by | Jan 14, 2022 9:28 am | Comments (2)
To the vibrant sound of bomba from Movimiento Cultural, officials, press, and community members gathered in front of the Q House on Dixwell Avenue to celebrate the launch of what city Director of Cultural Affairs Adriane Jefferson called Connecticut’s first initiative targeting cultural equity.
Continue reading ‘"Cultural Equity" Pledge Targets Who Tells Whose Story’
by | Jan 14, 2022 9:07 am | Comments (1)
Kevin Sanchez Walsh
Kevin Sanchez Walsh
by | Jan 13, 2022 9:07 am | Comments (1)
Michael Rogers Photo
“Amnesia,” the first song from the Sawtelles’ new album Promises and Codes, creates a mood from the first strike of the guitar, gritty and atmospheric. The drums come in to lay down a rhythm, but it still feels loose, as expansive as it began. Then the plaintive vocal comes in, unsettled, a little surreal: “I won’t go downtownm because it’s haunted / Memoir waits to greet on every block / Dodging the past is a task that’s daunting / Before she disappeared she unplugged all the clocks.”
Continue reading ‘The Sawtelles Keep Their Hands On The Wheel’
by | Jan 12, 2022 12:10 pm | Comments (5)
by | Jan 12, 2022 11:00 am | Comments (0)
Bloom, Kane, Crowley, and Friedman.
“Convergence” — the show at City Gallery running now through Jan. 30, and featuring the work of Meg Bloom, Phyllis Crowley, Roberta Friedman, and Kathy Kane — celebrates not only the ways in which the four artists have continued to make art during the pandemic, but how the City Gallery artists have maintained the bonds of their community even while being, once again, forced apart by Covid-19.
by | Jan 10, 2022 8:00 pm | Comments (2)
Mourners Monday at first-ever Toad's funeral.
The line on York Street went halfway down the block on Monday afternoon as friends and family gathered to bid farewell to New Haven music legend Rohn Lawrence, whose visiting hours and funeral service were held at Toad’s Place, the stage on which he’d performed countless times.
Continue reading ‘Mourners Pay Last Respects To Rohn Lawrence At First-Ever Toad's Place Funeral’
by | Jan 10, 2022 9:08 am | Comments (7)
by | Jan 10, 2022 9:07 am | Comments (0)
Ana Henriques’s Forest I partakes of recognizable natural shapes — spreading tree branches, a mirrored sun, the ripples of water and hills — without being beholden to them. There’s a push toward the abstract that sets the shapes and colors free from the viewer giving it the easy designation of a forest scene. She makes us see those shapes and colors again, as if we’re seeing them for the first time. Just as important in the context of “Reflections,” the new group show running now at Kehler Liddell Gallery in Westville through Feb. 6, if viewers look closely in the glass that frames the work, they can see the works of Mark St. Mary and Liz Antle O’Donnell — the other two artists in the show — reflected in the glass.
by | Jan 7, 2022 9:34 am | Comments (0)
Josh Esan Photo
Jessica Rose and Mark Lyon.
Mark Lyon (aka Marq The A$tronaut) loves to joke around as much as he loves to make music. Referring to his newest single with vocalist Jessica Rose, called “Bliss,” he initially said it was written about a cat.
Continue reading ‘Jessica Rose & Marq The Astronaut Find "Bliss"’
by | Jan 6, 2022 4:39 pm | Comments (28)
Coral Ortiz Photo
Khalil Alsankary at Chap's: Will be "hard to keep going."
After struggling to survive a Covid-clobbered holiday, owners of downtown restaurants learned they may see little relief when Yalies return to town.
by | Jan 6, 2022 11:53 am | Comments (1)
Ted Littleford
REINALDO GOYENECHEA/LA VOZ HISPANA
by | Jan 6, 2022 8:51 am | Comments (3)
Nu Haven Kapelye, sometimes billed as New England’s largest klezmer band, saw out the final days of 2021 with two concerts — one on Dec. 25 at Congregation Mishkan Israel and one on Dec. 31 as part of Yiddish New York’s globe-spanning, 24-hour Klezathon — that saw the ensemble carrying on longstanding traditions, expanding its reach, and exemplifying the tenacity of musicians and music to get through another pandemic year with spirits intact.
