by | Mar 9, 2023 11:26 am | Comments (14)
Tom Breen file photo
Alders Eli Sabin and Carmen Rodriguez on a State St. redesign walking tour last October.
A downtown-adjacent stretch of State Street is one step closer to seeing new life as a place to walk, bike, shop, and live — now that alders have formally accepted a $5.3 million state grant to remake a car-centric Urban Renewal-cleared corridor.
by | Mar 8, 2023 5:00 pm | Comments (6)
Laura Glesby photos
Marilyn DeJesus and John Antoni protest for higher pay, lower childcare costs.
Marilyn DeJesus was making $12 an hour as an early childhood educator — and paying $1,700 a month for childcare as a single parent.
Having since left that job to teach toddlers at a center with better compensation, DeJesus joined hundreds of other early educators on the Green to call for higher wages and lower childcare costs.
Continue reading ‘Hundreds Rally At "Morning Without Childcare"’
by | Mar 7, 2023 9:04 am | Comments (8)
Isaiah Crowe of Gorilla Lemonade with Dena at Schwarzman.
With a single sip of lemonade, history was made on the lower level of Yale’s Schwarzman Center.
Continue reading ‘Gorilla Lemonade Lands Yale Beverage Supplier Gig’
by | Mar 7, 2023 9:01 am | Comments (0)
Goldfish, the first full production by New Haven Theater Company since Annapurna last May, features a scenic design by director John Watson that truly sets the stage: on one side, a kitchen in a scrappy apartment where 19-year-old Albert Ledger (Nick Fetherston) lives with his father Leo (John Strano), a widower who has a problem holding onto money whenever there’s something to bet on; on the other side, a sumptuous house where a divorced mother, Margaret (Sandra E. Rodriguez), swills martinis in her pajamas and pearls, while sharing smokes with her daughter Lucy (Sara Courtemanche), also 19. In between is a shifting space — now library, now cafeteria, now bed, now bus stop — that serves as the upstate college, set amidst rolling hills, where Albert and Lucy meet and evolve a relationship.
Continue reading ‘NHTC Production Depicts Life In A Fishbowl’
by | Mar 6, 2023 9:07 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Cloudbelly.
Corey Laitman, a.k.a. Cloudbelly, smiled at the eager crowd about halfway through their set Sunday afternoon at Cafe Nine. “I’ve never done a matinee show,” they said, marveling at the experience of performing earlier in the day. “I don’t feel tired at all. I don’t have to rally.” Laughter rippled through the room.
“Me neither!” said someone from the audience.
“I feel so relaxed!” Laitman said.
by | Mar 3, 2023 8:32 am | Comments (0)
The pulsing hook of Ionne’s “The Last Time” reverberated through the speakers at Lilly’s Pad, the upstairs stage at Toad’s Place. Dancer Tadea Martin-Gonzalez struck a pose, then moved from it, her actions graceful and strong. As the beat churned to life, Ionne himself (a.k.a. Maurice Harris) sang the first few lines, clear, concise, mixing mournfulness and hope. “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.”
by | Mar 2, 2023 1:32 pm | Comments (8)
Paul Bass photo
A plaque honoring the newly named Lucretia's Corner.
The following opinion essay was submitted by Nadir Salaam, who is an activist, educator, father and independent historian. He is a native of New Haven currently residing in Bellevue, Washington. He is the producer and host of the Young Adults Learning Evil podcast, which focuses on the history of systemic oppression in New Haven’s Black community. Contact Nadir at y.a.l.epodcast@gmail.com.
by | Mar 1, 2023 9:01 am | Comments (2)
Linda-Cristal Young Photo
Kayode Soyemi, Ashley Thomas, Jason Gray.
Blood-spattered limbs. Wigs and heels. A marriage in trouble. Angels and demons, birds and fish. All of these and more are part of the Yale Cabaret’s current season, as it has returned to in-person dining and theater under an inspired and historic artistic team pursuing the venerable old goal of delivering the shock of the new.
by | Feb 28, 2023 10:00 am | Comments (6)
Lisa Reisman photo
Allyx Schiavone at LEAP fundraiser dinner at Taste of China.
