by | Jul 9, 2024 12:23 pm | Comments (21)
Thomas Breen photo
949 Whalley, meet the tax man.
(Updated) For the first time in 14 years, City Hall has sent a property tax bill to the Church of Scientology for a long-vacant former furniture store in Westville Village.
Continue reading ‘Scientology Building's Tax Bill Comes Due’
by | Jul 8, 2024 11:45 am | Comments (2)
Eleanor Polak photo
Stephanie Berluti.
Stephanie Berluti of South Haven Farm was selling vegetables and greens at her stand at the CitySeed Edgewood Farmers Market on Sunday when she was approached by a man asking if she had any arugula.
Unfortunately, Berluti hadn’t brought any arugula that day — it had been too hot for it recently. The man was disappointed, but he still left her on a note of praise.
“He said my arugula ruined him for other arugula,” said Berluti. “This time of year, in the heat, farming can get you down, so it’s nice to get compliments.”
Continue reading ‘Farmers Market Brings Community To The Table’
by | Jul 8, 2024 9:24 am | Comments (2)
Love n'Co at Seeing Sounds.
Eleanor Polak photo
T!lt's Mike Scialla: “This is our last song, so we usually go crazy."
“You can do anything. That’s my main motto,” Lovelind of the local rock-pop-soul band Love n’Co told the crowd at Edgewood Park’s Seeing Sounds Festival. “It won’t be easy, but you can do anything.”
That proved a fitting tribute to the artistic accomplishment that was Saturday’s fest — which saw a swath of the park turn into a vibrant venue for beautiful clothing, delicious food, foot-tapping rhythms, and a feeling of camaraderie that lasted longer than the last notes of a song.
by | Jul 5, 2024 12:25 pm | Comments (25)
John Kritzman Photo
Bleachers at the Bowl. No more of this until Sept. 21.
The city’s premier outdoor concert venue doesn’t have any shows booked for July and August — with its last concert having taken place at the end of June, and its next concert scheduled for late September.
Why no live music these peak summer months? Because of “voracious competition” from Live Nation, which pays “exorbitant” prices to keep acts from coming to the Westville Music Bowl.
by | Jul 5, 2024 8:31 am | Comments (0)
Jennifer Knaus
Jennifer Knaus's Oval, now showing in "Artist as Curator."
Jennifer Knaus’s portrait pulls in the viewer in five different ways. There’s the vivid color choices, the exquisitely rendered, phantasmagorically fecund hair. But perhaps more than anything, there’s the element as old as portraiture itself: the gaze of the subject of the portrait back at the viewer, direct yet complex. What is the subject thinking? And with a painting like this, it’s possible to take that question a step further: What is the subject thinking about us?
Continue reading ‘Artists Become Curators At Kehler Liddell’
by | Jul 1, 2024 11:07 am | Comments (8)
Abiba Biao photo
Crenshaw (right) teaches Tanasia Edwards how to perform a breast self exam.
Jacquelyn Crenshaw isn’t new to spotting breast tumors. Having worked in mammography for more than 40 years, she urged a crowd of over a dozen women to get their annual mammograms, perform monthly breast self-examinations, and above all, “know your breast density.”
by | Jun 28, 2024 3:10 pm | Comments (33)
Thomas Breen file photo
Compassionate son Liam Brennan: ADU? YIMBY!
Liam Brennan’s elderly parents will be able to live just steps away from their grandchildren — while maintaining the independence of residing in their own detached home — now that the city’s zoning board has approved the conversion of the former mayoral candidate’s backyard garage into a two-story accessory dwelling unit (aka “ADU”).
by | Jun 4, 2024 9:11 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photos
On Monday night, members of A Broken Umbrella Theatre gathered in the theater company’s rehearsal and performance space in Westville to roll the clock back to 1929, close to the origins of New Haven’s apizza culture.
In the scene they rehearsed, Pete Jr. (Otto Fuller) wants to introduce his friend Charles (Jonah Alderman) to the rest of his family: mother Lucrezia (Susan Kulp), Cousin Mike (Matt Gaffney), and Uncle Jimmy (Lou Mangini). Mike and Jimmy, behind the counter, roll out dough and slide apizza in and out of a brick oven. Charles isn’t there just to make friends; he wants a job.
Continue reading ‘Broken Umbrella Serves Up Slice Of History’
by | May 31, 2024 8:14 am | Comments (2)
Frank Bruckmann
I-95 East Norwalk.
Frank Bruckmann paints the sky to convey a sense of the clouds roiling overhead; perhaps it’s getting dark, or threatening rain, or both. In the dimness, the lights in the painting are blurred by atmosphere. Metal signs gleam in the reflected light. Bruckmann gives it all emotion and loving attention, which makes it all the more interesting that his subject isn’t a beautiful landscape, or an important person, but a snarl of traffic on I‑95.
Continue reading ‘Artists Find The Beauty In Paying Attention’
by | May 28, 2024 8:41 am | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen photo
15 Colby Ct., to be replaced by 4 new townhouse rentals.
A pair of plans to build four needed houses apiece moved ahead for underused plots of Upper Westville and Newhallville.
by | May 24, 2024 9:26 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery photo
Allie Bee stood in front of an admiring audience in the downstairs space of Westville’s Third Space. Tracks they’d made themself played behind them as they took their time unfurling melodies they’d written on bass. The first one, groovy, insistent, they said, was called “Wayward Giant.” The second one, hazier and jazzier, was called “Blue Moon,” named after a smoothie of the same name that they’d made at work.
