Downtown

250 Rally For Palestine, Ceasefire

by and | Oct 18, 2023 4:53 pm | Comments (65)

Thomas Breen photos

At Wednesday's rally on Elm Street ...

... outside of U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro's office.

Roughly 250 Jewish New Haveners and their allies rallied on the steps of City Hall and then outside of U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s office downtown calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. 

They also demanded that their elected officials speak out to end America’s military support of what speaker after speaker termed a genocidal” war against Palestinians in Gaza — in the latest example of how New Haveners are trying to interpret and reckon with the ongoing bloodshed in the Middle East.

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Climate Activist On Tap To Be Next Ward 1 Alder

by | Oct 18, 2023 8:34 am | Comments (15)

Thomas Breen file photo

Kiana Flores, at a 2019 climate rally outside City Hall.

As a Co-Op high school student, Kiana Flores helped convince the Board of Alders to pass a climate emergency resolution.

As a Yale college student, she’ll soon have a chance to put such eco-friendly policy priorities into practice — after she runs unopposed to become the next alder representing downtown’s Ward 1.

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New Haven Academy Stages "Paradise"

by | Oct 17, 2023 8:49 am | Comments (2)

Brian Slattery Photos

Jeremiah McCullough, Christopher Samuels, Azaad Mamoon.

All through the play Paradise Blue by Dominique Morisseau — running at New Haven Academy from Oct. 19 to Oct.21 — trumpeter Blue struggles with his music. He’s trying to play just the right note. Some days he gets close. Some days he’s a million miles away. But he’s starting to think he’s never going to get it. It’s an encapsulation of the conditions of his life, the way everything he has is starting to slip away from him. And it’s driving him a little crazy.

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Regina Winters-Toussaint To Be Inducted Posthumously Into CT Women’s Hall of Fame

by | Oct 12, 2023 4:00 pm | Comments (2)

Regina Winters-Toussaint.

While a student at the Yale School of Architecture in 1992, Regina Winters-Toussaint created her own summer internship. As one of the first counselors for LEAP, then a new youth enrichment program in New Haven, she moved into Westville Manor public housing, where she mentored the young people living there.

That willingness to steep herself in the experience of those who would live and work in the structures she built is among the reasons for the induction of Winters-Toussaint, who died of cancer at 47 in April 2016, in the CT Women’s Hall of Fame, according to its executive director Sarah Lubarsky. 

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TV Girl Broadcasts To The "Freaky Little Teenagers"

by | Oct 12, 2023 8:51 am | Comments (0)

Asher Joseph photo

The TV Girl All-Star Traveling Band.

A line snaked around Toad’s Place into the courtyard off of York Street on Monday evening as Lonely Girls” and boys who act their age” filed into the venue, headlined by TV Girl, a California-based indie pop band that took the internet by storm this year with a series of viral hits.

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Sage Smoke Wafts Over Indigenous Peoples' Day Ceremony

by | Oct 10, 2023 4:51 pm | Comments (0)

Maya McFadden photos

Norm Clement uses sage to cleanse attendees of negative energies.

Monday’s Indigenous Peoples' Day cultural celebration on the New Haven Green.

Sage smoke, traditional dancing, and a prayer of the four directions” filled the Green Monday afternoon as dozens gathered for an annual ceremony honoring Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

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Israel-Gaza War's Grief Spills Onto Church St.

by | Oct 9, 2023 6:48 pm | Comments (157)

Thomas Breen photos

Pro-Israel protester Shmully Hecht praying in the face of pro-Palestine protesters Chris Garaffa and Kevin Menescardi.

Police bring out the barricades to separate the two sides.

Lynn Rabinovici Park and Karen Rabinovici: "All we want to do is live, and live in peace;" Faisal Saleh: "I've seen a lot of bodies" in images and videos coming out of Gaza.

Half an hour into a tense and loud and flag-filled standoff between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protesters on the front steps of City Hall, city police brought in barricades to physically separate the two sides.

Those barriers successfully kept the peace — even as they kept apart Lynn Rabinovici Park and Karen Rabinovici, two sisters worried sick about the safety of their father’s relatives in Jerusalem, and Faisal Saleh, a Palestinian museum director worried sick about the safety of artists he works with across Gaza.

