Arts & Culture

Elm Shakespeare Kicks Off “Glorious Summer”

by | Aug 19, 2024 9:17 am | Comments (2)

Elm Shakespeare Company photo

Elm Shakespeare Company's Richard III.

Elm Shakespeare Company’s production of Richard III — running in Edgerton Park now through Sept. 1 — opens on a scene of warfare, complete with smoke, red lighting, and clashing swords. Then it transitions into a party, with swirling ribbons and joyful dancing. The titular Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Lisa Wolpe) feels much more at home in the former scene than in the latter. Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace / Have no delight to pass away the time,” Richard proclaims bitterly. This is the key to his entire character, and in some senses, the play itself.

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Photographers Make Life Into Art

by | Aug 16, 2024 8:39 am | Comments (0)

Sarah Groate with her two photos.

Sarah Groate’s photographs, Duke’s Arrival and Waiting at The Rainbow Bridge, married two of her great loves: photography and horses. Groate works at the CT Draft Horse Rescue, and she uses the horses there as both inspiration and the subjects of her art. I just found that I loved photographing them,” she said. They’re the true gentle giants.”

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Snake Hill Blues Gets Gritty

by | Aug 15, 2024 1:43 pm | Comments (0)

For the first time, WNHH’s Tuesdays @ the Mediterranea Cafe concert series featured a saxophone, a harmonica, and a golden trumpet — though the last wasn’t making any sound.

That didn’t keep Snake Hill Blues lead singer Vaughn Collins from taking the miniature instrument from around his neck, pressing his fingers to the keys, and letting the imaginary horn blare among the real, rightly-sized instruments surrounding him.

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St. Mary Pays Tribute To Michael McGivney

by | Aug 14, 2024 11:33 am | Comments (6)

Eleanor Polak photos

Statue of Bl. Michael McGivney outside St. Mary.

Father Joseph McNeill and altar boys at Tuesday's "feast day."

Outside the St. Mary Church at 5 Hillhouse Ave. stands a life-sized statue of the Blessed Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus and the patron of that parish. The sculpture has its arms outstretched, as if embracing everyone who enters the church, welcoming them in.

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Artists Get Constructive

by | Aug 14, 2024 11:00 am | Comments (0)

Ariel Bintang’s pieces can be understood as abstractions of figurative landscapes. The color choices, of vivid greens, blues, and oranges, don’t happen much in the real world, and when they do, not in the way that Bintang uses them. But Bintang also deftly outlines recognizable features into the pieces — buildings, cliffs, rocks, islands, clouds — that show them as landscapes, reduced to their essentials and manipulated. It makes sense, as Bintang, like fellow artists Uzayr Agha and Ethnie Xu, is a graduate of the Yale School of Architecture. In Mosaic,” the show running now through Aug. 25 at City Gallery, the three artists transfer their eyes for the landscape and the built environment around them to two-dimensional canvases.

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Best Video Welcomes Arthouse Sundays

by | Aug 13, 2024 9:16 am | Comments (1)

A still from Wanda.

What’s an arthouse film? Not unlike the cult film, it can draw in a certain type of cinephile that searches for an experience unlike the one you get from a blockbuster crowd pleaser. The arthouse film is typically independently made and is often experimental: sometimes cerebral, sometimes gut wrenching, sometimes both at once. Best Video — home to many of these films on VHS and DVD — is looking to share such experiences with others on Arthouse Sundays, a new monthly series that debuted this past weekend with the 1970 film Wanda.

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Magnolia Theatre Company Rides The Cyclone

by | Aug 12, 2024 9:20 am | Comments (0)

Magnolia Theatre Company photos

Ocean O’Connor Rosenberg is tearing up the stage with her friends, forming them into a human pyramid. She’s belting out an uptempo song at the top of her lungs. She’s gotten all her friends to support her — literally — but the song she’s singing, if you listen carefully to the lyrics ricocheting by, is actually about how much better she is than they are. Is it fair? Is it mean? Is it even true?

The answers are probably no, yes, and no. But on the other hand, can we really blame O’Connor Rosenberg for wanting to come out on top? She’s literally singing for her life. 

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Ozzy's Apizza Brings It All Back Home

by | Aug 9, 2024 1:39 pm | Comments (1)

Karen Ponzio Photos

KP's serving of Ozzy's Apizza.

New Haven-style apizza arrived in East Rock Market last weekend as the East Coast outpost of a super successful Glendale, Ca. location. Wait — New Haven apizza from L.A.? Yes, indeed.

Ozzy’s Apizza, which started in the West Coast kitchen of CT native Chris Wallace and made its way from pop up to mainstay in Los Angeles is now a part of Goatville. Pies with names like The Liotta, The Swanson, and The Bada Bing are already hits on the other side of the U.S. Now co-owners Wallace and Craig Taylor are hoping to become an integral part of their home state’s scene.

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"Everything Is Political In America," Including The Art

by | Aug 9, 2024 9:41 am | Comments (0)

Howardena Pindell

Katrina Footprint.

Howardena Pindell had already created the spiraling mess of oranges, yellows, blues, and greens, footprinted with red arrows indicating the path of the swirls, when she realized that the lithograph resembled a hurricane tracking map. She titled the piece Katrina Footprint, memorializing the over 1,800 people killed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. What was once a relatively simple design of colors and shapes became a political statement. In hindsight, it feels as if the politics were already embedded in the art. Pindell only had to bring them to the surface.

