by | Feb 28, 2025 10:40 am | Comments (1)
Paul Bass Photo; Contributed
Jennifer Klein, Rhoda Zahler Samuel, and Nicole Zador at WNHH FM; Ruth Grannick.
As men rushed off to war in Europe, Ruth Grannick took on a new mission back home — top-secret message decoding for the U.S. Navy. Laura Levine took a job as a lathe operator.
by | Feb 27, 2025 2:30 pm | Comments (0)
College Street Music Hall
Howard Jones takes College Street back, with ABC (below).
Howard Jones & ABC
College Street Music Hall
Feb. 26, 2025
On Wednesday night a vibrant crowd at College Street Music Hall rejoiced in their remembrance of the 1980s with two of its most successful and celebrated British New Wave synth pop acts: Howard Jones and ABC.
Both acts made their mark as equally for the memorable visuals in their videos played on near perpetual repeat on MTV throughout its first decade as well as for the string of radio hits each had that continue to get regular airplay on Sirius XM’s First Wave radio station devoted to purveyors of post punk and synth-soaked tunes.
by | Feb 27, 2025 12:12 pm | Comments (0)
Bundy: Reached high, took risks.
James Bundy, a guiding force of adventurous and cutting-edge theater in New Haven for decades, announced Thursday that he’s stepping down from his post as artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre.
by | Feb 27, 2025 11:31 am | Comments (0)
Jisu Sheen photo
Bessie Flores Zaldívar takes audience to 2017 Tegucigalpa at Best Video reading.
High school senior Libertad’s brother, Maynor, is dead. As her family sorts through his room, she wonders: “How long can a space hold a memory?”
His memory is everywhere. She walks to the corner store and hears how Maynor once started a massive running tab for all the neighborhood boys to charge for food.
That was when Bessie Flores Zaldívar interrupted themself, addressing the audience directly: “That’s actually something my brother did do. He was, like, thousands of lempiras in debt because he was feeding the whole neighborhood.”
by | Feb 24, 2025 12:55 pm | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Allie Burnet.
Midway through her set with her band, the Proven Winners, Allie Burnet asked to do one song by herself. In a break from her original material, she launched into a cover of Sinéad O’Connor’s “Black Boys on Mopeds,” a 1990 song about police brutality that has aged all too well.
To give the song a final twist, Burnet changed one line. In 1990, O’Connor sang, “These are dangerous days / to say what you feel is to dig your own grave.” Burnet altered the second half of that line: “To be who you are is to stand in your grave.”
by | Feb 24, 2025 10:03 am | Comments (0)
LÉA THE LEOX with guitarist Graham Bhuyan.
When asked to describe how he felt about the set he played at Hamden’s Space Ballroom Saturday night, LÉA THE LEOX’s guitarist, Graham Bhuyan, smiled and said, “It kind of felt like hugging your favorite color.” An up-and-coming soul, pop, and R&B act out of LA, LÉA THE LEOX and Bhuyan wasted no time stealing hearts on Hamden soil. It’s safe to say whatever the color was, it hugged back hard.
by | Feb 19, 2025 3:52 pm | Comments (26)
Elphaba, Sen. Kissel: This bill is wicked. So to speak.
Hartford — Should Connecticut movie theaters have to publish accurate start times for films and previews — or else face $1,000 false-advertising fines?
New Haven State Sen. Martin Looney says yes. Cinema owners say no. And an Enfield lawmaker was embarrassed that such a question would even be asked.
by | Feb 19, 2025 2:45 pm | Comments (0)
Lois Conner
West Lake, Hangzhou, China.
At first glance, Lois Conner’s image might read as a great mid-century abstract painting, full of bold shapes, strong lines, and vivid contrasts. But it’s not; it’s a photograph of desiccated plants and their reflections in a still body of water. The image collapses the line between observing nature and interpreting it. It has both documented a moment in time and also given us some commentary on it, a way to feel about it, and to be drawn in.
by | Feb 17, 2025 1:58 pm | Comments (0)
Moore performing at WNHH FM.
Fresh off an NYC premiere, Johnathan Moore picked up his bow, turned on his BOSS RC-600 Loop station, and transformed into a one-man orchestra.
by | Feb 17, 2025 10:21 am | Comments (0)
Chris Randall Photo
Guitarist and composer Hiroya Tsukamoto played an amazing show at Fair Haven Furniture, turning the cozy, intimately-lit space into a personal mini-concert hall. His mix of detailed fingerpicking and heartfelt storytelling made for a captivating night, with every note filling the unique setting with warmth and emotion.
Continue reading ‘Guitar Wizard Lights Furniture Haven On Fire’
by | Feb 14, 2025 12:40 pm | Comments (0)
Jisu Sheen Photo
I-SHEA on the Conga, Seny Camara on Jembe, and Douglas Wilson III on guitar.
“The telepathy up here is crazy.”
Jocelyn Pleasant, leader of Connecticut’s well-loved Afro-funk fusion ensemble The Lost Tribe, might have been talking about communication between band members, but she also set the stage for an intimate connection between the band and the audience at a performance Thursday night at NXTHVN in Dixwell.
by | Feb 14, 2025 9:33 am | Comments (0)
Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. (Memphis) and Postell Pringle (Wolf) in August Wilson's Two Trains Running.
Two Trains Running
Hartford Stage
Hartford
February 6, 2025
Two Trains Running belongs to August Wilson’s ten-play cycle describing African American life in each decade of the 20th century. It takes place in Pittsburgh, as restaurant owner Memphis fights to get a fair price for his business as the city attempts to redevelop the area.
