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Eleanor Polak |
Aug 8, 2023 9:09 am
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Eleanor Polak Photos
Mindi Englart traces Jamine Ackert at library-hosted workshop.
Jamine Ackert, a single mother and the friend of Mindi Englart, the organizer of an art workshop for single moms and their kids, lay on her back on top of a large sheet of paper on the floor of Ives Main Library on Elm Street. Englart painstakingly traced her outline with marker, so that Ackert could fill it in with a representation of herself.
“I feel like you can fill your real self in,” said Englart. “When you trace yourself there’s a real connection, and I’m trying to encourage people to make that connection.”
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Brian Slattery |
Aug 8, 2023 8:57 am
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Brian Slattery Photos
Wayne Coyne at Monday night's show.
Giant inflatable pink robots. Enormous balls filled with confetti. And a veteran band, playing as well as ever, fronted by a singer who was all heart. Now-venerable psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips returned to College Street Music Hall Monday night to an ecstatic, sold-out crowd ready to take in a show that delivered heaps of fun — and empathy.
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Laura Glesby |
Aug 7, 2023 12:40 pm
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Entrepreneur and stylist Kim Poole browses Noir Vintage & Co.'s back room.
Meanwhile, store owner Evelyn Massey, right, hugs supporters in a burst of emotion.
With the snip of a ribbon, Evelyn Massey opened up a portal through time in the form of a vintage shop styled after a Harlem Renaissance salon, the culmination of a long-simmering dream.
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Eleanor Polak |
Aug 7, 2023 8:27 am
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Eleanor Polak Photos
The Art School, flooded, as shown in Unfinished Spaces.
The Cuban Revolution ended in the year 1959, leaving Fidel Castro as the country’s prime minister and Cuba itself poised for a time of questioning the old ways, and opening up new avenues of living.
In the spirit of change and innovation, Castro commissioned three architects — Ricardo Porro, Roberto Gottardi, and Vittorio Garatti — to build an art school on the location of an old golf course.
Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray’s 2011 documentary, Unfinished Spaces, tells the story of that art school: its triumphs, its failures, and the ways in which it represents the triumphs and failures of Castro’s regime.
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Karen Ponzio |
Aug 7, 2023 8:25 am
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Karen Ponzio Photos
Jim LoPresti shakes away the stress with his bamboo leaf rattle.
If asked where one might go in New Haven for a moment or two of meditative stillness, few people would suggest Crown Street, known for its bustling and crowded restaurants and bars as well as a bevy of sounds that would challenge any symphony. But one place offers, among other wellness and restorative practices, a chance to take in an hour of music made specifically to center its participants and give them a chance to remain present and thoughtful in their minds and bodies.
Desmone Gambrell-Claxton and Fabian Menges present their group's ideas for the Armory (pictured above).
The abandoned armory on Goffe Street is starting to house dreams of sports facilities, small businesses, social services, and citywide celebrations.
But before neighbors’ visions for the historic structure can become a reality, the building will need to be cleared of asbestos, sealed off from water, and bolstered to support more weight.
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Eleanor Polak |
Aug 3, 2023 9:09 am
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Eleanor Polak Photos
Jakki Cousins and Azora Lindsay at the keyboard at Wilson library.
Hanhe Choi and Azora Lindsay ran around the Music Room at Wilson Branch Library like kids in a candy store.
But instead of tooth-rotting sweets, the 23-month-old and 2‑year-old kiddos were focused on a range of keyboards, drums, and shakers, as pleasing to the ears as candy would be to the tongue.
The toddlers rushed from instrument to instrument, touching everything they could and figuring out how to create the loudest sound. Before long, the room filled up with a cacophony of joy.
New Haven could lose its last remaining movie theater, as the company that runs the Bow Tie Criterion Cinemas on Temple Street downtown has concluded that “a movie theatre in its current configuration is not a viable business model in the future” at that space.
