 2025 2:30 pm
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College Street Music Hall
Howard Jones takes College Street back, with ABC (below).
Howard Jones &ABC College Street Music Hall Feb. 26, 2025
On Wednesday night a vibrant crowd at College Street Music Hall rejoiced in their remembrance of the 1980s with two of its most successful and celebrated British New Wave synth pop acts: Howard Jones and ABC.
Both acts made their mark as equally for the memorable visuals in their videos played on near perpetual repeat on MTV throughout its first decade as well as for the string of radio hits each had that continue to get regular airplay on Sirius XM’s First Wave radio station devoted to purveyors of post punk and synth-soaked tunes.
James Bundy, a guiding force of adventurous and cutting-edge theater in New Haven for decades, announced Thursday that he’s stepping down from his post as artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre.
Bessie Flores Zaldívar takes audience to 2017 Tegucigalpa at Best Video reading.
High school senior Libertad’s brother, Maynor, is dead. As her family sorts through his room, she wonders: “How long can a space hold a memory?”
His memory is everywhere. She walks to the corner store and hears how Maynor once started a massive running tab for all the neighborhood boys to charge for food.
That was when Bessie Flores Zaldívar interrupted themself, addressing the audience directly: “That’s actually something my brother did do. He was, like, thousands of lempiras in debt because he was feeding the whole neighborhood.”
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Brian Slattery |
Feb 24, 2025 12:55 pm
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Brian Slattery Photos
Allie Burnet.
Midway through her set with her band, the Proven Winners, Allie Burnet asked to do one song by herself. In a break from her original material, she launched into a cover of Sinéad O’Connor’s “Black Boys on Mopeds,” a 1990 song about police brutality that has aged all too well.
To give the song a final twist, Burnet changed one line. In 1990, O’Connor sang, “These are dangerous days / to say what you feel is to dig your own grave.” Burnet altered the second half of that line: “To be who you are is to stand in your grave.”
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Jisu Sheen |
Feb 24, 2025 10:03 am
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LÉA THE LEOX with guitarist Graham Bhuyan.
When asked to describe how he felt about the set he played at Hamden’s Space Ballroom Saturday night, LÉATHELEOX’s guitarist, Graham Bhuyan, smiled and said, “It kind of felt like hugging your favorite color.” An up-and-coming soul, pop, and R&B act out of LA, LÉATHELEOX and Bhuyan wasted no time stealing hearts on Hamden soil. It’s safe to say whatever the color was, it hugged back hard.
Elphaba, Sen. Kissel: This bill is wicked. So to speak.
Hartford — Should Connecticut movie theaters have to publish accurate start times for films and previews — or else face $1,000 false-advertising fines?
New Haven State Sen. Martin Looney says yes. Cinema owners say no. And an Enfield lawmaker was embarrassed that such a question would even be asked.
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Brian Slattery |
Feb 19, 2025 2:45 pm
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Lois Conner
West Lake, Hangzhou, China.
At first glance, Lois Conner’s image might read as a great mid-century abstract painting, full of bold shapes, strong lines, and vivid contrasts. But it’s not; it’s a photograph of desiccated plants and their reflections in a still body of water. The image collapses the line between observing nature and interpreting it. It has both documented a moment in time and also given us some commentary on it, a way to feel about it, and to be drawn in.
