Arts & Culture

Today's Ted Toon

by | Feb 1, 2023 8:49 am | Comments (0)

Hello, Halloumi! Pistachio 2 Opens

by | Jan 31, 2023 11:38 am | Comments (3)

Nora Grace-Flood photos

Rahaf Sayet about to press another pistachio halloumi panini.

Rahaf Sayet took two slices of blended whole wheat and sourdough bread from Whole G Bakery, layered on Cyprus-made cheese, and placed the sandwich in a panini press — crafting a local-foreign fusion meal that’s selling fast at a new Chapel Street Middle Eastern eatery. 

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Artists Portray The People In Full

by | Jan 31, 2023 9:05 am | Comments (1)

The pieces, by Carol Boynton, Frank Bruckmann, Todd Lyon, and Diane Chandler, are hung side by side by side by side in the gallery. Even though the subjects are looking in the same general direction, in their animation and expression, they could be talking with one another. Each subject — women, men, Black, Brown, White — has been filtered through the eye and mind of the artist. Each artist has rendered the subject with the same care and attention, the same eye toward humanity, toward capturing something like the truth.

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Podcaster Gatecrashes Ivy League Anti-Semitism

by | Jan 30, 2023 12:34 pm | Comments (1)

Allan Appel photo

Mark Oppenheimer with his high school teacher and dean Alice Baxter on Sunday.

How about a written application — as opposed to an old boys’ nod from the rowing coach — and in-person interviews to detect your excessively Lower East Side manners? 

How about a questionnaire requiring you to indicate, for example, what business your family is in? And written recommendations and aptitude tests?

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Guv Spins By Downtown Pottery Studio

by | Jan 30, 2023 10:46 am | Comments (3)

Artist Matos and Gov. Lamont: Talking ceramics, and Venezuela.

Inside Matos's studio.

All-star Orange Street ceramicist Kiara Matos got a high-profile visitor — but not a customer — on Friday, as Gov. Ned Lamont swung by to marvel at her pottery workshop, catch up on her small-business story, pose for a photo with one of her brightly hued bird sculptures, and then leave empty-handed.

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Lunarfest Welcomes Year Of The Rabbit

by | Jan 30, 2023 8:51 am | Comments (1)

Brian Slattery Photos

Wushu demonstration and lion dancing at Saturday's Whitney Ave. fest.

A phalanx of focused martial arts students wheeled and turned on Whitney Avenue, kicking and striking powerful poses. 

Lions bounded, bestowed blessings, and received gifts. 

And, in a series of speeches, community leaders remarked on how the news of the past few years and the past few weeks — of the pandemic and the spate of shootings in California — made the festivities that much more important. 

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Two Bands Have A Blast At Best Video

by | Jan 30, 2023 8:41 am | Comments (0)

Karen :Ponzio Photos

Dan Soto's Artificial Energy.

Two bands shook up Best Video this past Saturday night — one new to town and one very familiar with the local performance space. Missiles to Malta, hailing from Bethel, was playing its first show at the beloved Hamden haunt, while New Haven’s own Dan Soto’s Artificial Energy was back bringing its own unique brand of high-octane hits to friends old and new. 

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"Black Joy" Film Fest Bids Farewell To Former Stetson

by | Jan 27, 2023 3:52 pm | Comments (0)

Kimberly Wiplfer photos

Kolton Harris and film student Joaquín Morales.

At Thursday's BITE kickoff.

Who would have ever thought I’d be back in here watching a film?” asked Tracey Massey, in a hushed whisper, in the back row of a film screening at the former Stetson Branch library building in the soon-to-be-demolished Dixwell Plaza.

On the projector played Black Joy,” a musical short film by Kolton Harris, which tells the story of a group of Black students in detention who find pride and celebration in their Blackness through song and dance. 

I came to this library 40 years ago as a child growing up in this neighborhood. It is here where we learned the first stories of Black joy. Here’s where we read books about Martin Luther King Jr., where we heard the first Michael Jackson song, the first Nina Simone song. We learned about Malcolm X. All of those stories generated out of this library.”

It was joy. It was magic. [Harris] is reminding us of that. It was really just like it is in his film,” said Massey.

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Bluegrass Jam Packs Next Door

by | Jan 27, 2023 8:52 am | Comments (0)

Karen Ponzio Photos

Bluegrass Jamming

The back room at Next Door was jam-packed with bluegrass music lovers as the Humphrey Street restaurant featured its latest installment of the Bluegrass Jam, held on the fourth Thursday of every month and hosted by the New Haven-based band Five n Change. According to band members Ken McEwen and David Sasso, the jam has been growing steadily since it began back in the spring of 2022. 

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Today's Toons

by | Jan 27, 2023 8:00 am | Comments (0)

REINALDO GOYENECHEA/LA VOZ HISPANA image

"I am not going to the summit of the CELAC ... because I am afraid." ("I am a cowardly dictator.")