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Eleanor Polak |
Aug 2, 2023 8:59 am
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Cillian Murphy (center) in the title role of Nolan's Oppenheimer.
Christopher Nolan’s new big-screen biopic Oppenheimer is something of a circle, like the eye, like the bomb, like the world. It’s an ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail, where all progress eventually leads to tragedy of seismic proportions.
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Eleanor Polak |
Jul 31, 2023 9:07 am
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Eleanor Polak Photos
Zines, zines, and more zines, at Bike Co-Op-hosted fair.
The Bradley Street Bike Co-Op overflowed with glossy prints, eye-catching artwork, and colorful personalities for a Zine Fair that offered an opportunity for connection and collaboration, as well as a meeting ground for artists of all different mediums.
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Eleanor Polak |
Jul 31, 2023 9:05 am
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Eleanor Polak Photos
Love n' Co at Saturday's Folk on the Edge.
In 87° weather, under the scorching afternoon sun, Love n’ Co and The Lost Tribe made the thick, heated air dance with compelling rhythms and infectious energy.
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Karen Ponzio |
Jul 28, 2023 8:46 am
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Zoe Jensen Photo
Issue 11 cover featuring coeditor Mar Pelaez.
Connectic*nt, a bimonthly zine that has created a space for artists and writers from across the state to experiment with words and visuals — as well as an ever-growing community that thrives on sharing with and uplifting each other — turns two years old this month. The anniversary issue, the zine’s 11th, will be released this Saturday, July 29, complete with celebratory events including a DJ-centric dance party (now famously known as Club C*nt) at Diesel Lounge on Friday night and a zine fair at Bradley Street Bike Co-op on Sunday.
Under the helm of current coeditors Zoe Jensen and Mar Pelaez, the publication has come a long way from Jensen’s original plan of publishing a single zine that included the art and writing of friends who had been distanced from each other during Covid shutdowns. The public demand for more, and the fun being had by everyone involved, was too much to not let it become a regular and permanent part of the new normal.
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Eleanor Polak |
Jul 27, 2023 9:02 am
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Eleanor Polak Photos
"Rockin' Richard" and Bobby Mapp at The Towers.
A local music legend got his due Wednesday night during a celebration at The Towers of Bobby Mapp, who was the original drummer for The Five Satins and is now a resident at the senior living community located at 18 Tower Ln.
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Brian Slattery |
Jul 27, 2023 8:54 am
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Autumn Nelson
Self-Indulgence.
Autumn Nelson’s canvas is the first piece in “The Past Pushes Forward” — an art show installed in the top floor of the Blake Hotel at 9 High St., now until August 31 — to greet viewers as they exit the elevator. It’s hung in just the right spot so that the canvas functions as a double of the subject matter. The mirror that reflects the painter is held up to the viewer as well. Do we love ourselves as much as Nelson loves herself? How much are we allowed to love ourselves? Why is it fraught to even ask that question?
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Eleanor Polak |
Jul 26, 2023 11:17 am
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barbiethemovie Instagram
Barbie promotional poster.
Greta Gerwig’s movie of the summer, Barbie, hit theaters this week in an explosion of pink, sparkles, and unexpected profundity.
I walked into Bow Tie Cinemas at 86 Temple St. at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, proudly sporting the only pink top I own, and I thought I was ready for anything. Turns out, I wasn’t ready for Barbie.
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Karen Ponzio |
Jul 26, 2023 8:54 am
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Karen Ponzio Photos
Psychedelic Don Ho Down Orchestra
On any given night you can walk past Christopher Martin’s, the restaurant and bar at 860 State St., and hear the clinking of glass and animated conversations from inside, or from one of the many outdoor tables that line its sidewalks. On Tuesday evenings, however, you can hear live music, and on this Tuesday, it was the music of the Psychedelic Don Ho Down Orchestra, a band comprised of seven stalwart and seasoned musicians from the New Haven scene.
