by | Dec 1, 2022 5:36 pm | Comments (12)
Maya McFadden photo
Career High's Jonathan Berryman with Board of Ed VP Matt Wilcox Wednesday.
The Board of Education has hired a national search firm to try to find the next city schools superintendent by March — raising public concerns that the process to find Iline Tracey’s replacement needs to be longer and more community-focused.
by and | Nov 30, 2022 3:31 pm | Comments (18)
Thomas Breen photos
Yale Law's Alice Wang and Greg Antill: "Yes" for the union.
One of the few union election signs posted on Yale's downtown campus.
After months of mass public demonstrations in support of a decades-long campus unionization drive, Yale graduate teachers quietly slipped into polling places across downtown to cast their ballots in Local 33’s first election since 2017.
Continue reading ‘Voting Begins In Yale Grad Union Election’
by | Nov 28, 2022 3:30 pm | Comments (2)
Kimberly Wipfler photo
The Connecticut Yuletide Carolers.
A quartet of carolers dressed in traditional Victorian holiday garb harmonized to “Silver Bells” as children laughed and passersby ambled along downtown’s busy sidewalks. Families gathered to listen outside of Union League Café, shopping bags and hot cider in hand.
Next door, children sat around tables to decorate ornaments with ribbons, bells, markers, and gems. Beyond the arts and crafts a professional ice sculptor worked his trade, using a chainsaw and chisel to carve out a holiday elf. And around the corner, Santa and Mrs. Claus posed for photos.
That was the scene on Saturday as downtown New Haven welcomed some winter holiday cheer in the form of the Town Green Special Services District’s annual “Hallmark Holiday,” which promised all-new events, special shopping promotions, and festive activities for locals and visitors alike.
Continue reading ‘"Hallmark Holiday" Shopfest Hits Downtown’
by | Nov 23, 2022 10:45 am | Comments (0)
Kimberly Wipfler photo
Arabic interpreter Nuha Ibrahim and attendee Rajaa Abdella at Sunday's workshop.
(Updated with response from city) Camila Guiza-Chavez asked a roomful of women — mostly refugees, many facing housing insecurity — if anyone had applied for the city’s new federally funded, pandemic-era housing assistance programs.
“No,” was the unanimous reply.
Then she asked if anyone in the room had even heard of these programs. She was met again with a resounding: “No.”
by | Nov 23, 2022 9:09 am | Comments (1)
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
"The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born" Might Not Hold True For Much Longer.
We can’t read the expression on the subject of the painting, but that’s not where the eye goes anyway. Maybe we look first at the vibrant clothing she’s wearing. Or maybe we’ve already seen the element that makes the painting one to stop and linger at: that the carpet is in fact an elaborate collage of photographs. Whether we know the people in the pictures or not, we recognize them as people representing a place, a past, a culture. There’s commotion beneath the calm, questions beneath the assertiveness.
by | Nov 21, 2022 1:00 pm | Comments (18)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Five new apartments coming to Artist & Craftsman upstairs?
The vacant second floor above a Chapel Street arts supply shop may soon become an empty canvas for developers and renters to fill — as a plan to convert the space into five new apartments advances.
by | Nov 21, 2022 9:30 am | Comments (0)
Lisa Reisman photo
Laura Hutchinson, Kymbel Branch, Leander Dolphin, Kristin Bures, and Kit Ingui at the Big Expo on Thursday.
Pick your battles.
That was one of the takeaways from a spirited, and often inspiring, discussion among a powerhouse slate of women’s power panelists at the Big Connect Business Expo in the College Room at the Omni New Haven hotel.
Continue reading ‘Sisterhood Reigns At "Women’s Power" Panel’
by | Nov 17, 2022 8:47 am | Comments (0)
Susan Clinard
In Fear We Trust: Pandemic Family Portrait.
Susan Clinard’s In Fear We Trust: Pandemic Family Portrait is a snapshot of a harrowing moment. The figures in the bed show an astonishing range of emotion, from anger to worry to terror. But the piece itself isn’t an incitement to anger, but compassion. The family may be up late at night, their emotions eating away at them as they surely did for many in the depths of 2020. But Clinard makes sure we see that together they’re drawing strength from one another too. When times are hard, they gather together.