Ted Littleford image

Q House-LEAP Contract Renewal Advances

by and | Jan 26, 2023 11:31 am | Comments (6)

Lisa Reisman photo

At a LEAP-organized Halloween party at the Q House last fall.

LEAP Executive Director Henry Fernandez at Monday's Q House board meeting.

A local youth tutoring and recreation nonprofit’s bid to keep the Q House humming with more bingo, ballet, farmers markets and line dancing took a big leap forward this week — as the Dixwell Avenue community center’s board voted to recommend approval of a new five-year, $500,000 contract between LEAP and the city.

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Game Tournament Is A (Super) Smash

by | Jan 26, 2023 8:53 am | Comments (0)

The improvisational jam duo P(x3) was on the stage of the State House Wednesday creating great grooves to dance to. But the figures leaping and spinning on the screen behind him weren’t dancing; they were fighting, in kinetic and ludicrous ways — as is the style of Super Smash Bros., the hit fighting video game from Nintendo that’s now almost a quarter-century old and still going strong. The audience members gathered to watch were in rapt attention. On a couch pulled up close to the stage, two players, their eyes glued to the screen, were in mortal combat, though one that would end with a smile.

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Three Artists Push It At The Ely Center

by | Jan 24, 2023 8:50 am | Comments (0)

Still from "Forever 17."

One artist heads straight into the complexity of being queer in Hong Kong. Another heads out into the desert. And another heads into the dismal future. What all three artists — Kit Hung, January Yoon Cho, and Gary Sczerbaniewicz — have in common is a willingness to explore things that make them uncomfortable. And all three have solo shows at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art, running now through Feb. 19 concurrently with a few other shows after ECOCA took a brief holiday hiatus.

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Music-Lovers Hit The Mic For Monterey Deal

by | Jan 23, 2023 5:31 pm | Comments (6)

Nora Grace-Flood photo

Marcella Monk Flake: Acquiring club will help preserve Dixwell history.

The derelict former jazz club at 265 Dixwell.

Can the memory of Charlie Parker breathe new life into a controversial plan to publicly acquire a blighted former jazz club as part of a $1.3 million deal with an oft-cited megalandlord?

Elicker Administration officials and Dixwell Avenue cultural boosters gave it a try as they invoked the name of the late, great saxophone player — as well as the memories of fellow 20th-century musical titans like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk — in a bid to win public support for a tentative deal still making its way through the gears of city government.

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Guest Conductor Strides To Success In NHSO Concert

by | Jan 23, 2023 8:51 am | Comments (0)

Courtesy KSO

Cabrera.

With something like a gambit, New Haven Symphony Orchestra music director candidate Donato Cabrera scored a pedagogical victory, showing the audience a wide range of sounds with a selection of pieces designed to show off different sections of the orchestra before bringing a full symphony orchestra at the close. 

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Four Bands Range Across State House Stage

by | Jan 23, 2023 8:47 am | Comments (0)

Brian Slattery Photos

PULSR.

Four bands — two based in New Haven, two based in Philadelphia and New York City — rocked the crowded floor of the State House on Friday night. It was an indication of how both New Haven-based and touring acts are starting to find their footing again after the pandemic, making the connections among one another to bring the music scene back for live audiences.

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Today's Toons

by | Jan 20, 2023 12:00 pm | Comments (0)

REINALDO GOYENECHEA/LA VOZ HISPANA cartoon

"I'm thinking about the extradition of 'El Chapo Guzman.'" "How many favors we owe him!"

Ted Littleford cartoon

Hill-Museum Artist Housing Approved

by | Jan 19, 2023 5:54 pm | Comments (3)

Paul Bass file photo

Krikko Obbott: “We’ve been wanting to do this for years."

The "warehouse" at 212 West St. Obbott is looking to convert into apartments.

A Hill illustrator and museum owner is moving ahead with plans to attract more creative talent to West Street, after winning a first slate of approvals needed for turning part of his property into artist apartments.

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Today's Ted Toons

by | Jan 19, 2023 11:30 am | Comments (6)

Fridge Vote Leaves Sandra's In The Cold

by | Jan 19, 2023 9:45 am | Comments (33)

Allan Appel file photo

Sandra's owners Miguel and Sandra Pittman: Planning to push back on zoning board rejection.

Nora Grace-Flood photo

The contested outdoor refrigeration containers on Arch St.

City zoners turned down a Congress Avenue culinary institution’s bid to store five outdoor fridges in a residentially zoned area — following testimony from the restaurant’s neighbor that the restaurant’s expansion has resulted not just in nationally renowned chicken wings, but also pesky rodents and stenches. 

The restaurant’s owners now plan to contest that decision so that they can continue to keep corn, sugar, flour and plenty of perishables nearby as they look to continue serving the neighborhood they’ve long called home.

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