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Artists Connect Soul To Soul

by | Oct 6, 2023 9:41 am | Comments (0)

BRIAN SLATTERY PHOTO

In ways that photographs can’t capture, the installation of Impossible Souls” — running now through Oct. 29 on the second floor of the Hilles Gallery of Creative Arts Workshop at 80 Audubon St. — makes moving through the gallery feel almost like swimming. Along with the art on the walls, and the art on large columns, numerous pieces are suspended from the ceiling in such a way that they drift and spin with the climate-controlled air. The overall effect quiets the space. It makes you move through the gallery with extra care, knowing that the art isn’t always where you might expect it to be. 

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Preservationists Preach Hardware Love

by | Oct 5, 2023 11:07 pm | Comments (3)

Allan Appel photo

A painted hinge, ready to be cleaned up on Wednesday night.

There’s an unusual and still little known new hospital in New Haven: It doesn’t accept most insurance, patients for the most part perform the treatments on themselves, and — most remarkably — it makes the old new again, well, at least look new, provided you are a hinge, doorknob, rosette, latch or lock.

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Artists Build Worlds At CAW Show

by | Oct 4, 2023 11:34 am | Comments (0)

Jihyun Lee

Doll Shelf.

The look of Jihyun Lee’s Doll Shelf partakes at once of the past and an imagined future. 

The collection of objects has the feel of a cabinet of curiosities, the contents of the shelves of an old house, even maybe a beloved junk shop. But the red tint gives it a science fiction twist. They could be as much artifacts of the future as of the past. Or perhaps that tint transports us into the future, looking back at the fleeting present.

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Sketchers Draw Inspiration From New Haven

by | Oct 3, 2023 8:19 am | Comments (3)

Karen Ponzio Photos.

The sketches

Yet another downpour threatened to upset many events planned for Saturday, but not the meet-up for the New Haven Sketchers. The local club of artists, who meet up every week or so, had scheduled to gather at the Yale University Art Gallery to take in and take down the sights of Chapel Street and its surrounding stores and locations — and the weather and other adjustments to the norm did not deter them.

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NHSO Triumphs In Return To Woolsey Hall

by | Oct 2, 2023 8:28 am | Comments (1)

KT Kim Photo

Joyce Yang.

Towering C major chords from organ and orchestra in unison. Dazzling rhythmic interplay between soloist Joyce Yang and the orchestra. An energetic rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner,” resuming a tradition in Woolsey Hall. Thursday night’s debut of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 – 24 season was full of triumphant moments, even as it very meaningfully kicked off the orchestra’s final season under Music Director Alisdair Neale.

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Bye Bye, Bow Tie

by | Sep 26, 2023 5:01 pm | Comments (24)

Thomas Breen photo

It's official: Bow Tie Criterion Cinemas will permanently close next month.

New Haven’s last remaining commercial movie theater will go dark for good after Oct. 12, bringing to a close roughly two decades of screenings on Temple Street downtown.

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Sequential Artists Break The Frame

by | Sep 22, 2023 8:33 am | Comments (0)

Pebble Stone

The Prince and the Magic Lake and Fable.

Two narratives are laid out on the wall. They follow at first familiar forms, a plucky young person setting out on a quest. But they quickly take an unusual turn. Within four panels, they’ve ended on cliffhangers that feel, in a strange way, almost existential. Who is this?” one protagonist asks. Who are you?” the other says. Laying them out in parallel adds to the fun. It points out the repetition. Are they just iterations of the same story? (Are most stories just iterations of previous stories?) Is there a moment when these story lines might come together? Or is this all there is?

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Music Writing Luminary Kicks Off Windham Campbell Festival

by | Sep 21, 2023 8:25 am | Comments (1)

Brian Slattery Photos

A rumination on the question of why people write — delivered by legendary culture writer Greil Marcus — that took in his personal history, the history of the tail end of World War II, and David Lynch’s classic Blue Velvet proved a moving and thought-provoking start to Yale’s Windham Campbell Festival on Wednesday evening. The festival, which runs Thursday and Friday, celebrates the world of words, centering on this year’s recipients of the Windham Campbell Prizes.

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Black Western Star Hasn't Given Up On Studio Plan

by | Sep 20, 2023 5:04 pm | Comments (9)

Lisa Reisman file photo

Michael Jai White: Movie studio is “definitely happening. We just have to regroup a bit.”

