by | Jan 18, 2024 12:34 pm | Comments (35)
Design for one of the planned courts.
Break out the paddles, because indoor pickleball is coming to town.
Continue reading ‘Pickleball Complex OK'd For Valley Street’
by | Jan 15, 2024 11:54 am | Comments (2)
Nobody stole any vehicles in West Hills, West Rock, Westville, or Amity during the first week of 2024.
by | Jan 12, 2024 8:30 am | Comments (0)
Hank Paper
Another Brand New Day.
Hank Paper may have given his photograph the perfect title. Another Brand New Day is on one level just a normal street scene in Italy, but its vivid colors and warm light are almost supernaturally delicious. Paper finds the ecstasy in the everyday, and with it, a palpable sense of hope.
by | Jan 9, 2024 3:59 pm | Comments (10)
The city ordered six people to clear out of a four-tent encampment in Edgewood Park after working with them to find indoor places to stay.
by | Dec 21, 2023 10:27 am | Comments (15)
Paul Bass Photo
The peanut’s shell didn’t crack.
by | Dec 19, 2023 11:07 am | Comments (8)
Photo courtesy of Bruno Semino
SCSU grad student Bruno Semino competing in a pickleball tournament in October at Edgewood Park.
The story of the proposed indoor pickleball facility slated to spring forth from a stretch of asphalt in Westville begins, in a way, in 1957, when Harrison Blume’s grandfather first hung a podiatry shingle on Blake Street.
Continue reading ‘Generation To Generation, Podiatry To Pickleball’
by | Dec 18, 2023 2:58 pm | Comments (0)
Asher Joseph photo
Students sing loud and proud at Elm City Montessori's eighth annual Winter Sing.
Students, families, and teachers bundled together in the subfreezing temperature at Elm City Montessori School (ECMS) to lift their voices in song during the school’s eighth annual Winter Sing — which played out as candles flickered, under the silhouette of West Rock.
Continue reading ‘Elm City Montessori Welcomes Winter Through Song’
by | Dec 18, 2023 8:55 am | Comments (0)
The show of artist Amira Brown’s work, up now at the Mitchell Branch Library in Westville through the end of the month, doesn’t have a title, nor do any of the individual pieces. That gesture alone seems to be part of the point, as is the elliptical, border-melting nature of the work itself. It’s a show to find your way into; one possible starting point is a piece that shows, in outline, a person in a classic pose of pondering, but the pondering itself is dissolving the person. The person contains other people. The person contains stars. But Brown’s sly humor is on full display as well. “Meh,” is one complete thought. “Shrug,” another. And then: “rodeo.” The rodeo of making art? Of showing it? Something bigger? Whatever the case, it isn’t Brown’s first.
by | Dec 8, 2023 4:08 pm | Comments (17)
The Yale Golf Course, as pictured in a City Plan presentation.
Yale has won city permission to cut down more than 1,000 trees and renovate its Upper Westville golf course as part of a plan that university officials pitched as making 200 acres of fairways and tees more “sustainable” — and that local activists criticized as environmentally backwards.
Continue reading ‘Yale's Tree-Cutting Golf Course Renovation Plan OK'd’
by | Dec 8, 2023 2:23 pm | Comments (2)
Lisa Reisman photo
Inside the Westville Community Nursery School.
Mud happens and wet happens and messy clothes happen and it’s all good.
Those are the words of author and play space designer Rusty Keeler about risky play, a philosophy that involves, in simplest terms, letting kids be kids, and is practiced at Westville Community Nursery School, a place where the tradition of jumping on mattresses has passed from generation to generation.
Continue reading ‘Westville Nursery School Keeps Play Alive’
by | Nov 28, 2023 7:55 am | Comments (0)
Penrhyn Cook
Holiday Reflections.
Penrhyn Cook’s series of photographs, Holiday Reflections, are absorbing enough in their own right. Colorful and festive, the images are just askew enough to warrant a closer look. Are we looking at double exposures? What do we make of the giant fruit and a rainbow on a city block? In the context of Kehler Liddell Gallery’s annual holiday show — titled “Deck the Walls” and running at the Westville space through Dec. 24 — the title of Cook’s series earns itself a double twist, as the works of fellow gallery members on the opposite walls are reflected in the photos’ glassy surfaces. Images layer on images, an apt depiction of the show as a whole, in which all the gallery members play a part.
by | Nov 1, 2023 8:13 am | Comments (0)
Marjorie Gillette Wolfe
Alhambra Hedge.
Two photographs by Marjorie Gillette Wolfe hang in the front of Kehler Liddell Gallery, at 873 Whalley Ave. in Westville. They’re both of hedges, and the way Wolfe composes the image, the eye is drawn to the plant life, without worrying too much about where it is. We can see the similarities in the forms of the plants, the spacing between them. It’s only in looking at the titles that the true humor comes out, as one photograph is taken in front of a diner somewhere, and the other is taken at the Alhambra, one of the great architectural wonders of the world. Both locations are almost entirely absent from the images.
by | Oct 30, 2023 9:33 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photo
David Sepulveda at work in his Westville studio.
The last weekend of October finally gifted the city a warm and sunny Saturday, but nowhere was it hotter than Westville, where a two-day neighborhood event — part of the artist-led City-Wide Open Studios — encompassed everything from galleries, creative collectives, and private residences to Edgewood Park and even pods on Central Avenue.
Continue reading ‘Westville Brings The Heat With Open Studios’
by | Oct 27, 2023 8:39 am | Comments (2)
Cynthia Beth Rubin
Orange Interplay with Diatoms, Salt, and Seaweed.
