by | Dec 6, 2022 12:22 pm | Comments (0)
The following writeup about a recent performance of The Nutcracker ballet at the Q House was submitted to the Independent by the nonprofit Leadership, Education, Athletics in Partnership (LEAP).
Continue reading ‘100s Turn Out For The Nutcracker At The Q’
by | Dec 2, 2022 3:30 pm | Comments (36)
The former famed Monterey jazz club, one of 4 Ocean-owned buildings on Dixwell Ave. that the city is looking to buy for $1.3 million.
Thomas Breen file photo
LCI's Evan Trachten: Ocean has "had the site for several years and failed to develop it."
The Elicker Administration plans to purchase a handful of rundown Dixwell Avenue properties from affiliates of Ocean Management for $350,000 more than those properties’ combined city-appraised value — and for $800,000 more than what the megalandlord paid to buy those same buildings six years ago — as part of a public effort to develop affordable housing in a revitalizing stretch of the Dixwell neighborhood.
Continue reading ‘Desperate Dixwell Deal Profits Megalandlord’
by | Dec 2, 2022 9:08 am | Comments (20)
Thomas Breen photo
275 Winchester Ave., now under new ownership.
Two New Jersey-based investors have purchased the 158-unit Winchester Lofts luxury apartment complex — capping off a two-year local real estate spending spree that has seen that same landlord duo buy a total of 632 New Haven apartments for a price tag likely well in excess of $100 million.
by | Nov 30, 2022 12:35 pm | Comments (4)
Yash Roy photo
Vietnam vet Conley Monk, Jr. (right) with U.S. Sen. Blumenthal.
Conley Monk, Jr. finally received his federal veteran benefits in 2015 after more than four decades of denied claims and a successful court battle that led to nationwide discharge appeal reform.
The Vietnam War vet and former Marine joined a team of legal advocates and a sitting U.S. senator to announce a new lawsuit against the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) alleging racial bias in the process by which benefit claims like his are reviewed and approved.
by | Nov 1, 2022 11:11 am | Comments (2)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
At Monday's trunk-or-treat on Ashmun St.
Baby Savannah practices candy crawling her own way Monday night.
Little mermaids, Minions and monsters gathered outside of the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program’s headquarters Monday — to take turns “trunk or treating” within a web of safety-minded community members and their cars.
Continue reading ‘Safety, Candy Abound At Ashmun Trunk-Or-Treat’
by | Oct 31, 2022 4:40 pm | Comments (4)
Lisa Reisman photo
Juanita Harris with granddaughters at Q House Halloween.
Under the setting sun, a group of young people line danced in loose precision to the beat of V.I.C.’s “Wobble.” A line with witches, ghosts, and dinosaurs stretched from the field to the gymnasium, where trick-and-treat festivities awaited. Face-painted zombies, pirates, and superheroes chased each other in the cool autumn air, squealing with delight.
by | Oct 31, 2022 9:52 am | Comments (0)
Melissa Bailey file photo
The late Winfred Rembert at his Newhall St. home.
Allan Appel photo
Prof. Erin I. Kelly with Rembert book and art on Thursday.
His tale of triumph through art, grit, and love in Georgia’s 1960s cotton fields, including seven years on a chain gang and a near lynching, is already taught at Yale — and well might become required reading in high schools and colleges throughout the country.
And a major motion picture should also be a consideration to get the story out far and wide.
Continue reading ‘Rembert's Rep Rises At NXTHVN Celebration’
by | Oct 27, 2022 11:30 am | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen photo
Attorney Mike Jefferson and author Nicholas Dawidoff in conversation at Stetson event Wednesday evening.
When Flemming “Nick” Norcott Jr. was growing up in the Dwight/Kensington neighborhood in the 1940s and ’50s, Prospect Hill wasn’t the only “other side” of town that was off limits to Black families like his.
“There were a lot of ‘other sides’ then,” the retired former state Supreme Court justice remembered at a Wednesday evening book talk. “As a young boy, a pre-teen, a teen, we couldn’t go to Westville. We couldn’t go to Morris Cove. We couldn’t go to Wooster Square, because there would be consequences that would be really, really bad.”
by | Oct 24, 2022 8:55 am | Comments (4)
Laura Glesby Photo
Erycka recites poetry on the Lit Fest stage ...