Continue reading ‘With 2 Shows In A Week, Nu Haven Kapelye Keeps The Klezmer Tradition’
by | Jan 5, 2022 9:18 am | Comments (4)
by | Jan 5, 2022 9:10 am | Comments (0)
“Bright Lights,” the first song from O.K. Company’s new album Stronglove, is built on a set of luscious, chiming piano chords that at first has only a hi-hat keeping the backbeat for accompaniment. But that’s more than enough to buoy the singer, who delivers lyrics that speak of a different time and our own. “All alone on a crowded afternoon,” she sings. “I miss you lately / because everybody needs somebody.”
Continue reading ‘On New Recording, O.K. Company Stays Strong’
by | Jan 4, 2022 9:58 am | Comments (1)
by | Jan 4, 2022 9:46 am | Comments (0)
“The 99th Day,” the first song from Andy Daps’s new album Small Virtues, starts off with a driving beat and a fuzzed-out guitar. But Daps’s vocal is even-tempered, almost serene. “It happened on the 99th day / At the time it was surely a sign / Recurring ordeal / Battle scar, surreal,” he sings. As he hits the chorus, instead of an electric guitar, a sitar takes the lead, making way for a break involving tabla and flute. It’s the kind of musical left turn that you don’t see coming but brings all the more satisfaction for the surprise. It’s also a proper opener to an album that’s filled with similar musical moments — smart, unexpected, and totally accessible.
by | Jan 2, 2022 10:53 am | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Honda Smith, Nijaya Brown, Barbara Hawke-Lopez, Rhieanna Rubertone, Nashali Nieves, and Rebecca LeQuire by new mural at spruced-up Shack.
With the help of four high school students who found a fun way to spend part of their Christmas break, the late New Haven rapper known as Stēzo has been brought back to life on his home turf of West Rock/West Hills.
by | Dec 31, 2021 2:42 pm | Comments (7)
Alesssandro Powell Photo
Lawrence at Lilly's Pad in 2015.
New Haven music icon Rohn Lawrence passed away on Dec. 30. The cause is not yet known.
by | Dec 23, 2021 11:24 am | Comments (1)
To drive Omicron away, to sleep without fever dreams
To curl up inside the curves of the letters
To dream in Greek, to become one with the swerve
Continue reading ‘How Allen Ginsberg And James Baldwin Saved Us From Omicron’
by | Dec 23, 2021 11:15 am | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Student celebrate new donated gifts.
Kindergarteners at Wexler-Grant School got a colorful donation Wednesday from an 11-year Danbury artist.
Continue reading ‘Soror Santa's Surprise Sparks Early Holiday Joy At Wexler-Grant’
by | Dec 23, 2021 9:45 am | Comments (0)
A few weeks ago, I walked past a house near my own and heard the strains from a piano. It was a real acoustic keyboard, of the pre-electronic kind.
And it set me off on two adventures, one mental and one physically intrusive.
by | Dec 23, 2021 9:34 am | Comments (1)
From folk punk to hip hop to shimmering pop and progressive bluegrass, New Haven’s musicians gave voice to our hopes and fears in a difficult year — and offered broader perspectives to help us see how we got here, and how we can get through it with heads and hearts engaged.
by | Dec 22, 2021 3:58 pm | Comments (19)
Mark Massaro's design for a new statue in Wooster Square Park.
Is the art too saccharine? Obsolete on arrival?
Does it tell only an Italian story and not one that reflects the diversity of Wooster Square today?
Has the community not truly been engaged in the process?
And where in the original charge to artists a year ago was there permission to pave over more than a thousand square feet of precious green space?
Continue reading ‘Neighbors Pillory Design For Columbus Statue Replacement’
by | Dec 22, 2021 3:09 pm | Comments (0)
After the long dormancy imposed by the Covid-19 related shutdown of 2020, New Haven’s live music scene came back in 2021 — first with a little trepidation, then with gusto, as if making up for lost time.
by | Dec 21, 2021 11:55 am | Comments (3)
Jake Dressler Photos
Anita Mclean and Cedric Emery at this dream donut emporium.
Anita Mclean and Cedric Emery will ring in the new year celebrating the six-month anniversary of Many Donuts, their mom and pop donut shop nestled between Fitch and Jewell streets at the Whalley Exxon.