Cynthia Beth Rubin’s collage crackles with energy, as colors vibrate off one another and forms within forms, textures within textures, rub against each other. Keen senses of both aesthetic freedom and control of technique suffuse the piece — which, it turns out, hearken back to a famous artistic ancestor.
Continue reading ‘In "After Picasso," Artists Reckon With A Giant’
by | Oct 13, 2023 2:49 pm | Comments (18)
Lisa Reisman file photo
Pickleball played at the Floyd Little Athletic Center in April ...
BZA photo
... and next at an indoor trendy paddle sport building, coming to this parking lot?
Indoor pickleball instead of surface-lot parking could be coming to a busy Westville Village intersection, as the owner of a Valley Street stretch of asphalt has proposed constructing a new two-story “gym and spa” dedicated to the trendy tennis-adjacent sport.
by | Oct 12, 2023 7:40 pm | Comments (8)
Paul Bass Photo
The Yale Avenue cycletrack and edge of the park.
A woman who often jogs in the morning with a group of friends set out alone Thursday — and ended up fending off an attacker.
by | Oct 3, 2023 10:41 am | Comments (0)
Lisa Gray Photo
At Bloom-hosted Afrogalactic Tea Party.
The description online read: “In this ephemeral haven of sonic and poetic delights, the Afrogalactic Tea Party invites you to immerse yourself in a curated experience of taste and culture.”
The Sunday afternoon event at the flower and lifestyle shop Bloom on Central Avenue in Westville was part of the ongoing 6th Dimension Afrofuturism festival, a series of art exhibits, talks, screenings, and other gatherings running now through Oct. 25.
I love a tea party, and coupling one with Afrofuturism intrigued me, so I headed to the festival website to grab a ticket, which was pretty reasonable at $23. I wasn’t sure what to expect.
by | Oct 2, 2023 8:33 am | Comments (0)
Outtafocus Media Photos
Westville Music Bowl said so long to the summer and another full season of outdoor concerts with their closing show Thursday night, headlined by none other than boygenius, a band with a name spelled in lowercase letters and stacked with uppercase talent. Singer-songwriters Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus have been touring the country in support of their first full-length album, the record, which was released in March 2023 with a variety of opening acts. On this night it was Palehound, who also released an album, Eye on the Bat, in July.
by | Sep 21, 2023 9:00 am | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen file photo
The former Doyle's dry cleaners at 203 Alden Ave.
A contaminated ex-dry cleaners and an abandoned ex-school are steps closer to transforming from neighborhood eyesores into over 60 new apartments.
by | Sep 20, 2023 12:07 pm | Comments (1)
One wall of the gallery is a long stack of lively faces, the energetic style matching the animation in the faces. They match their subject, a clown in the old-school sense, more Charlie Chaplin than Ronald McDonald. The artist, Brian Flinn, has numbered the series under the title Auditions. It’s an entertainer looking for a gig. But for Flinn, it’s a sly double meaning, because it’s also a test run for new way for making art. Does it pass?
Continue reading ‘Artists Explore Themes And Variations, With And Without AI’
by | Sep 20, 2023 9:13 am | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
92 Lexington Ave., recently sold for $2.25M.
A Waterbury-based holding company has purchased a 50-bed nursing home and residential care facility on Lexington Avenue for $2.25 million — and a Stamford-based contractor has bought a Westville ex-convent and 10-unit apartment-complex-to-be for $865,000 — in some of the city’s latest property deals.
Continue reading ‘Property Sales Roundup: Nursing Home Sold For $2.25M’
by | Sep 19, 2023 12:02 pm | Comments (12)
Andrew Hutchins photo
A leading East Coast concert promoter has signed up to help book shows at the Westville Music Bowl, after teaming up with the local group that runs the ex-tennis stadium-turned-music venue.
Continue reading ‘Westville Music Bowl, Meet The Bowery Presents’
by | Sep 18, 2023 11:27 am | Comments (27)
Maya McFadden File Photo
Davis seventh-grader Dulce creates a 3D guitar figure last spring.
Davis Academy for Arts & Design Innovation has put a pause on its before- and after-school programming — leading two parents to take to the Board of Education to plead for some way to bring back initiatives that helped their students with reading, socialization, and building connections with school staff and fellow classmates.
Continue reading ‘Parents Press For Davis After-School Answers’
by and | Sep 11, 2023 8:50 am | Comments (0)
Yash Roy photo
Mayor Justin Elicker (center) surrounded by top Connecticut elected officials at Saturday's rally.
Thomas Breen photo
Liam Brennan at the doors on Sunday with West Rock Ave resident Tim Dagradi.
Elected officials from across Connecticut descended on Whalley Avenue to rally behind Mayor Justin Elicker, while Liam Brennan hit the doors in Westville to get out the vote for his mayoral challenger campaign — in a rush of political organizing in the final weekend before Tuesday’s Democratic primary elections.
Continue reading ‘Candidates Hit Streets For Final Pre-Primary Push’
by | Aug 22, 2023 8:46 am | Comments (2)
Brian Slattery Photo
Edmund B*Wak Comfort: "God left me just enough to get by."
New Haven artist and designer Edmund B*Wak Comfort faced a harrowing health crisis in the spring that saw him lose both of his legs below the knee as well as a few of his fingers. Now home from the hospital, he has found family and friends rallying to help him, including a performance from the Regicides improv comedy group this Saturday, Aug. 26 that will double as a fundraiser to help him meet living expenses while he recuperates.
“After the incident, I really appreciate being here,” Comfort said. “I realize how precious it is, all the things I took for granted. It is amazing that I still get an opportunity to be here.” He thinks of friends and family who have passed. “I was on the verge of being one of them,” he said, “missing all the beautiful things that life has to offer.”