Arts & Culture

Memorial Playground Takes Shape On Winchester

by | May 19, 2023 2:38 pm | Comments (5)

Thomas Breen photos

Pilar Sanzari leads the flower planting at the newly built Kathy Carroll Playground at 660 Winchester.

Charla Nich and Kathy Carroll's daughter Kate Chivian on Friday.

Pilar Sanzari dug her gloved hands in some freshly poured soil to plant a colorful array of Shasta daisies, azaleas, petunias, and marigolds — as a vibrantly hued new playground took root behind her in honor of a beloved late Yale professor and substance use treatment researcher.

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Ghost Of Bill Monroe Welcomes The Sabbath Queen

by | May 19, 2023 8:39 am | Comments (0)

Contributed Photo

David Sasso, at far left, recording the new album with Jacob's Ladder.

Hunkered at home with his Martin D28 guitar one Blursday evening during the lockdown depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, David Sasso heard familiar melodies come out a new way.

Fast forward to May 2023: Sasso returned home to debut a bluegrass take on a traditional Jewish prayer service, with an album of said music about to drop.

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Reinaldo's Corner

by | May 19, 2023 8:00 am | Comments (0)

Jazz Quintet Comes Full Circle

by | May 18, 2023 9:02 am | Comments (1)

Brian Slattery Photos

Halfway through the first number from the Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere Quintet at Cafe Nine Wednesday night, the band already sounded like they’d be playing for hours. A first, highly energetic section of solos was winding down, and there was a brief pause in the music. As the others in the ensemble held a chord, drummer Ryan Sands stood up for a few seconds, just long enough to take off his coat, then hit the next beat without a hitch. It was a signal both that the music was getting hot, but also that the musicians were getting comfortable — as well they should.

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Four Artists Emerge For Spring

by | May 17, 2023 8:55 am | Comments (0)

Danae.

Anastasia Mastilovic’s painting Danae may be named after a figure in Greek mythology, but her style makes the figure evocative of more. The woman could be a goddess or a mermaid. She could be in repose, or unleashing magical powers. Or perhaps it’s all a metaphor, about power, latent and dynamic, and how it can be used to transform the world.

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NHSO Shows The Way Forward

by | May 16, 2023 8:29 am | Comments (0)

MIchelle Cann and Alisdair Neale.

An historic premiere. Significant anniversaries and, in some cases, a final concert for several members of the orchestra. An orchestra program featuring works entirely by Black American composers, not presented in February, when one of those composers was in the audience. Another work performed by a Grammy-winning classical pianist. 

Friday night’s final concert for the New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s 2022 – 23 Classics season at the John Lyman Center for the Performing Arts was loaded with significance.

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Swifties, Senator Step Up On Antitrust

by | May 15, 2023 3:35 pm | Comments (9)

Nora Grace-Flood photo

McDonald, Blumenthal, Le and Grayson boosting antitrust bill Monday.

Richmond Le stood outside the Shubert Theater in support of his favorite superstar and her worldwide fans who have both been affected by the bungled concert sales of an under-fire concert-broker — and spoke out in favor of legislation that would break ticket services’ stranglehold over music venues, artists and audiences.

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Night Market Grows The Party

by | May 15, 2023 8:43 am | Comments (4)

Brian Slattery photo

A people-filled, car-free Orange St. at Friday's fest.

Throngs of New Haveners descended on the Ninth Square for hours on end for the latest Night Market, an evening bazaar” that saw people of all ages fill the streets, stalls, and shops, dance on the sidewalk, and generally pass the time outdoors together.

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Cross Culinary Champs Bring Home The Gold

by | May 12, 2023 4:59 pm | Comments (8)

Nora Grace-Flood photos

Cross chefs-in-training show off their culinary chops at Friday's presser.

Punchy restaurant pitches and smoke from searing scallops filled Wilbur Cross Friday morning as students showed off lessons learned from participating in a nationwide youth culinary competition — and from living in a small city as culturally rich as the meals served up by the school’s award-winning cooking crew.

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State House Says Goodbye

by | May 12, 2023 8:56 am | Comments (1)

Brian Slattery Photo

The State House Co-Owner Carlos Wells.