The lede of the play is buried under racial and social discussions of the era.
by | Feb 14, 2025 9:32 am | Comments (0)
Though the style of the paintings is utterly contemporary, the mood somehow evokes both family photos in the living room and a formal ancestral shrine, cozy and familiar yet also reverential. The paintings are of the artist’s family, their humanity captured and elevated by the painter’s keen eye and steady hand. The photographs help in showing what the artist is up to, how he sees the people he loves through the way that he works. They’re also a first step in understanding, in the context of his artistic practice, what the artist means by “family.”
by | Feb 13, 2025 12:01 pm | Comments (4)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Acting ED Bruton: Trying to raise $50K in 8 weeks.
Best Video Film and Cultural Center is reaching out for help.
The Spring Glen third space — which has morphed over the years from a cool spot to seek out the most eclectic videotapes to a beloved gathering place where performances, speakers, and other live events happen alongside rows and rows of films that are old and new (and yes, there are still some videotapes) — has launched a fundraising campaign to keep the nonprofit afloat and sailing into its future.
by | Feb 12, 2025 4:54 pm | Comments (7)
While a NIMBY-stalled building plan leaves a stretch of Grand Avenue covered in blight, two grassroots artists picked up their brushes Wednesday to offer the neighborhood some temporary respite.
by | Feb 11, 2025 9:45 am | Comments (2)
Author Josaphat: The Panther story needed a novelist's eye.
Kingdom of No Tomorrow
By Fabienne Josaphat
Algonquin Books/Hatchette
Nettie Boileau had choices to make.
Should she sign up with the revolution taking shape in Oakland, the way her father fought back against Papa Doc in Haiti? Or should she pursue her dreams of becoming a doctor?
Which lover should she make a life with? Clia, who brought her into the Black Panther Party? Or Melvin, the magnetic rising party leader?
by | Feb 10, 2025 4:20 pm | Comments (0)
Killer Kin, Intercourse, Dissolve, Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean
Space Ballroom
Hamden
Feb. 9, 2025
On Super Bowl Sunday, thousands of viewers across the United States tuned in to Caesar’s Superdome in New Orleans to share the wonder and excitement of the biggest sports evening of the year.
by | Feb 10, 2025 12:09 pm | Comments (0)
Matt Fried Photo
Matt Fried Photo
Music’s ability to offer hope or resilience, to soothe or to bolster, is often a feature of the conversation around public performance of classical music. In Woolsey Hall on Sunday afternoon, washed entirely in natural light, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra amplified that message.
by | Feb 10, 2025 11:20 am | Comments (0)
Curtis Brown Photography
El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom.
El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom
Long Wharf Theatre
Southern Connecticut State University’s Lyman Center
New Haven
Through Feb. 23, 2025
For three weeks only, a masked crusader strikes in New Haven.
by | Feb 10, 2025 11:00 am | Comments (6)
Andrius Banevicious photo
Marcus Harvin (right), with Ray Boyd, at Manson Youth Institution.
“Less than three years ago, I was called a number just like you,” Marcus Harvin began. “From this moment on, never call yourself a number. Never accept that.”
Continue reading ‘Fresh Starts Screened, Preached At Youth Prison’
by | Feb 10, 2025 9:40 am | Comments (0)
Leigh Busby Photo
Vance Gilbert performing at Jazzy's.
Vance Gilbert
Jazzy’s Cabaret
4 Orange St.
New Haven
Feb. 8, 2025
Vance Gilbert was talking about John Prine before a full house at Jazzy’s Cabaret Saturday night when he saw flashing lights outside on Orange Street.
by | Feb 7, 2025 10:49 am | Comments (0)
Jisu Sheen Photo
In the words of local queer and trans organization East Rock House’s Ashley LaRue, “The world is too freaking wild right now.” Sometimes you just need to share a snowy February moment watching women in cowboy boots and rhinestoned button-downs fall in love. This month’s Queer Film Club pick, presented by East Rock House at Best Video in Hamden Thursday night, was the 1985 classic romance Desert Hearts.
by | Feb 7, 2025 10:31 am | Comments (0)
Scott Azevedo
Untitled (A Delightful Children's Room).
Scott Azevedo’s Untitled (A Delightful Children’s Room) appears somehow both peaceful and volatile. Peaceful because of what it depicts, a woman sitting in a cozy room, and the colors chosen — warm and vibrant. But something in the execution makes the image unstable, like a half-lost memory, full of glitches and errors. The lines emanating from the figure might be flames. The person in the painting may be cherished, but the perception of her is somehow shot through with difficulty.
by | Feb 6, 2025 2:31 pm | Comments (0)
Matt Esposito Photo
Rachel Goswell of Slowdive at CSMH.
Slowdive
College Street Music Hall
New Haven
Feb. 4, 2025
There was a slow, two-minute build. The drums began to accelerate and subdivide. The bass switched its pattern, following the drums’ rhythm. The sung melody soared over it all, an angelic wordless wail. Other lines moved in and out, from guitars and electronics, somehow both floating and gathering energy. The lights around the crowd and stage slowly multiplied and became more colorful.
Finally, it erupted. The lights started flashing, impossibly fast. The music consumed itself, becoming an onslaught of noise that pummeled bobbing heads and waving arms in the audience. All the while, the line of musicians at the front of the stage — Slowdive members Rachel Goswell (vocal, guitar, synth), Neil Halstead (vocal, guitar), Christian Savill (guitar), Nick Chaplin (bass), and Simon Scott (drums) — were motionless, staring out at the crowd or down at the row of pedals and flashing lights by their feet.
by | Feb 6, 2025 11:34 am | Comments (1)