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Weird Music Night Says “Hellooo!”

by | Aug 9, 2024 9:26 am | Comments (0)

Eleanor Polak photo

The Chomins at Weird Music Night.

Hellooo!” called out John O’Donnell, in an exaggerated, almost Cookie-Monster-like voice.

Hellooo!” called back the crowd, matching his energy and tone. It was weird, wacky, and wildly entertaining, setting the tone for Weird Music Night, a monthly event at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art on Trumbull Street. Attending the event felt like walking through a cabinet of curiosities, as the audience shifted from room to room and experienced a series of acts that were as odd as they were incredible.

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Flag Now Up, Fest Coming Soon

by | Aug 8, 2024 5:45 pm | Comments (0)

Anais Nunec: "I wanted to cry, it was so amazing."

Junior Miss Puerto Rico Lysella Pujols and Miss Puerto Rico of Greater New Haven Alanna Herbert.

Dereen Shirnekhi Photos

As rain came down, this year’s Miss Puerto Rico of Greater New Haven, Alanna Herbert, stepped to the microphone and filled the Green with her voice as she sang the national anthem. Behind her was the Puerto Rican flag, grand and waving in the wind, ready to be raised. 

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"Jammin" Salmon Seasoned Straight From Jamaica

by | Aug 8, 2024 11:34 am | Comments (1)

Brian Slattery Photos

Damien Clarke sauteeing vegetables at Jammin Jamaican.

Salmon and chicken, en route to being served.

Damian Clarke, chef and owner of Jammin Jamaican Cuisine at 611 Washington Ave. in the Hill, set to work preparing a salmon entree that has become one of the restaurant’s more popular dishes.

First, he chopped peppers and onions into neat strips. He folded a bunch of scallions in half before dicing them, using both onions and salmon to maximize the flavor. Then he sliced some thyme for extra seasoning.

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Film Series Celebrates Hitchcock's 125th Birthday

by | Aug 7, 2024 9:04 am | Comments (0)

A still from Shadow of a Doubt.

You don’t have to be a film fanatic to know who Alfred Hitchcock is — a director so unique in his vision that his last name has become a descriptor for a certain type of perspective. On the occasion of what would have been his 125th birthday, Best Video has dedicated its August screening series to a celebration of his films. On Tuesday night the feting began with Shadow of a Doubt, the 1943 psychological thriller that held the sizable crowd captive with its snappy dialogue — cowritten by Hamden’s own Thornton Wilder — and the director’s signature directorial style. 

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Grandmothers' Ragú Transported From Puglianello

by | Aug 6, 2024 8:27 am | Comments (12)

Lisa Reisman photo

Danilo Mongillo's Ragú Napolitano

This is the story of the ragú,” Danilo Mongillo said, sliding a small bowl of sauce from the refrigerator and setting it on the counter of the newly opened Strega New Haven on Chapel Street, and it’s a slow story.” 

The story began with a mix of pork and beef.

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Ashley The Creator's Art Bears Fruit

by | Aug 5, 2024 8:33 am | Comments (0)

Eleanor Polak photo

Ashley the Creator and her painting Emotional Orange.

According to legend — and poet Christina Rossetti — one should never eat fruit offered by fairies. It’s considered illicit, otherworldly, and so good that one taste will leave you hankering for more for the rest of your days. But in her new exhibition, Pomology,” artist Ashley the Creator makes fruit seem more tempting than it’s ever been before. The fae, inhuman faces in her paintings wear fruit as a part of their own bodies, and the effect is both eerie and mouth-wateringly good.

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New Japanese Grocery Keeps Customers In The Loop

by | Aug 5, 2024 8:26 am | Comments (2)

Eleanor Polak photos

Jody Sharninghausen, at The Loop: “I think some of these things you couldn’t get in New Haven before.”

Beef and rice bowls, ready to eat.

Jody Sharninghausen bought matcha powder, umeboshi, and furikake powder to go — and ordered a fried chicken bento box to stay — at a new Japanese grocery store and restaurant downtown. 

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Summer Campers Dive Into Sports & STEAM

by | Aug 5, 2024 8:23 am | Comments (2)

Maya McFadden Photo

Nathaniel Joyner and Damien, reading side by side at summer camp.

Nathaniel Joyner took a quick break from reading aloud to a group of middle schoolers to spin an imaginary basketball on his finger before passing it over to eight-year-old Damien — who dribbled the ball” between his legs, and then picked up the book to resume reading with the group.

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Musicians Cool Down At Never Ending Books

by | Aug 5, 2024 8:20 am | Comments (0)

Sarah Gross.

I’ve been crying, I’ve been trying / Reinvent myself each day to keep from dying,” sang Sarah Gross, the first of two musical acts to perform at Never Ending Books on Friday. The lyrics came from her original song Liar,” the first of many originals she played that night. Gross’s full, sweet voice and introspective lyrics recalled a young Taylor Swift, right on the cusp of transitioning out of country music.

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The Beinecke Remembers The Holocaust

by | Aug 1, 2024 3:41 pm | Comments (1)

Eleanor Polak photos

Survivors and witnesses speak (clockwise from top left): Krystyna Gil, Edith Plakins, Renee Hartman, and Jan Karski.

How do we talk about something for which we have no words? How do we develop a vocabulary for a tragedy of such volume that the human language does not encapsulate it? 

The Beinecke library’s new exhibit, In the First Person: The Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, has perhaps the only answer: We let the survivors speak for themselves.

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