by | Jan 16, 2023 12:42 pm | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery photo
Hanan Hameen of Dance and Beyond Sunday at New Haven Museum.
Through words, music, and movement, storytellers, drummers, and dancers offered dozens of families a chance to find their place in the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., the broader causes of social justice he dedicated his life to, and the rich culture he came out of.
by | Jan 16, 2023 10:02 am | Comments (0)
Yale University Office of Public Information.
MLK with Brewster.
When the Independent first reviewed “The Kings at Yale” — an exhibition primarily of photos and letters documenting how back in 1964 Yale University, with Kingman Brewster as president (hence the fun wordplay), granted Martin Luther King Jr. an honorary degree — what caught this reporter’s eye was all the hate mail candidly on display.
Perhaps that was because of the timing.
Continue reading ‘National Shame, Shamelessness On Display At Yale-MLK Exhibition’
by | Jan 16, 2023 8:40 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
FaTE on Friday.
Three bands filled The State House with a multitude of sounds on Friday the 13th in another of Elm Underground’s lucky streak of shows that have been making New Haven music fans happy for almost exactly one year now.
Continue reading ‘Elm Underground Keeps Lucky Music Streak Alive’
by | Jan 13, 2023 8:18 am | Comments (0)
O.K. Company and Jessy Griz brought down the house and soothed the soul at Cafe Nine on Thursday night, with an evening of strong voices, deep grooves, and big emotions.
by | Jan 13, 2023 8:00 am | Comments (3)
REINALDO GOYENECHEA/LA VOZ HISPANA
Ted Littleford images
by | Jan 12, 2023 2:15 pm | Comments (2)
by | Jan 12, 2023 8:43 am | Comments (1)
William Frucht
Ellis Island Island #6 and Ellis Island Hospital #1.
Everything in William Frucht’s photographs is having its layers peeled away — of paint, varnish, wood, metal — by time and neglect. At first glance they could be of century-old buildings anywhere in the Northeast, until a certain famous statue appears in the window of one of the buildings. Then the pictures snap into focus; they’re of the buildings on Ellis Island, the famous point of arrival for the great wave of immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century, when U.S. immigration was perhaps the most open it has been in its history as a global power.
by | Jan 11, 2023 12:39 pm | Comments (0)
by | Jan 11, 2023 8:47 am | Comments (0)
A scene from Merrily We Go to Hell.
Jerry and Joan meet over booze at a party, and Jerry steals a kiss. Joan muses as to why she let him do that, but she’s just charmed enough by him to go out on a date with him the next day. He learns that she’s the heir to a business fortune. She learns that he’s a drunken journalist who yearns to be a playwright. Perhaps she can get him to stop his drinking and turn his life around. But at what cost to her?
Continue reading ‘Film Series Puts Women Directors In The Spotlight’
by | Jan 10, 2023 11:51 am | Comments (1)
by | Jan 10, 2023 8:29 am | Comments (0)
The centerpiece of Lisa Toto’s part of the latest show at Kehler Liddell Gallery — running now through Feb. 5, and also featuring works by Hank Paper and Chris Ferguson — is two prints of the same image, of a young girl in a dress running by a relief. She exudes joy, but there’s something wrong.
Continue reading ‘Photo Show Takes Westville Gallery To Chernobyl '89’
by | Jan 9, 2023 3:58 pm | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photo
Kendall Francis arrives early for her job interview.
Kendall Francis got a new glimpse of her family’s hometown, as she pulled into New Haven to see if it will become her new hometown.
by | Jan 9, 2023 3:47 pm | Comments (3)
by | Jan 9, 2023 9:00 am | Comments (0)
Kimberly Wipfler Photo
Lauren Sellers working on her vision board (below) along with other members of the public at a library-hosted 2023 visioning event.
Lauren Sellers made short, careful cuts through shiny magazine paper, tracing along the edges of an image of an ice cream cone — all while mapping out a vision for how to be her best self in the year ahead.
by | Jan 9, 2023 8:40 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
The Furors.
