Today's Toons
by | Nov 3, 2022 1:18 pm | Comments (0)
Ted Littleford image
Reinaldo Goyenechea/La Voz Hispana image
Arts & Culture
Reopened Taco Shop Honors Ancestors
by | Nov 3, 2022 1:09 pm | Comments (2)
Noel Sims photos
Tacos Los Gordos, bustling with culinary activity on Wednesday.
The shop's "Day of the Dead" ofrenda.
A downtown taco shop has reemerged from its temporary fire-induced closure with new life, plenty of pozole and quesadillas, and a Día de los Muertos altar remembering lost loved ones close to the head chef’s heart.
Three Bands Tame Cafe Nine
by | Nov 3, 2022 8:16 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Pocket Vinyl.
Eric Stevenson leaned hard over the piano, his arms spread like wings, his hands like spiders. Intricate figures of notes poured from his fingers, and he sang in a high clear voice, as unironically advertised, about “defiant hope.” Nearby, her back turned to the audience but her work plain to see, Elizabeth Jancewicz deftly began with a blank canvas and began painting a bird in woods. Then she set it all on fire. The people in the audience sat in near-complete silence, giving the music and the artwork all their attention. It was that kind of night at Cafe Nine, one in which the crowd gave the musicians free rein of the room, and got, in return, a show of rare intimacy.
Fuse Theatre Of CT Gets Ready For A "New World"
by | Nov 2, 2022 8:43 am | Comments (0)
The cast of Songs for a New World.
At a recent rehearsal at Picasso Parties in West Haven, the company of Fuse Theatre of CT was going through “The River Won’t Flow,” one of the songs from composer Jason Robert Brown’s musical theater piece Songs for a New World, which Fuse is preparing for a run at Bregamos Community Theater on Jan. 6, 7, 14, and 15. “The River Won’t Flow” centers on Brian Meltzer and Ty Scurry, who play panhandlers jostling for control of a street corner while trading sentiments about how their luck has run out. It’s a fun song about a serious subject, and the company wanted to make sure they got the balance of humor and heartache right.
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Safety, Candy Abound At Ashmun Trunk-Or-Treat
by | Nov 1, 2022 11:11 am | Comments (2)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
At Monday's trunk-or-treat on Ashmun St.
Baby Savannah practices candy crawling her own way Monday night.
Little mermaids, Minions and monsters gathered outside of the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program’s headquarters Monday — to take turns “trunk or treating” within a web of safety-minded community members and their cars.
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Artists Let The Art Speak
by | Nov 1, 2022 9:13 am | Comments (0)
Graham Honaker
Wren 1842.
The repeated image of a women’s face, in what could be a space helmet. A school of fish. Household objects. A spiraling line of red, moving across it all. It feels like graffiti, like Andy Warhol a little. It has some pop art in it, but there’s texture and grit to it, too, a sense of dirt. What does it mean? What do we want it to mean?
Q House Halloween Lets Kids Be Kids
by | Oct 31, 2022 4:40 pm | Comments (4)
Lisa Reisman photo
Juanita Harris with granddaughters at Q House Halloween.
Under the setting sun, a group of young people line danced in loose precision to the beat of V.I.C.’s “Wobble.” A line with witches, ghosts, and dinosaurs stretched from the field to the gymnasium, where trick-and-treat festivities awaited. Face-painted zombies, pirates, and superheroes chased each other in the cool autumn air, squealing with delight.
Ribbon Cut On New Carnival-Themed Eatery
by | Oct 31, 2022 2:00 pm | Comments (1)
Laura Glesby Photo
Fest Faves' owners, employees, and town supporters snip the opening ribbon.
Neon candied apples, plump corn dogs, flaky fried Oreos, and carousel jingles await customers of a new Whitney Avenue restaurant, where co-owner Victoria Streeto hopes to offer a time-traveling portal to childhood comforts and delights.