Continue reading ‘Artists Go Home And Abroad At The Ely Center’
by | Nov 16, 2022 5:34 pm | Comments (7)
Laura Glesby Photo
James Pagan, also known as Epic the Poet, performs at Wednesday's protest.
During Darcus Henry’s 13 and a half years in prison, he would spend every possible minute at the law library with a group of nearly 15 other men who all maintained their innocence. Together, they’d meet for the permitted hour every Tuesday and Thursday to read about court precedents, research their own cases, and exchange stories of pressured witnesses and suppressed evidence.
Continue reading ‘Courthouse Protest Targets Wrongful Convictions’
by | Nov 16, 2022 8:38 am | Comments (1)
Yash Roy photo
Dawn Hawkins Johnson: 1st cohort alum, now back to help run the 4th session.
Dawn Hawkins Johnson left her corporate healthcare job at the height of the pandemic to start her own consulting company fighting for a more equitable industry.
One of the first stops she made along the way of her entrepreneurial journey was a downtown-based program focused on training new business owners of color. Two years later, she’s now leading that program as it embarks upon its fourth cohort.
Continue reading ‘BIPOC Biz Accelerator Kicks Off With 4th Cohort’
by | Nov 14, 2022 5:30 pm | Comments (32)
Thomas Breen photo
At long last, construction begun at 842-848 Chapel.
Kenneth Boroson Architects
The proposed new mid-block complex at 842-848 Chapel, previously pitched by Northside, now pitched by CA Ventures.
A Chicago-based real estate company has purchased a long-vacant collection of Chapel Street properties for $6.75 million — and has begun the long-awaited construction of 166 new apartments at that site.
by | Nov 14, 2022 12:41 pm | Comments (6)
Laura Glesby Photo
The soon-to-be-resurrected Hill Cooperative Youth Services Building.
Plans to bring a former Trowbridge Square community center back to life took a big step forward as the Board of Alders formally accepted $1.5 million in state funds to renovate and reopen the Hill Cooperative Youth Services community center, formerly known as the Barbell.
Continue reading ‘Alders Accept State $ For Barbell Revival’
by | Nov 11, 2022 3:00 pm | Comments (14)
Thomas Breen photo
360 State St.
The city has received a one-time windfall of $2.7 million in deferred building permit fees from the now-former owner of 360 State St., thereby closing out two parallel developer deals that date back more than a decade.
by | Nov 11, 2022 9:14 am | Comments (0)
Laura Glesby photo
Steve Winter and Ann Garrett Robinson celebrate Lucretia's Corner renaming Thursday.
Four centuries after New Haven’s first recorded Black resident left her mark as an activist and enslaved domestic worker, the corner of Elm and Orange is slated to bear her name.
Continue reading ‘Downtown Corner Renamed For City's First Black Resident’
by | Nov 11, 2022 8:56 am | Comments (3)
Laura Glesby photo
Officer Chad Curry at Thursday's Board of Alders meeting.
After one bullet grazed his ear and another lodged in his shoulder, Officer Chad Curry got up to chase the man who fired at him.
The Board of Alders honored that perseverance and service in an official citation Thursday evening, just over a month after a shooting injured the police officer.
by | Nov 10, 2022 8:47 am | Comments (0)
Fazal Sheikh
Silver Bell Mine, Arizona.
Even in italics, on a placard in an art museum, the voice of Peter, a Navajo miner, comes through loud and clear. “I worked in the uranium mines for more than 14 years, until the mid-1970s,” he says. “While the other men in our family were serving in the military, I needed to provide for the family by working; the mines were close to our homes, and we were told that we were helping to support our country.” There is already a sense of dread — a sense that turns out to be well founded.
Continue reading ‘Fazal Sheikh Moves In Place At Yale Art Gallery’
by | Nov 9, 2022 5:23 pm | Comments (12)
Thomas Breen photo
360 State: Now under new ownership.
LinkedIn photo
New landlord Gideon Friedman: This high-rise is an "icon."
