by | Jun 21, 2023 8:42 am | Comments (2)
Eleanor Polak Photos
Alisa Bowens-Mercado teaches a salsa lesson at Salsa Night.
The foot-tapping rhythms of “Triste y Vacía” by Héctor Lavoe & Willie Colón reverberated throughout the blocked-off space outside 650 Central Ave. in Westville.
by | Jun 20, 2023 10:18 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Arms Like Roses
Mondays have a reputation for being a difficult day to enjoy anything, but this Monday at Cafe Nine you could get a heavy dose of pulse-pounding music to reenergize you for the week ahead. The three bands that made that happen last night were New Haven’s own Arms Like Roses and two Boston-based acts, Women in Peril and Cameron Lane.
by | Jun 20, 2023 8:57 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
The dancers in the circle were lifting up their own spirits and the spirits of those around them. They were participating in a culture that was now in its third generation of practitioners. And, as was explained, they were helping strengthen and preserve it; if they didn’t, they could lose it.
Continue reading ‘Conference Gives Master Class In Hip Hop History’
by | Jun 19, 2023 8:40 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery photo
Myles Tripp and Elaine Roper — ConnCORP’s director of audience development and vice president of culture and community relations, respectively — were on the stage at ConnCORP Saturday evening hyping up the crowd. The immediate reason was a raffle; the larger reason was the celebration of two events: the holiday of Juneteenth and ConnCORP’s fifth anniversary as an organization.
Continue reading ‘ConnCORP Celebrates Juneteenth Anniversary’
by | Jun 19, 2023 8:33 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Click Tracks in the groove.
The buttery warmth of the baritone saxophone, the silky strum of the upright bass, and the percussive pops and slick slides of tap shoes: all three came together in musical conversation with one another at Best Video this past Friday night as the band Click Tracks took to the performance space’s indoor stage. A rain burst dashed hopes of an outdoor show, but did not impede the exuberant and energetic fusion of a multitude of music forms in the night ahead.
by | Jun 16, 2023 10:56 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photo
Jamila Hokanson, Sasha Lehrer, Jordan Sloshower, Damian Paglia, Stephanie Kilpatrick, in West Rock Wellness's art gallery.
A team of clinicians and wellness instructors has opened a new mental health center in Westville, offering everything from psychotherapy to mind-body medicine to ketamine-assisted psychedelic therapies.
This panoply of offerings is unified by their greater aim to create connection and community.
Continue reading ‘Whalley Wellness Center Explores Therapy's Frontier’
by | Jun 16, 2023 9:24 am | Comments (21)
Thomas Breen photo
The now-shuttered Artspace at 50 Orange St.
One of New Haven’s leading downtown art galleries has closed up shop, leaving its longtime Orange Street home less than half a year after the departure of its former executive director.
by | Jun 16, 2023 8:00 am | Comments (1)
"There's little left ... I'll pardon myself!"
by | Jun 15, 2023 8:14 am | Comments (0)
Eleanor Polak Photos
Rudy Ru performs at Arts & Ideas Adult Invitational Poetry Slam.
“That was a poet, and that was a poem,” said Influence, the host of the Adult Invitational Poetry Slam — part of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in partnership with The Word — held at Yale’s Schwarzman Center on Wednesday afternoon. In this way he followed up each of the 10 artists who performed their spoken word poetry: a simple acknowledgement that nevertheless conveyed a deep respect for the art form.
by | Jun 15, 2023 8:09 am | Comments (0)
Water Under the Bridge.
It’s hard to look at Joyce Greenfield’s Water Under the Bridge and not think of the recent smoke from forest fires in Canada that choked the air last week. All the signals are there — a wall of angry flames, a sky full of soot, the land seeming to melt away in the heat. But that’s not what the painting has to be. It could be autumn, the fiery colors the result of the changing of foliage. The dark sky could be rain clouds. Either way, the painting is about transformation. Fast or slow, destructive, creative, cyclical, the brush strokes mark the change.
by | Jun 14, 2023 2:38 pm | Comments (0)
Bill Lowe let out a cry from his tuba, guttural and keening, ecstatic and heartbreaking at the same time. Ken Filiano responded in kind from his bass. Hafez Modirzadeh joined in with a moan from his saxophone. Naledi Masilo unspooled a string of skittering vocalizations. Taylor Ho Bynum release a plaintive wail as Kevin Harris laid down ominous piano lines. Luther Gray arrived with a rattling drum line that solidified into a rhythm that Lowe emphasized with snapping fingers. As he directed each of the players to take solos, Lowe broke into smiles. The music may have spoken about complex emotions, but there was great satisfaction in the telling.
by | Jun 14, 2023 8:58 am | Comments (3)
Allan Appel photo
Artist Adae with Common Ground student Leon Armstrong.
Kids with hands upraised half way between shouting hallelujah and playing volleyball with an immense sun. A green plant as imposing as Jack’s beanstalk growing out of the palm of one girl’s outstretched hand while goats, cats and two hens, notably a Buff Orpington and a Polish chicken, dash happily underfoot.
Those joyous images are at the heart of “Class of 2025,” a lush and engaging mural executed by long-time New Haven muralist Kwadwo Adae and the entire sophomore class (thus the title) at Common Ground High School.
by | Jun 14, 2023 8:35 am | Comments (0)
La Fille du Laitier
La Fille du Laitier's Macbeth Muet.
A black screen. A table, covered by a white cloth. Styrofoam cups and origami paper fortune tellers. These, along with performer-puppeteers Jérémie Francoeur and Marié-Hélène Bélanger Dumas, comprise both the setting and the characters of La Fille du Laitier’s Macbeth Muet, a silent pantomime version of Shakespeare’s classic. Using minimal props and a wealth of choreographed body language, Francoeur and Bélanger Dumas interpret the Scottish tragedy into a visceral and lavish affair that does full justice to the scope of the original play.