Rembert's Rep Rises At NXTHVN Celebration
by | Oct 31, 2022 9:52 am | Comments (0)
Melissa Bailey file photo
The late Winfred Rembert at his Newhall St. home.
Allan Appel photo
Prof. Erin I. Kelly with Rembert book and art on Thursday.
His tale of triumph through art, grit, and love in Georgia’s 1960s cotton fields, including seven years on a chain gang and a near lynching, is already taught at Yale — and well might become required reading in high schools and colleges throughout the country.
And a major motion picture should also be a consideration to get the story out far and wide.
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Ville, Hill Bring The Art For Open Source Fest
by | Oct 31, 2022 9:33 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Artist Arizona Taylor.
On Friday evening, the small park between Shelton Avenue, the Farmington Canal Trail, and Hazel Street bloomed into a small arts festival that warmed the cool evening with an explosion of color, sound, and good conversation. It was the beginning of the Artspace-organized Open Source Festival’s weekend of making visual art appear across New Haven, not only from downtown, Westville, and East Rock, but from Newhallville and Dixwell to the Hill and Mill River.
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Three Sheets Goes To The Dogs
by | Oct 31, 2022 9:25 am | Comments (1)
Calendar cover.
Three Sheets New Haven is well known for its dog-friendly patio, and some of the dogs that frequent there have become as familiar to its patrons as some of the human regulars.
For the third time since the bar/restaurant’s inception, a calendar featuring 13 of those patio pups was created to help raise money for Friends of the New Haven Animal Shelter. On Sunday night, Three Sheets threw a Pup-O-Ween-themed release party to celebrate the 2023 edition of that calendar, complete with the first look at this year’s edition, raffles, and, in keeping with the holiday, costumed pooches.
Artists Take A Chance On A Ghost
by | Oct 28, 2022 9:19 am | Comments (0)
On Thursday evening, the storefront space at Never Ending Books was filled with shadows — not only in the images lining the walls, but from the people who came to visit the dimly lit spot, transformed into a gallery as part of the Open Source Festival organized by Artspace. The show on display was “Spectral Musings,” by artists from the Bridgeport-based URSA Gallery, now up at the State Street arts collective through Oct. 31. That date isn’t an accident; in time for Halloween, the art on the walls features artists investigating the darkness that lies within — and ways to move into the light.
Reinaldo's Corner
by | Oct 28, 2022 9:10 am | Comments (0)
Rembert Mural Eyed For Bassett Building
by | Oct 27, 2022 2:33 pm | Comments (0)
Melissa Bailey photo
Artist Winfred Rembert: Future mural subject?
188 Bassett: Recently damaged by people camping inside the building.
New life may soon light up a long-dead former social services building on Bassett Street — in the form of a mural remembering the late Newhallville artist Winfred Rembert.
City's "Other Sides" Revealed
by | Oct 27, 2022 11:30 am | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen photo
Attorney Mike Jefferson and author Nicholas Dawidoff in conversation at Stetson event Wednesday evening.
When Flemming “Nick” Norcott Jr. was growing up in the Dwight/Kensington neighborhood in the 1940s and ’50s, Prospect Hill wasn’t the only “other side” of town that was off limits to Black families like his.
“There were a lot of ‘other sides’ then,” the retired former state Supreme Court justice remembered at a Wednesday evening book talk. “As a young boy, a pre-teen, a teen, we couldn’t go to Westville. We couldn’t go to Morris Cove. We couldn’t go to Wooster Square, because there would be consequences that would be really, really bad.”
City Starts Search For Next Top Librarian
by | Oct 27, 2022 9:43 am | Comments (1)
Laura Glesby Photo
Board of Directors President Anderson: The search is on.
The city’s public library has hired a search firm to find a permanent replacement for the late City Librarian John Jessen roughly five months after the beloved city figure died of cancer.