A New York City-based real estate company has purchased the 360 State St. apartment tower for a whopping $160 million — which is nearly $45 million above the high-end high-rise’s latest city-appraised value.
by , and | Nov 9, 2022 12:24 pm | Comments (12)
Erick Russell with rest of Democratic statewide team at Wednesday presser: LGBTQ history made.
Thomas Breen photo
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (right) with supporter Sydney Perry Tuesday night.
Democrats elected to fill all of Connecticut’s statewide elected offices for the next four years — including the first New Havener to win one of those offices in 36 years — claimed a mandate Wednesday to continue and build on the policies of the previous four.
Continue reading ‘Dems Sweep Elections; Urban Vote Plummets’
by | Nov 8, 2022 4:00 pm | Comments (1)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Activist Alexis Terry.
A coalition of unhoused New Haveners and advocates rallied at City Hall on Election Day to “vote” for public bathrooms, safe storage spaces, and a long-term commitment to helping the city’s most vulnerable.
Continue reading ‘Election Day Rally Casts Ballot For Housing’
by | Nov 8, 2022 3:51 pm | Comments (1)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Among the 400 same-day registrants (as of 4 p.m.) lining up to vote at City Hall.
Yale School of Management student Brittany Swanson waited too long to send in an absentee ballot to vote against celebrity physician and Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania this election.
So she instead found herself at City Hall, registering to become a New Haven voter to throw some last minute support towards Connecticut’s Democratic ticket.
Continue reading ‘Pennsylvania Transplant Votes Blue Thru EDR’
by | Nov 8, 2022 2:25 pm | Comments (0)
Maya McFadden photos
Some of the many guests at Saturday's gala.
Maya McFadden Photos
Links members and supporters gather to celebrate organization's 50th anniversary in 2nd floor ballroom of the New Haven Omni Hotel.
A historic Black female advocacy organization celebrated half a century of sisterhood and service at its first in-person gala since the start of the pandemic.
by | Nov 8, 2022 9:22 am | Comments (0)
Cailin Alcock
Exposure and Perspective 2.
Cailin Alcock’s Exposure and Perspective 2 — part of “Unusual,” a show of Alcock’s works running now at Blue Orchid on Court Street for a few weeks — can be understood to act as a tutorial for the rest of the show. The piece itself is abstract, hanging from a metal pipe on a chain, but the shapes and shades in it are evocative enough that one’s brain might begin to try to make sense of it, as a portrait, as landscape, as something. Alcock has anticipated this. “These images may be reminiscent of a face, but not one that is recognized. These can be interpreted as faces based on what is known. Eyes, nose, mouth. But is that enough to say this is a face?”
by | Nov 8, 2022 7:08 am | Comments (13)
Yash Roy photo
Mayor Elicker (second from left) and Town Chair Vincent Mauro Jr. (far right) with entire statewide Democratic slate at BAR Monday evening.
Top Democrats from across Connecticut descended on a Crown Street pizzeria the night before Election Day to make their final case to voters in the “political capital of the state” that their party is the one to trust to protect democracy for the long term.
by | Nov 7, 2022 4:00 pm | Comments (5)
Noel Sims photo
Editor Rachel Kauder Nalebuff with contributor Sofiya Moore ...
... reading from Our Red Book on Saturday.
“We all know womanhood can be very challenging; that’s why it’s good to start it off with a sweet taste of support and a little cream cheese frosting,” Lily Grace Sutton read aloud to celebrate a new New Haven-rich book all about menstruation.
by | Nov 7, 2022 9:00 am | Comments (21)
Laura Glesby photo
Wanda Perez: Buses are a lifeline to doctors, food pantries, family.
Thomas Breen file photo
Fares, be gone!
As she juggles the cost of everything from utilities to laundry, the past seven months of fare-free buses have given Wanda Perez one less expense to worry about.
“That helps me go to my doctors’ appointments, to see my loved ones,” Perez told a room full of bus riders, transit advocates, and alders — as they collectively pushed for making the state’s temporary bus fare holiday permanent.