Continue reading ‘Macbeth Muet Plays Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow’
by | Jun 14, 2023 8:00 am | Comments (8)
by | Jun 13, 2023 12:43 pm | Comments (2)
Abiba Biao photos
On the newly renovated and painted Goffe Street Park courts.
"Super" John Williamson's daughters Shareebah, Kali, and Raushana Williamson: Keeping dad's legacy alive.
Michael Evans-Benton watched as a trio of teenagers shot hoops on the newly renovated basketball courts at Goffe Street Park — and found himself captivated not just by the game before him, but also by the bright red and green colors and swirling eye design beneath the players’ feet.
by | Jun 13, 2023 9:03 am | Comments (1)
John Hatch
Tea Time with Marcel Duchamp.
John Hatch’s Tea Time with Marcel Duchamp catches the eye fast, with its shiny surface and improbable, delightful shape. It takes a second to see how all the parts fit together — the tea kettle, the bell of a horn, the metal legs. It then invites speculation. What sound would it make if you boiled water in it? Some tea kettles whistle, or even sound like trains. Maybe this one plays a jazz solo. It’s possible to let the mind wander in this way because for all the relative seriousness of the execution, the piece itself is, above all, fun.
by | Jun 12, 2023 2:55 pm | Comments (12)
Paul Bass Photo
Josh Philie finishing up one of the new Coogan murals.
The city’s youth and recreation department handed cans to graffiti artists to spray away on the walls of Coogan Pavilion and Edgewood skate park — in the hope of retaining a family-friendly feeling for the summer.
by | Jun 12, 2023 1:04 pm | Comments (1)
Lary Bloom photo
It usually takes two days for the docs to dry out after I shower.
I have noticed — perhaps you have as well — that the FBI has lately hunted down confidential documents at the homes of politicians.
As I’ve never run for office, I assumed I was immune from this effort. That is, until yesterday, when fate, as it so often does, intervened.
by | Jun 12, 2023 9:02 am | Comments (1)
Eleanor Polak Photos
Angelique Kidjo and New Haven Symphony Orchestra at the Arts & Ideas Festival.
A crowd of people swarmed New Haven Green like ants on a picnic blanket Saturday to witness the opening of the 28th annual Arts & Ideas Festival. “Are you ready to rise with me?” asked Rev. Kevin Ewing, A&I’s board chairman. “In case you didn’t know it, that’s the theme of this year’s festival.”
Before long, the attendees would not only feel their spirits rise, but would rise to their feet from the uplifting music and vibrant atmosphere — featuring international superstar Angelique Kidjo and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
by | Jun 12, 2023 8:59 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Grupo Tentación on the Green on Sunday.
Under a crisp and clear Sunday sky, two bands — Grupo Tentación and QUITAPENAS — brought highly danceable Latin beats to the New Haven Green for the second night of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
by | Jun 9, 2023 11:11 am | Comments (2)
Allan Appel photo
Frank and Paula Panzarella, wearing some of their archive.
For people who have devoted their lives to organizing, Paula and Frank Panzarella have finally been able to confess: They are quite disorganized –what with a house full of flyers, posters, political buttons, a battalion’s worth of t‑shirts, white papers, position papers, an original of the Port Huron Statement, a mantle of other manifestos, diaries, and correspondence from decades of a meaningful life of political and social activism and organizing dating back to the 1960s.
So now the question arises: What in the world to do with all of it?
Continue reading ‘No Metal Clips! Yale Archivist Offers Tips’
by | Jun 9, 2023 9:09 am | Comments (0)
Erin Shaw
Protect Us From Ruin.
Erin Shaw’s Protect Us From Ruin shows photographs of three shadowed women confined within wooden panels like church windows. Each panel is wrapped with colorful bands that both imprison and protect the figures.
That dichotomy, between protection and captivity, represents the friction between Shaw’s identity as a member of the Chickasaw Nation and a Christian. “As long as I can remember, I’ve had one foot in two worlds,” she explains in an accompanying statement. “It’s been the work of my life to live in that tension as best I can, understand and reconcile it.”
Continue reading ‘“Altars of Reconciliation” Unites Faith and Culture’
by | Jun 8, 2023 4:46 pm | Comments (14)
Caroline Rosenstone.
Dedication to Rosenstone and handwritten note from former student Natalie Beach in a new book of essays.
Caroline Rosenstone, who created and then for over three decades directed a writing program that turned high schoolers into skilled essayists and critics, died this week at the age of 70.
by | Jun 7, 2023 1:27 pm | Comments (1)
Eleanor Polak photos
Franz Ferdinand performs at College Street Music Hall.
Outside, the air Tuesday night was thick with smoke from Canadian wildfires. Inside College Street Music Hall, the air was thick with smoke of a different kind, illuminated by bright lights and filled with the particular haze that comes from a crowd of people, jittery with excitement.
They were gathered to see the Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand, packed in shoulder to shoulder and trading water bottles and sips of beer. From teenagers to those who had been teenagers when the band formed, roughly 20 years ago, everybody was in high spirits and ready for the show.
Continue reading ‘Franz Ferdinand Conquers College Street Music Hall’
by | Jun 7, 2023 8:56 am | Comments (1)
Lisa Reisman photos
In the ex-theater's, future childcare center's front lobby ...
... and refurbished screening room.
Voices lifted in exuberant song outside a movie theater overlooking Middletown Avenue?
Just a few years ago, a scene like that might have been unthinkable at the scruffy but beloved Cine 4 theater that closed last year after 51 years in operation.
The occasion was a sneak peek of Friends Center Flint Street — named for the pitted drive that leads up to the familiar flat-top white building where a local childcare nonprofit plans to build a new early education campus.