Movie poster for White's newly released movie, "Outlaw Johnny Black."

The scene: an out-of-the way mining town ruled by a notorious land baron. The situation: a cowboy-turned-outlaw seeking to avenge the death of his father with a bullet bearing the name of his nemesis. The upshot: posing as preacher, he learns the power of community. 

It’s Outlaw Johnny Black,” the latest release of action star Michael Jai White, otherwise known as the visionary behind Jaigantic Studios, the major movie studio seemingly poised to rise on a desolate stretch of River Street in Fair Haven before vanishing over the last year. 

White’s message on Outlaw Johnny Black,” which is now screening at Criterion Cinemas: tune in. On Jaigantic Studios: stay tuned. 

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MINIPNG Brings Maximum Creativity To Audubon Street

by | Sep 20, 2023 9:05 am | Comments (1)

Karen Ponzio Photos

MINIPNG.

Audubon Street is a promenade of institutions that ignite creativity and keep it alight. For the past year that street has also housed the storefront of artist/designer MINIPNG (a.k.a. Eiress Hammond), who has made a home away from home for fans of her original handmade clothing as well as lovers of vintage pieces and accessories from the late 90s and early 00s. This Saturday, Sept. 23, she is co-presenting an event that will be bringing an even larger creative crew to the street from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

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Memorial Uplifts Activist's Fighting Spirit

by | Sep 13, 2023 11:38 am | Comments (10)

Nora Grace-Flood photos

Photos of Petrulis on display at his memorial service.

Organizer Billy Bromage calls for more people to pick up Petrulis' fight by joining U-ACT and supporting the groups' demands.

The brother of the late homeless rights advocate Keith Petrulis sent a message from California to a church full of grieving New Haveners — thanking a community of unhoused activists for serving as family to the sibling he never knew, and calling for cross-country housing justice to prevent more people from dying alone on the streets.

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22 Years Later, Co-Op Remembers 9/11

by | Sep 11, 2023 8:01 pm | Comments (4)

Maya McFadden photo

Assistant Principal Talima Andrews-Harris: “I am New York.”

Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School Assistant Principal Talima Andrews-Harris remembered how, 22 years ago to the day, she arrived at her job as a first-grade teacher in Atlanta after having recently flown back south from her family’s home in Brooklyn. 

She recalled being excused from her classroom by a colleague, who let her know that she should get in touch with her New York City relatives — because, she’d soon find out, her home city had just been attacked.

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NHFPL Whets Appetite For Free Film Series

by | Sep 7, 2023 8:28 am | Comments (0)

Karen Ponzio Photos

David and Diego meet over ice cream in the film Strawberry & Chocolate.

Last Friday the New Haven Free Public Library decided to serve dessert first, as Strawberry & Chocolate was screened as the inaugural film in the Ives Branch’s September Free Friday film series. The 1993 Cuban film, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio, was also the first of four films that will be screened every Friday in September at 2 p.m. in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. 

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4,500 Run Through New Haven

by | Sep 4, 2023 7:34 pm | Comments (5)

Lisa Reisman photo

Start of 5K at 2023 Faxon Law New Haven Road Race.

Quintessential New Haven,” Ruth Koleske pronounced, as she stood near the corner of Temple and Elm awaiting her husband on a sun-drenched Monday morning. 

She was referring to the Faxon Law New Haven Road Race, which played out for its 46th Labor Day. In all, 4,500 runners competed in various races, including the 20K, which Koleske was following, the 5K, a 13.1‑mile race, and a fun run for kids.

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First Day, Fresh Start At Co-Op

by | Sep 4, 2023 8:58 am | Comments (1)

Lucy Gellman / Arts Paper photo

Co-Op student Tahzir Streater: "It's gonna take a lot of practice."

Harriett Alfred stepped forward, running her right hand alongside a piano that had sat silent all summer. She took a deep breath, her face glowing in the morning sunlight. In the second row, senior Jamie Harris lifted her Spongebob-patterned nails to the desk, knowing exactly what was coming next. It was her last first day of high school, and she was ready to lead the charge.

Good mooor-ning!” Alfred belted. In a still-sleepy soprano, Harris answered, her voice blending with over a dozen for the first time in months. She was ready to be back.

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