When Brittny Barnes had her first baby, child care came with sticker shock.
“It was like a mortgage,” she told the 20 attendees assembled at Taste of China for a conversation featuring Allyx Schiavone, executive director of the Friends Center for Children and a champion of affordable child care.
by | Feb 28, 2023 9:11 am | Comments (1)
Milos Babic Photos
Netta Hadari and Mark Rike, violins, Tina Lee Hadari, viola, Rebecca Patterson, cello (l. to r.).
In his introduction to “Brahms’ Alarm Clock,” by composer and pianist Istvan B’Racz, violinist Netta Hadari told the full house in the recital hall at Neighborhood Music School that at one point while working on the piece, he had asked the composer for “just a bit more of one section, to help complete it for me emotionally.” B’Racz obliged, and the full work, sometimes driven by a frenetic two-note motif with sudden jumps from string to string, was an impressive display. With quotes weaved in from Brahms’ Violin Concerto, and references to Hungarian folk music, the piece was a compelling study of the violin’s tone. And Hadari’s joy in playing it was clear.
Continue reading ‘Composers And Performers Engage In Joyful Conversation’
by | Feb 27, 2023 2:54 pm | Comments (26)
Paul Bass Photos
Ann Garrett Robinson, at center, beside Trina Greene and Steve Winter watching unveiling of Lucretia's Corner sign.
The name of New Haven’s first Black resident appeared Monday above a Downtown intersection, where it will remain.
by | Feb 22, 2023 10:23 am | Comments (1)
Allan Appel photo
Library revelers Holly Nardini, Scott McClean, and Lisa Brandes.
Glittering bead necklaces, feather boas, whimsical hats sprouting purple tulips, and — finally! — masks that cover the eyes and the top of your face instead of the nose and mouth were spotted in profusion Tuesday night at the Mardi Gras love-fest for the New Haven Free Public Library.
Continue reading ‘Mardi Gras Hoopla Celebrates Library Love’
by | Feb 21, 2023 9:15 am | Comments (3)
Lisa Reisman photo
Annette Walton back at work on York St.
With a box of 250 roses and a few hundred other flowers, as well as an assortment of balloons, “flower lady” Annette Walton figured she was well-stocked for her grand reopening in front of Yale’s Humanities Quadrangle on York Street between Wall and Elm.
Around an hour later, those hundreds of flowers were mostly gone.
by | Feb 14, 2023 12:48 pm | Comments (19)
Laura Glesby Photo
Jonathan Berryman at union rally: "We are not a cookie cutter district."
The city’s teachers union envisions a school system less reliant on test scores, more attuned to students’ emotional and cultural empowerment, and more pliable to input from every corner of the school community.
Over 20 teachers and allies gathered outside City Hall to call for the next superintendent to act on those values — and for a transparent, inclusive process for selecting the next top school administrator.
by | Feb 13, 2023 11:02 am | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen photo
9 years going strong: Peelin' & wheelin' on Mechanic Street.
Thomas Breen file photo
Domingo Medina picked up a green plastic bucket waiting for him on a Mechanic Street front porch, measured its weight, and dumped its wealth of food scraps into one of his four bike-towed containers.
Piled before him was so much more than just a colorful array of eggshells, lemon peels, onion skins, and hunks of bread. In that same pile lay the ingredients for a cleaner environment, healthier soils, and “greener” jobs.
“It’s a wonderful sight to see,” Medina said.
by | Feb 13, 2023 8:35 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Alexandra Burnet and The Proven Winners
“I missed the view from up here,” Alexandra Burnet said as she stood on the stage at Three Sheets Friday night. “I’ve thought about it every day for years.” Three years, to be exact, as Friday night saw the first multiple-band show at the Elm Street bar since before the pandemic began.
by | Feb 8, 2023 8:54 am | Comments (2)
The woman sits with a long gun in her hands, mouth open, part battle cry, part scream from the soul. In her tense stance, she looks ready to fight, but the sculpture is more than just a call to duty. The nails that are part of the sculpture are a clue: they connote neat dreadlocks, but are, in a literal sense, also metal being driven into the scalp. It’s clear she’s prepared for a long struggle, but also, she wonders why she has to do it, and perhaps from where she will draw the strength to carry on. That dichotomy extends to the gun she holds: does her fight involve using it or melting it down? Is it her tool or part of the source of the problem? Or both?
by | Feb 6, 2023 11:37 am | Comments (2)
Clotilda was the name of the last known slave ship to bring African captives to the U.S. just over 160 years ago.
