by | Aug 15, 2022 9:16 am | Comments (1)
New Haven became an island on Saturday, but no man was left standing alone.
Continue reading ‘"Yo Soy Boricua!": Puerto Rico Festival Keeps Hearts Beating On The Green’
by | Aug 12, 2022 9:27 am | Comments (4)
Ronak Gandhi file photo
NOA on Crown (above), newest venture of Winyu Seetamyae (below).
Winyu “Win” Seetamyae, the chef and owner behind Upper State Street’s September in Bangkok, has opened his second restaurant at 200 Crown St. after managing to stay afloat, and profitable, during the pandemic.
by | Aug 12, 2022 9:22 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Arachne at Best Video Thursday night.
Lydia Arachne, the songwriter and bandleader of Semaphora, offered a knowing smile to the audience at Best Video on Thursday night as she announced her first song.
“This song,” she said, “is about cats and how they might save us in the future if we misplace our nuclear waste.”
She delivered it as a joke, but the story turns out to be true. The comment set the tone for what had come before and what would follow, as the Connecticut-based Semaphora and opening act Gold Eris — a well-paired set of bands — each performed music that was intelligent and heartfelt in equal measure.
Continue reading ‘At Best Video, Semaphora Sends The Signal Through The Noise’
by | Aug 11, 2022 4:47 pm | Comments (8)
Steve the bear grabbing lunch Wednesday.
As 54 frantic calls came in to the city about another bear roaming upper Westville, Steve was calmly checking out the offerings at a bird feeder on Stevenson Road.
by | Aug 11, 2022 3:47 pm | Comments (3)
Olivia Charis Photo
Puerto Rican flag raised on the Green Thursday.
Two anthems. Two homes. One heart.
Continue reading ‘Puerto Rican Flag, Fest Ready For The Green’
by | Aug 11, 2022 1:44 pm | Comments (29)
Thomas Breen Photo
Farewell, flicks: Middletown Ave.'s Ciné 4, now shuttered.
Start the early ed: Friends Center's Schiavone, who plans to convert cinema into childcare campus.
The lights are off and the popcorn’s all gone from a decades-old independent movie theater on Middletown Avenue — which new nonprofit owners aim to convert to a bustling campus for affordable early childhood education.
by | Aug 11, 2022 8:55 am | Comments (5)
Karen Klugman
Jerry at Jerry's Antiques, 928 State.
Jerry stands with his hand on his hip, a cigar angled improbably out of his mouth. He’s wearing a hat from another time. The shop behind him is from another time, too, an older New Haven that’s increasingly hard to catch a glimpse of. The photograph is accompanied by a quote from Jerry, addressed to the photographer: “Say, you ain’t Polish, are ya? John here said you might be Polish. You’re Italian, ain’t ya? You look Italian.… Lithuanian? Romanian? Well, at least you ain’t a Jew. Say, you ain’t Jewish, are ya? Old John, he and I just like to kid around. What are you anyway?”
by | Aug 10, 2022 9:15 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
A woman holding bolts of fabric approached the checkout counter set up in the lobby of Long Wharf Theatre. She had plans, she said, to make clothes for her relatives.
“In my generation, everybody knitted or sewed,” she said.
Now, she continued, “when a shirt loses a button, they take it to the dry cleaners.”
Making clothes yourself is a “lost art,” a Long Wharf employee agreed. But with the help of Dock Deals — a series of sales of stock Long Wharf is holding as it clears out its space on Sargent Drive — the woman would find it again.
Continue reading ‘With Summer Stock Inventory Sale, Long Wharf Theatre Makes Deals’
by | Aug 10, 2022 9:09 am | Comments (0)
Vasilisa Gladysheva
Melting Face.
Vasilisa Gladysheva’s potted plant at first looks precarious, perched on the edge of its podium, but that’s the point. The piece is, in a very real sense, about balance. There’s tenuousness versus serenity. There’s the combining of the whimsical and the functional, while also having something to say about the thoughts of the mind, or perhaps imagination. Is the figure in the vase sleeping and dreaming the plant into existence? Or is it about how all thoughts can grow? Regardless, what is clear is both the artist’s playful intentions and the skill with which the piece is made.
Continue reading ‘Artists Breathe A Sigh Of Relief In CAW Exhibit’
by | Aug 9, 2022 1:23 pm | Comments (6)
Ted Littleford
by | Aug 5, 2022 10:35 am | Comments (0)
Roundhouse Trio at Cafe 9.
A suitcase was onstage at Cafe 9 — and someone was singing out of it.
Continue reading ‘At Cafe 9 Improvisers Showcase, The Conversation Was Off The Walls’
by and | Aug 4, 2022 2:52 pm | Comments (3)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Jason Chan checks out the city.
Architecture student Jason Chan landed on the New Haven Green Wednesday and noticed a plaque remembering the park’s history as the central square in America’s first planned city — which made him think about the contrasts between the Elm City and his highly developed hometown of Hong Kong.
Continue reading ‘Budding Architect's Word On The Street: New Haven's More Laid Back Than Hong Kong’
by | Aug 4, 2022 1:42 pm | Comments (5)
Photos by Olivia Charis
Arts and crafts hosted by Hamden Youth Services at National Night Out.
Hamden residents spent a night out together, in the name of building a safer community.
Continue reading ‘Community Comes Together For "National Night Out"’
by | Aug 3, 2022 3:11 pm | Comments (18)
Laura Glesby Photo
Pizza recommendations abound at "Beer With The Mayor."