The closing of The State House has brought forth a wealth of emotions from the New Haven music community as it prepares for the end of the State Street venue’s five-year run as a Ninth Square powerhouse of productions, showcasing everything from heavy metal multiple band bills and R&B jam sessions to sequin-studded cabarets, puppet theater, and DJ-driven dance parties. With the last show currently scheduled for May 28, co-owner Carlos Wells hopes to concentrate on the next two weeks of shows that will take the venue to its end in a celebratory fashion.

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"Ripple" Carries The Season Home

by | May 10, 2023 8:50 am | Comments (0)

Joan Marcus Photos

Christina Anderson’s the ripple, the wave that carried me home starts with a perky voice on an answering machine, bright and insistent. The young woman on the other end is trying to get a hold of an older woman. The reason is a civic event, the dedication of a swimming pool, which is to be named after the older woman’s father. When the older woman — Janice — finally calls the young woman back, she is polite, but hesitant. There’s a little pain in her voice, and (the audience can see) more pain on her face. The phone call is bringing up difficult memories. Why would the renaming of a swimming pool do that?

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Fair Haven Art Show Finds A Place To Land

by | May 9, 2023 8:40 am | Comments (2)

Milena Alvarez

Luz.

Luz, by Milena Alvarez, gets its effect first and foremost from the atmosphere the artist captures. It’s a picture that looks hot, a blazing afternoon. The people are keeping cool. The artist is part of the painting, as all three subjects are aware of her, which complicates things. Was the artist just taking their picture? Or was the artist interrupting something? The ambiguity is heightened by the subjects’ blurred faces. They seem relaxed enough, but we’ll never know what they’re thinking.

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Fair Haven Shines At Daylong Fest

by | May 8, 2023 9:00 am | Comments (2)

Allan Appel photo

The Mary Wade Home parade & Fair Haven Day kickoff.

The Semilla Collective perform as part of Saturday's celebration.

Fair Haven overflowed with neighborly good cheer, tradition, and art as hundreds of city celebrants turned out for a costume-filled parade and a long joyous afternoon of Tlaxcalan and other Latino music and dance, free tacos and falafels, and plenty of family-oriented activities on Grand Avenue.

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Fake Four Fetes State House

by | May 8, 2023 8:35 am | Comments (0)

Karen Ponzio Photos.

Anonymous Inc.

On Friday night under a full moon the New Haven-based record label Fake Four, Inc. brought a four-act bill to the State House built on friendships and a familial music community that also whipped the crowd into a frenzy. 

Indigaux, Chris Conde, Myles Bullen, and the return of Ceschi and Anonymous Inc. was a homecoming of sorts, as Ceschi (a.k.a. Julio Ramos) has been on tour as of late with his newest band, The Codefendants. Anonymous Inc. — featuring brothers Julio and David Ramos and Max Heath — had not played live in four years. It was also their last time playing at the State House, which plans to close at the end of the month.

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Two Artists Capture The Matter Of Moments

by | May 5, 2023 9:13 am | Comments (0)

Keith Johnson

Flying Untied (detail).

The sky is full of planes. Not like it is at an airport, or ever an air show. No, in Keith Johnson’s Flying Untied, the atmosphere is littered with planes, as if they’ve been shaken all at once out of a gigantic cosmic bag, or as if a dozen air traffic controllers messed up at once and we’re in for the biggest cumulative air disaster the world has ever seen. Flying Untied succeeds in being both somewhat comical and a little threatening in this regard, an effect amplified by the fact that — apart from their proximity to one another — the planes seem totally natural. 

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Artspace Sends Out "Love Notes"

by | May 4, 2023 8:42 am | Comments (6)

Carla Lia’s postcard-size piece, at first glance, seems altogether pleasant, a depiction of a girl with a heart-shaped balloon. But coming in close reveals layers of sharp humor. The picture is slipping out of the frame, which seems to be acting as a shredder to the image. Soon, it seems, girl and balloon will be in tatters. Which is where the text at the bottom comes in, feeling like a well-earned punchline: from my cold, dead hands.”

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Reinaldo's Corner

by | May 4, 2023 8:00 am | Comments (1)

"Trump wanted to invade Venezuela through Colombia! I hope Biden wins."