It is also the title of Isaiah Providence’s newest film, which grapples with the “underlying history that goes on in the Black community” — and which was recently screened as part of a short film festival at an Audubon Street arts hub.
Continue reading ‘Film Fest Brings Tri-State Talent To Audubon St.’
by | Jan 31, 2023 9:05 am | Comments (1)
The pieces, by Carol Boynton, Frank Bruckmann, Todd Lyon, and Diane Chandler, are hung side by side by side by side in the gallery. Even though the subjects are looking in the same general direction, in their animation and expression, they could be talking with one another. Each subject — women, men, Black, Brown, White — has been filtered through the eye and mind of the artist. Each artist has rendered the subject with the same care and attention, the same eye toward humanity, toward capturing something like the truth.
by | Jan 30, 2023 10:46 am | Comments (3)
Artist Matos and Gov. Lamont: Talking ceramics, and Venezuela.
Inside Matos's studio.
All-star Orange Street ceramicist Kiara Matos got a high-profile visitor — but not a customer — on Friday, as Gov. Ned Lamont swung by to marvel at her pottery workshop, catch up on her small-business story, pose for a photo with one of her brightly hued bird sculptures, and then leave empty-handed.
by | Jan 30, 2023 8:51 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photos
Wushu demonstration and lion dancing at Saturday's Whitney Ave. fest.
A phalanx of focused martial arts students wheeled and turned on Whitney Avenue, kicking and striking powerful poses.
Lions bounded, bestowed blessings, and received gifts.
And, in a series of speeches, community leaders remarked on how the news of the past few years and the past few weeks — of the pandemic and the spate of shootings in California — made the festivities that much more important.
by | Jan 27, 2023 5:20 pm | Comments (10)
At Thursday's protest outside of Gateway Community College.
Gateway Community College student and Board of Regents student representative Alina Wheeler lives on the edge — of affording to be able to stay in school, of being “just poor enough” to have her healthcare covered as she works towards graduating.
She and fellow community college students in similarly precarious spots are now worried they might not be able to finish out their educations thanks to a potential increase in tuition that could be coming down the pike now that the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Board of Regents has announced plans to raise tuition at state universities by 3 percent.
Continue reading ‘Gateway Protesters To State: Don't Hike Our Tuition’
by | Jan 27, 2023 3:24 pm | Comments (7)
Paul Bass Photo
New-generation cops doing extra duty downtown: Gabrielle Curtis, Tyler Evans, Justin Julianelle.
Samples of BB facsmiles of Bushmaster and Glock guns.
Another bar fight was turning into a potential brawl — and a dangerous-looking weapon upped the ante.
by | Jan 24, 2023 8:50 am | Comments (0)
Still from "Forever 17."
One artist heads straight into the complexity of being queer in Hong Kong. Another heads out into the desert. And another heads into the dismal future. What all three artists — Kit Hung, January Yoon Cho, and Gary Sczerbaniewicz — have in common is a willingness to explore things that make them uncomfortable. And all three have solo shows at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art, running now through Feb. 19 concurrently with a few other shows after ECOCA took a brief holiday hiatus.
by | Jan 20, 2023 5:30 pm | Comments (30)
Rendering of Phase 1C's new lab-office building.
Thomas Breen photo
Construction currently underway at the former Coliseum site.
The redevelopers of the ex-Coliseum site won city approval to build 120 more apartments, 657 new parking-garage spaces, and a new 11-story lab and office building — all as construction of another 200 new apartments right next door has already begun — in the latest chapter of the planned overhaul of a former-arena-turned-parking lot into “Square 10.”
Continue reading ‘More Apts, Parking, Labs OK'd For "Square 10"’