As punk rock played on the stereo, Justin Elicker sipped his Counter Weight Headway with a small group of New Haveners who had come with curiosity — but no complaints.
Continue reading ‘Beer In Hand, Elicker Hears No Complaints’
by | Aug 3, 2022 8:50 am | Comments (0)
The Theater Group
Percy Jackson is coming to town with all the charm and pacing of a chapter book – onstage at a summer program that keeps kids returning each year and bonding through the arts.
Continue reading ‘Percy Jackson Brings Back NMS Summer Theater’
by | Aug 1, 2022 9:08 am | Comments (1)
Jordan Ashby Photo
Summer Artspace Program students, instructors, and TAs.
Artspace New Haven celebrated the culmination of the free Summer Artspace Program (SAP) with a community exhibition highlighting the work of six high school artists.
Continue reading ‘High Schoolers Find Their Voices At Artspace’
by | Jul 29, 2022 9:21 am | Comments (9)
Future imperfect: Sinclair Lewis.
Lately, like a truffle dog on the hunt, I have sniffed along the New Haven trail of the first American to receive the Nobel Prize for literature.
The search led me to Yale’s Old Campus, where Harry Sinclair Lewis took his bachelor’s degree in 1908; up to the summit of East Rock, where his imagination flourished; down to the reading room of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where his papers are store; and finally to his forecast of the advent of Donald Trump.
by | Jul 27, 2022 12:45 pm | Comments (1)
Jordan Ashby Photo
Alisa Bowens Mercado teaching salsa Tuesday night on the Central Avenue "patio."
While eating a slice of berry treasure pie, Rachel Broderick enjoyed the added sweetness of salsa in her bite.
Salsa music, that is.
Continue reading ‘Salsa Dancing Adds Flavor to Westville Pies’
by | Jul 27, 2022 12:34 pm | Comments (0)
Matthew Esposito Photos
“Put me on a pedestal, and I’ll only disappoint you!”
The College Street Music Hall crowd scream-sang along with Courtney Barnett.
“Tell me I’m exceptional; I promise to exploit you!”
In the pit, a teenage girl with winged eyeliner looked around to make sure she wasn’t the only one letting loose. Near her, a white-haired man in a ponytail thrashed his arms to the beat. Toward the center, rowdy 20-somethings tossed their bodies against one another; if there were ever a time to mosh, it was now.
“I think you’re a joke, but I don’t find you very fu-u-u-u-u-nny!” the Aussie rocker continued from the state, as two middle-aged women crooned the line to two middle-aged men.
In fact, at that moment, there wasn’t a single person in the hall who didn’t sing along.
by | Jul 27, 2022 9:24 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
“I don’t want to X‑ray your ghost,” Brian Robinson began, speaking to someone to told him that “it was just a rash and you would get it checked / You told me you would clean up, stop drinking, and fix up the sun room / where the folded cardboard Amazon boxes sneer a stupid arrow smile / alongside Mike’s Hard Lemonade and chewy pet supplies / all wedged behind the rusted patio furniture you never sit in to read a book.” The poem, in exquisite detail, portrayed a life spun slowly out of control, “even as you fold another box and call to say your results came up negative.”
by | Jul 26, 2022 8:46 am | Comments (0)
It’s a chicken leg, mounted on a wooden board like a hunting trophy or a piece of taxidermy. But then something else is going on with it, a cascade of white circles, dynamic enough to almost seem to be moving across its surface. For some, the circles might seem like soap, the leg being washed clean. For other, they might look like mold; the chicken left out of the fridge too long. Or what if someone decided not to interpret it at all? To just accept the shapes and shades for what they are, just patterns across the chicken’s skin?
Continue reading ‘In Neverending Exhibit, Artist Craig Gilbert Keeps Riding The Wave’
by | Jul 25, 2022 9:17 am | Comments (2)
Olivia Gross Photo
The main stage at Seeing Sounds.
The concrete made the temperature seem twice as high at Edgewood Park’s skate park Saturday, but skateboards still flew through the crowd — and music filled the air at the first annual Seeing Sounds music festival.
Continue reading ‘Seeing Sounds Heats Up Edgewood Skate Park’
by | Jul 25, 2022 9:17 am | Comments (0)
Moore.
In the middle of his set to close out the day, musician Trey Moore took a moment to be thankful. “I just woke up one day and decided to do this, and here you are, in the flesh.”
He spoke with an air of gratitude, and just a hint of incredulity, that Seeing Sounds — a day-long festival of music, clothing, food, games, and skating that he organized at Edgewood Skate Park — had actually happened.
Continue reading ‘Bands Make Sound Visible In Edgewood Park’
by | Jul 25, 2022 8:52 am | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
"This is the best!": Yang with first graders at Martinez School.
Summer break could not keep Mandarin teacher Ruwen Yang out of the classroom and away from teaching young students her beloved first language.
Continue reading ‘Fair Haven Kids Get Early Start On Mandarin’
by | Jul 25, 2022 8:49 am | Comments (0)
Colin Roberts Photos
The Cult.
On Sunday night The Cult, led by vocalist Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, took their We Own The Night Tour to College Street Music Hall in downtown New Haven. With a plethora of material to choose from, the group — who creatively fused hard rock, new wave and goth in the ’80s and ’90s — played a set of fan favorites, drawing mainly from their trio of late-’80s hit records Love, Electric and Sonic Temple.
Continue reading ‘The Cult & Co. Own Sunday Night At College Street Music Hall’