... as Lindsey Pina and Royal Bleu look for books on a whim.
Professional poets, emerging authors, scholars of Black literature, and kids learning to sound out words collectively transformed the Q House into a story-fueled time machine at the third annual Elm City Lit Fest.
by | Oct 6, 2022 9:37 am | Comments (1)
A large red empty speech bubble stands on the sidewalk outside NXTHVN in Dixwell. Its object lies in “inviting visitors to rest, contemplate and reflect,” as an accompanying explanation puts it. But as it stands on Henry Street, it also feels like a portal, setting expectations for what’s in store for the rest of the show. Through it, one can see people milling about in the foyer of the gallery space — and beyond that, a commotion of mylar, and anyone who’s in it moving around like they’re in a snowstorm. What’s happening in there?
by | Oct 4, 2022 11:45 am | Comments (10)
Paul Bass file photo
Kadir Catalbasoglu at work at Brick Oven Pizza.
Thomas Breen photo
The city-owned driveway and garage at 55 Dixwell.
For the fourth time in five years, alders signed off on selling a vacant city-owned garage to a local pizza maker-turned-landlord — this time on the condition that he convert the property into five apartments with at least one unit reserved for low-income tenants.
by | Sep 29, 2022 9:12 am | Comments (1)
Noel Sims photo
At Wednesday's food entrepreneur showcase.
Tamales, cupcakes, hot sauce, and corn ribs were just a few of the locally made items on the menu at a Q House-hosted showcase of homegrown foodie talent.
by | Sep 28, 2022 8:23 am | Comments (0)
The video for Ionne’s latest single “The Last Time” — off his new album Fracture — sends the viewer into a spiral from the start. When the camera finally stops spinning, it’s still moving, and there is Ionne himself, singing into the darkness on a beach, a crashed spaceship behind him. “All we ever feared / Was killing time / Several hundred years / Amount to castles that we’ll never own / And songs I write / But cannot sing myself / Our dreams of spaceships and their secret plans to take us somewhere else,” he sings. It’s a melody about loss, but the music isn’t about giving up. It’s about falling down and getting up again, of finding the strength to start something new.
by | Sep 27, 2022 8:47 am | Comments (2)
Laura Glesby Photo
Jana Russo-Priestley, center, with wife Anne and father Arius.
Jana Russo-Priestly arrived at the Omni ballroom remembering the role that Dixwell Avenue Congregational United Church of Christ (UCC) has played in three generations of her family’s history — as well as in two centuries of New Haven’s.
by | Sep 22, 2022 1:26 pm | Comments (7)
A rebuilt Dixwell Plaza, with a one-level-larger greenhouse-topped parking garage (circled in red).
Dixwell Plaza’s redevelopers won permission to scrap a too-costly underground parking garage in exchange for a larger temporary surface parking lot in their ongoing effort to build up the heart of New Haven’s historic Black neighborhood.
Continue reading ‘Parking Change OK'd For Dixwell Plaza Redo’
by | Sep 19, 2022 2:03 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photos
Neighbors buy fresh produce at Health and Wellness Festival.
Children do park yoga with Full of Joy Yoga.
Yoga. Farm fresh produce. Starter plants for home gardens. Hula hooping. And Bomba.
That was all on the agenda Sunday at the inaugural Gather New Haven Health and Wellness Festival.
Continue reading ‘Gather New Haven Brings Out The Wellness In Inaugural Community Fest’
by | Sep 8, 2022 11:01 am | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen photos
At Wednesday's event, clockwise from top left: Friends Center for Children staffers; ConnCORP CEO Erik Clemons; Skanska builders Robert Daddona and Richard Murphy with contractor Rodney Williams; Amber Delacruz serving up mozzarella sliders courtesy of Orchid Cafe.
Dixwell Plaza's planned new ConnCAT Place redevelopment.