As the first full moon of 2023 hung high in the January sky above Best Video, another first was happening inside: beloved New Haven band The Furors had returned, playing its first live show since February 2020. This welcoming back filled every chair of the performance space with the smiling faces of longtime fans and friends who were ecstatic to hear the legendary local duo tear through their extensive catalogue of catchy and memorable music.
by | Jan 9, 2023 8:35 am | Comments (1)
Lindsay Skedgell Photos
At Saturday's Three Kings Day celebration at 148 Sylvan Ave.
Toys were abundant this Saturday at the annual Three Kings Day celebration held at Casa Otoñal Community Center on Sylvan Avenue.
by | Jan 6, 2023 9:58 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery photos
Movimiento Cultural drummers and dancers liven up Wilson Library.
Kids making crowns for themselves, with and without parental aid.
As Movimiento Cultural Afro-Continental’s drummers played driving rhythms and singers instructed families in the traditions of bomba, one young dancer learned fast about the ways that she could converse with lead drummer Kevin Diaz during the ongoing library-hosted Three Kings Day fest.
She made a gesture, and Diaz, fully attentive, responded with a crack from his drum. She gestured again, and he responded in kind on his instrument. The smiles that passed between them needed no words to convey their meaning.
by | Jan 6, 2023 8:30 am | Comments (0)
by | Jan 5, 2023 8:51 am | Comments (0)
The intersection of Orange and Crown can be quiet this time of year, as it gets cold and the street has opened up again to traffic. But there’s still foot traffic, a passing car, a man flitting by on a bicycle. And now, in the windows at Artspace, a series of projections, of shapes that move and change, looking first like crystals, then reflections in glass, and sometimes perhaps like physics experiments. They invite anyone to stop and linger, and maybe even get a little lost. But maybe the most intriguing thing about them is that they’re not films; they’re digital animations. They’re just lines of code.
by | Jan 4, 2023 10:13 am | Comments (1)
George Coleman.
Amid the frenzy of the New Year, we shouldn’t forget a startling lesson from the Old Year.
That is, we shouldn’t bury a certain lesson in life if we find ourselves in need of optimism and inspiration in the next 52 weeks and beyond.
Let’s return, if you’re willing, to an evening in early December, and to Morse Recital Hall on College Street.
Continue reading ‘Jazz Great Inspires A Night Of Magical Thinking’
by | Jan 4, 2023 8:52 am | Comments (0)
Brian Robinson, poet and host of Open Mic Surgery — a weekly open mic poetry night held at Never Ending Books — joked on Tuesday evening that poets are always late. Yet when he arrived at the appointed time of 6:30 p.m., he found a room of people waiting for him.
“Everyone’s here on time, and it’s kind of weird,” he said.
“I think it’s a sign that more people are coming,” someone in the audience said.
by | Jan 3, 2023 11:58 am | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photo
A hot over-the-counter remedy this pandemic-flu-Covid season turns out not to require a prescription — and it goes down smooth while soothing your sinuses.
by | Jan 3, 2023 9:02 am | Comments (1)
The image of beloved New Haven photographer David White, Jr. is an image that plays with time. It starts with the obvious anachronisms, from the instrument in White’s pocket to the sepia background, even as it’s clear that White is a modern man. The melted edges of the image, though, are another layer of history. They’re not digital artifacts, but the blurred edges of a process few people see anymore: the development of a Polaroid, and in this case, an especially hefty one — a 20 x 24 camera, “so rare only five were initially manufactured,” an accompanying note explains. The photograph was taken in 1993. Why the Polaroid? Why the anachronistic style? And why is it paired with an image from 1815?
by | Jan 2, 2023 8:39 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Lys Guillorn & The Void Kittens
Friends gathered, greeting each other with wishes for a happy new year while music swelled all around them. A New Year’s Eve gathering, perhaps? Actually, it was the night before, as Best Video was the setting for the penultimate night of 2022 — and who better to bring it through than local favorites The Sawtelles and Lys Guillorn & The Void Kittens?
Continue reading ‘2 Bands Ring In New Year's Eve's Eve At Best Video’
by | Dec 23, 2022 10:09 am | Comments (6)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Parade in October marking Long Wharf Theatre's office move to Audubon St.
(Arts Analysis) We’re back, but we’re not.
That’s the message I got over and over again in 2022, from artists, organizations, and audiences — as an arts reporter, a working musician, and someone who’s part of the informal network of people giving touring musicians a place to stay while they’re on the road.