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Two Artists Look From The Inside Out And The Outside In
by | Oct 27, 2022 8:49 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery photos
On one side of Kehler Liddell Gallery is a panoply of children’s faces, caught in a thousand different expressions, a snapshot of both the feelings of dozens of different people at any given moment and the range of emotions that all of us are capable of across time. On the other side of the gallery are more abstract pieces, forms with faces that appear to be mid-transformation, the expression of something more interior.
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Dancers Bring The Beat To Hill Arts Museum
by | Oct 26, 2022 1:50 pm | Comments (0)
SYREN Dance members Rivkins Christopher and Lynn Peterson coordinating an improvised dance.
Two dance crews collaborated to create improvised choreography in front of a live audience and towering pencil-drawn cityscapes — and in turn brought new energy to a West Street arts gallery.
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CAW Throws Open The Gallery
by | Oct 26, 2022 8:56 am | Comments (0)
Antonius-Tín Bui
Không Có Gì Bãng Mà Với Con.
Even from the outside of the building, it’s clear that the gallery at Creative Arts Workshop has been transformed, by a gigantic, shimmering web of fabric. The piece is by artist Antonius-Tín Bui, and it’s made from traditional Vietnamese garments, and as a note explains, they are “a safety net of embrace, the promise of renewal, and an undeniable statement of the Vietnamese people’s vibrancy and connectedness throughout past, present, and future generations.” The piece is also a flag welcoming visitors to not one, but two shows at CAW — “Băng Qua Nước: Across Land, Across Water” and “Common,” both running now through Nov. 26, with a reception scheduled for this evening at 5:30 p.m. — that are part of the ongoing Open Source Festival organized by Artspace.
Bands Deliver The Shock Of The New
by | Oct 25, 2022 9:04 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photo
Mike Scialla of T!LT.
On Sunday evening just before 7 p.m. five new bands arrived at Space Ballroom in Hamden. About three and a half hours later, the audience had seen over a dozen musicians representing the youngest generation of the area’s musicians — many of whom honed their skills during the shutdown and are now more than ready to take their place in New Haven’s music scene.
Morning Team Wings It
by | Oct 24, 2022 3:39 pm | Comments (1)
It was 10 on a weekend. The night was young.
But not young enough for a tender chicken wing.
Lit Fest Makes History Of The Future
by | Oct 24, 2022 8:55 am | Comments (4)
Laura Glesby Photo
Erycka recites poetry on the Lit Fest stage ...
... as Lindsey Pina and Royal Bleu look for books on a whim.
Professional poets, emerging authors, scholars of Black literature, and kids learning to sound out words collectively transformed the Q House into a story-fueled time machine at the third annual Elm City Lit Fest.
Hispanic Heritage Takes Center Stage At Career High Fest
by | Oct 24, 2022 8:51 am | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden photos
Erika Zelocuatecatl: "When we get together as diverse as we are, we come as a united chorus."
Maya McFadden Photo
Career students perform "Latino Moves" at Friday's fest.
The sounds of salsa, bachata and merengue filled Hill Regional Career High School alongside a host of Spanish-language pride as staff and students celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month.
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Erector Square Artists Open Up For "Open Source"
by | Oct 24, 2022 8:44 am | Comments (1)
Dennis Carroll.
The process of moving from drawing and painting to working with fiber. The limitations — and the opportunities — presented by fabrication machines, and the connection of that to old Atari video games. The ways that the materials an artist uses can deepen the theme of the art, about climate change and impending extinctions. Such were a few of the conversations on offer for those who visited Erector Square this weekend, as dozens of artists in the warren of studios in the former factory building in Fair Haven threw open their doors to visitors for the first full weekend of Open Source, the citywide visual arts festival organized by Artspace.
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Two Bands Explore Outer And Inner Space
by | Oct 24, 2022 8:36 am | Comments (0)
Daniel Shoemaker Photos
Just how far can a groove take you? To the depths of space, to stretches of desert punctuated by towns nestled among the dunes? On Saturday at Cafe Nine, Dilemastronauta and Imarhan gave a masterclass in those kinds of grooves, courtesy of promoter Shaki Presents (Rick Omante).