Dixwell Plaza’s planned redevelopment has gained a general contractor, a childcare partner, and a food hall operator — and has lost a too-pricey underground garage — as the local team behind the now-estimated $220 million project moves ahead with its effort to build up the heart of New Haven’s historic Black neighborhood.
by | Aug 25, 2022 10:45 am | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen file photo
The current surface parking lot at 315 Winchester Ave ...
Twining Properties / L&M Development Partners image
... slated to be turned into hundreds of new apartments.
“Any time we can turn a parking lot into residential living, especially with affordable housing available, that’s a worthwhile investment.”
State Sen. and President Pro Tem Martin Looney offered those words of support Thursday morning in an email press release celebrating a $5 million state grant that the governor recently OK’d for the next phase of Science Park’s redevelopment.
Continue reading ‘Pols, Science Park Redevelopers Celebrate $5M State Grant’
by | Aug 23, 2022 9:30 am | Comments (1)
Olivia Gross Photo
Waiting for the dance contest to start at Unity fest on Sunday.
A rebooted Dixwell community festival with decades-old roots offered free haircuts, free food, and bountiful calls for citywide unity in Goffe Street Park.
Continue reading ‘Goffe St. Park Fest Celebrates "Unity In The Community"’
by | Aug 19, 2022 3:25 pm | Comments (30)
Laura Glesby photos
Alan Tilley: fighting to keep his house in memory of his mother.
Laura Glesby Photos
The house at 766 Orchard.
Two decades after his family bought a church-built house meant to stabilize a neighborhood, Alan Tilley is fighting to keep the home out of the hands of out-of-town landlords.
Continue reading ‘Homeowner Battles "Tangled Title" Foreclosure’
by and | Aug 18, 2022 12:59 pm | Comments (1)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Kendall Cobb Wednesday with his wheels.
Light rain and a brief detour through Hamden Wednesday morning didn’t stop scooter-toting Kendall Cobb from making his way to Orange to get his computer fixed — while keeping his gas bill down.
by | Aug 17, 2022 9:15 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Davis performing Tuesday evening at Stetson Branch Library.
The first phrase of Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” flowed from Chris “Big Dog” Davis’s fingertips, instantly familiar. But the chord voicings Davis put underneath it felt thoroughly modern.
As he proceeded through the classic of American music, Ace Livingston on bass and Dexter Pettaway, Sr. on drums fell in behind him. Together the trio made the classic a quick trip through the history of American jazz, from its murky origins to its up-to-the-minute contemporary form.
Continue reading ‘"Big Dog" Takes Stetson On Jazz History Roll’
by | Aug 15, 2022 9:50 am | Comments (2)
Scott Troublefield and New Vision.
Far out behind the crowded audience at Goffe Street Park, beyond still the stragglers who spread out among the opposing baseball diamond’s outfield, tucked just inside the entryway of the third-base dugout, a woman with gray hair and blue Nikes called out: “Amen!”
The Sunday sun had set, but the sound of gospel from the stage still echoed as far as Crescent Street. The woman, silhouetted by the park floodlights, said she was taking her church from all the way back there.
Continue reading ‘25th Annual Gospel Fest Transforms Goffe Street Park Into Church’
by | Aug 10, 2022 11:49 am | Comments (7)
Laura Glesby file photo
Developers and officials break Beulah ground.
Laura Glesby Photo
Sustainable, affordable housing envisioned for 340 Dixwell.
Faith leaders, politicians, and investors shoveled a pile of ceremonial dirt, breaking ground on a soon-to-rise apartment complex that will be sustainable not only for the earth, but for low-income families.
by | Aug 3, 2022 5:10 pm | Comments (35)
Maya McFadden photo / Thomas Breen file photo
Rev Kimber: New leadership needed. Mayor Elicker: More funding needed.
New Haven needs a new plan — and new leadership — in order to improve abysmal student reading levels.
The Greater New Haven Clergy Association issued that plea Wednesday during a press conference at which Newhallville pastors laid into the Board of Education, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) administrators, and the mayor after a recent report showed that 84 percent of third-graders are reading below grade level.