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Eleanor Polak |
Jul 25, 2023 9:08 am
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Eleanor Polak Photos
Westville neighbourhood lines up to buy homemade pies.
The air over Beecher Park, located at Mitchell Library at 37 Harrison St., rang with chatter, music, and a heavenly mixture of sugar, spice, and everything nice.
Westville Village Renaissance Alliance hosted on Monday evening the latest installment in Hi-Fi Pie Fest, its weekly summer pie baking competition, a community-centric event complete with food and live music.
It’s “really just getting people together,” said WVRA Executive Director Lizzy Donius, who sported a Hi-Fi Pie Fest t‑shirt bearing the words “Come for the music, stay for the pie!” The slogan, said Donius, is interchangeable. Some people come for the pie and stay for the music.
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Brian Slattery |
Jul 25, 2023 9:03 am
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Brian Slattery Photos
Maya Elise and the Good Dream.
On Monday night three acts — Low Ceilings, Kendra McKinley, and Maya Elise and the Good Dream — brought the warmth of connection and culture to an appreciative crowd at Never Ending Books, turning the communal spot at 810 State St. into a sanctuary.
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Brian Slattery |
Jul 24, 2023 7:35 am
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Brian Slattery Photos
Thabisa Rich at arts collective kickoff.
Musician and arts organizer Thabisa Rich stood before a packed room inside the NXTHVN arts complex at 169 Henry St. on Friday evening, ready to announce a new initiative. “I don’t know if I should be nervous or excited,” she said, “because this is a dream come true.”
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Eleanor Polak |
Jul 24, 2023 7:33 am
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Eleanor Polak Photos
Mustafe Mussa performs for audience at Gather.
Outside of Gather, the cafe at 952 State St., rain poured down in torrents. Wet-haired and clutching their umbrellas like lifesavers, people filed in, ready to dry off and cheer up. Fortunately, this Friday evening Gather could offer both. Nine performers — two musicians and seven comics — were busy setting up for a show. As Jake Strom sold tickets to the incoming audience members, his fellow comedian Mustafe Mussa stood ready and waiting with a roll of paper towels.
Welcome to Tulsa -- with Dylan lyrics at the airport terminal.
Tulsa — As a touring folk-country singer-songwriter’s band kicked into gear, a regular pointed to a stuffed possum wrapped in Christmas lights suspended over the bar. The possim, he said, had a backstory.
As he spoke, I knew we’d come to the right place to find people to help start the Independent’s new multi-city arts reviewing initiative.
Journalist, documentary filmmaker, and musician Lindsay Skedgell wants to hear about it all. She’s starting a new journal called Heel and Hive that “explores the environmental and climate landscape of our times, our relationships to nature and ecology” — focusing on the region we live in.
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Eleanor Polak |
Jul 21, 2023 9:51 am
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Eleanor Polak Photos
Ruth McInton Cogswell's silhouettes of New Haven characters.
“Profiles: Ruth McInton Cogswell and Dorothy Cogswell” — the latest exhibition at the New Haven Museum at 144 Whitney Ave. — highlights the lives and work of two women who played an important role in the Elm City’s early 20th-century local art scene. The mother-daughter duo of artists used watercolors, pencil drawings, and silhouettes to pay tribute to the people of New Haven and commemorate their history. Through the Cogswells’ work, the show provides a tour of the city’s past, where viewers can recognize familiar figures and learn new aspects of their history.
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Karen Ponzio |
Jul 21, 2023 9:39 am
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Karen Ponzio Photos
The Storytellers.
“Storytellers assemble,” said Zach Andersen into his microphone, as he beckoned the three singer-songwriters who would be joining him on The Cellar at Treadwell stage Thursday night. It was the 13th installment of Storytellers in The Cellar, the bimonthly event that finds Andersen and guests rotating through their songs and the stories behind them. This evening also happened to be the second anniversary of the series, which began in July 2021 and has not seen any repeat performers yet, save for Andersen, who curates, hosts, and performs at each one.