“Inspiration comes in weird places,” they said.
An enthusiastic voice came from the back: “Yeah it does!”
by | May 19, 2024 9:05 pm | Comments (15)
Contributed photo
On-duty NHPD rifle operators take positions outside Richmond Avenue house.
A late-night argument over a microwave oven Sunday led to a gunshot — and then, 14 hours later, police surrounding a house and blocking off the street until the alleged shooter came outside.
by | May 14, 2024 11:34 am | Comments (1)
Abiba Biao photo
Elizabeth Laconi, Anne Hartjen, Shayla Streater, and Amayah Smith.
Amid the sea of vendors and artisans on Saturday afternoon at the 27th annual Westville ArtWalk neighborhood festival and arts market, 11-year-old Amayah Smith looked around in awe at the multitude of goods people had to offer, from handmade soaps to crochet plushies. Amayah could imagine herself taking part, so folks better watch out at next year’s ArtWalk for a new business — “‘Mayah’s Joy” — bringing homemade stickers to you.
Continue reading ‘Westville's ArtWalk Cultivates New Artisans’
by | May 14, 2024 8:29 am | Comments (0)
Sean Patrick Gallagher
These Wine-Dark, Warming Currents, Rising.
In Sean Patrick Gallagher’s series of paintings, the sea roils red. The image is clear enough, but the title brings home the allusions the artist is leaning toward. “Wine-dark,” the famous moniker for the ocean in Homer’s classical Greek epics. The others are more contemporary, pointing to the effects of climate change. The series of paintings together act almost like a film. Move through the gallery fast enough, and the floor might feel like it’s surging beneath your feet.
by | May 10, 2024 12:04 pm | Comments (7)
(Updated Monday) Police arrested three people late Thursday night outside a Westville residence following a fight that included shots being fired.
by | Apr 26, 2024 8:48 am | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden photo
Sheila Lamb (right): "Your job right now is to be engaged."
As Mauro-Sheridan math teacher Sheila Lamb knocked on her seventh graders’ desks to urge them to participate in class, math coach Cortney Costa used her phone at the back of the classroom — not to play games, but to record Lamb’s model lesson.
by | Apr 15, 2024 1:33 pm | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen file photo
The former Doyle's dry cleaners at 203 Alden Ave.
The redeveloper of the former Doyle’s Cleaners on Alden Avenue has ditched plans to build a new specialty food store and will now construct six, instead of four, apartments there instead.
by | Mar 27, 2024 9:59 am | Comments (0)
Mark K. St. Mary
Study #1108.
Mark K. St. Mary’s Study #1108 looks almost like it could be a double exposure, an image of light and shadow laid over a photograph of a hallway. Viewed another way, it can feel almost intrusive, a view from inside a house at night when the lights are off. Should we, the viewers, be there? What is going on?
by | Mar 21, 2024 2:00 pm | Comments (27)
Dear fellow New Haven drivers,
Slow. Down.
by | Mar 19, 2024 4:25 pm | Comments (5)
Alex Ankrah and Josephine Bailey: Family Dollar is a top-dollar date space.
Mother and daughter Hinasta L and Celeste Burrell left Family Dollar with Rockin’ Protein, hand sanitizer, period pads and heavy hearts — as they prepared for potential closure of the only store in the city keeping their pockets lined with more than lint.
by | Mar 8, 2024 2:28 pm | Comments (42)
Paul Bass Photos
No sign of "religious" activity: Assessor Pullen (left); portions of the blighted Scientology building.
Scientologists will have to pay taxes after sitting on plans to resurrect Ron Hubbard’s spirit inside the deteriorating doors of a former furniture store — now that the city revoked the church’s tax-exempt status.
Continue reading ‘Blighted Scientology Building Returned To Tax Rolls’
by | Mar 5, 2024 9:45 am | Comments (0)
Students Monday outside the parked cARTie bus.
cARTie museum educator Nicole Pappo reads to students outdoors.
When asked “does art matter?” second graders Mercedes, Mason, and Elia agreed “yes.” Then they showed some of the reasons: Mason drew a sign reading “art = peace.” Elia drew a self-portrait. And Mercedes drew a rainbow, reading “I love art.”
by | Mar 4, 2024 2:18 pm | Comments (0)
Maya McFadden Photos
Ellen Maust reads aloud to Mauro Sheridan second-grade class.
In a second-grade classroom at Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School students danced along to Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” after learning about the “Queen of Soul.”
Continue reading ‘"R-E-S-P-E-C-T" Kicks Off Women's, Music Month’
by | Feb 29, 2024 2:58 pm | Comments (21)
Tom Breen Photo
Round 2's coming: Jovon Ladson navigates concrete quarter pipe added in the previous round of skateboarder-city-designed renovations.
Skateboarders young and old envisioned stairs, an awning, and 24/7 lights as they met with city officials to map out a plan for a $250,000 renovation of their park.
Continue reading ‘Skateboarders Envision All-Weather 24/7 Park’
by | Feb 21, 2024 9:34 am | Comments (0)
Roy Money
Emeishan View 2.
The view of a mountain in Sichuan, China is breathtaking, though not for the usual reasons. Photographer Roy Money doesn’t train his camera on the usual kind of tourist pictures — the highest peak, the widest vista, the prettiest temple. Instead, he has an eye for the beauty in the details, the shape of the land, a mat of vegetation, curls of fog. Pictures of famous vistas might make us want to go there. Pictures like Money’s might give us more of a sense of what it’s like to already be there.