by | Sep 8, 2021 7:42 am | Comments (2)
Emily Pruitt
Anti-Romantic.
The young woman at the center of Emily Pruitt’s Anti-Romantic looks as if she has a story to tell, but she’s not going to tell us what it is. The photograph itself conveys conflicting emotions — humor and defiance, playfulness and a little bit of dread. That, as it turns out, is the point.
by | Sep 7, 2021 7:19 am | Comments (0)
“September,” the lead track from Youth XL’s new EP Social Creature, starts with a whine of feedback and a scream of “let’s go!” before the song struts into its open figures, all cylinders firing. The energy of the song, however, can’t hide the cleverness of the songwriting. As the song — “about breaking up and floundering around in the nostalgia of past relationships,” the liner notes reveal — moves through its middle section, positively Beatlesque backing vocals rise and fall and the chord structures get knotty, mirroring the emotional maze the singer is lost in.
by | Sep 6, 2021 7:55 am | Comments (1)
Six Green Chairs
Six chairs sitting out on the wet green lawn
Always makes me feel interested, even hopeful
by | Sep 3, 2021 7:55 am | Comments (2)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Durden gets ready to record Jefferson and Thabisa’s conversation.
District on James Street was the scene Thursday night of the official launch of Space Studios, the brainchild of videographer and entrepreneur Donnell Durden. Durden is hoping to provide the physical space and equipment — as well as the spark and support — for creatives to make their mark in the world of music, photography, videos, and more.
by | Sep 2, 2021 3:35 pm | Comments (2)
Ted Littleford
REINALDO GOEYENECHEA/LA VOZ HISPANA
Ted Littleford
by | Sep 2, 2021 9:01 am | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
Lucy Gellman and Kim Weston, back stage at Infinity Hall.
Two New Haven “arts heroes” got their due Wednesday night — in the form of statewide recognition of their contributions to Connecticut culture.
by | Sep 2, 2021 8:55 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Host Dan Kalwhite smiled at the mic on the Cafe Nine stage Wednesday evening as he welcomed the crowd of a few dozen who had come down to the club on the corner of State and Crown despite the rain picking up outside.
“You braved the storm — thank you so much,” he said. “Who came down the river by boat?”
by | Sep 1, 2021 7:12 am | Comments (1)
Dawn Tallman.
The International Festival of Arts and Ideas is taking over the New Haven Green again — for Labor Day weekend. The event, called “Vaccination & Vibes,” will feature two evenings of music, dance, and poetry that draw from talent in New Haven and elsewhere. It marks the A&I organization’s continued work in creating deeper connections with the New Haven community than it has in the past. Under the direction of Executive Director Shelley Quiala — who last August took the reins from co-directors Liz Fisher and Tom Griggs — the Labor Day weekend events are also A&I’s very public foray into throwing events outside of June, and even outside of the May-June summer programming it held this year.
by | Aug 31, 2021 3:41 pm | Comments (5)
Lisa Reisman Photos
Chef Jeyson Santoni; his jam-packed 259 Orange burger (top).
You might call the 259 Orange a cheeseburger, a bacon burger, or an egg burger. Or maybe a short rib burger or an avocado burger.
The only thing certain is that the 259 Orange Burger nearly didn’t happen. Nor, for that matter, did Dangle’s Bar and Grill, which serves the 259 Burger, and which opened three weeks ago on 259 Orange just up the street from the New Haven County Courthouse.
Continue reading ‘Jey’s Burger Brings 259 Orange Back To Life’
by | Aug 31, 2021 11:51 am | Comments (11)
by | Aug 31, 2021 7:20 am | Comments (0)
Sam Carlson Photos
Noah Silvestry struck the opening chords of the song “Ancient” in front of a rapt crowd at Cafe Nine, signaling both the start of the show and the first-ever live appearance by his band, Luke Ellingson. Silvestry, a Pennsylvania native, moved to New Haven for school and has made his way into the local music scene recording at his home studio in Wooster Square under the Luke Ellingson moniker. His most recent release, Clementine, is out now on the Connecticut-based label Funnybone.
by | Aug 30, 2021 7:13 pm | Comments (35)
Nightclub owners be forewarned: The city’s Covid-19-safety compliance crew may be headed your way, ready to fine owners failing to enforce mask rules.
by | Aug 30, 2021 3:09 pm | Comments (20)
Kwadwo Adae at work on the Bouchet mural.
As you drive through New Haven on Henry Street, you will notice something at the intersection of Dixwell: Across from a derelict lot is a magnificent mural in progress on a wall that was once pink.
The image consists of cascaded portraits of a Black man rendered in gradients of color. The man is Edward Bouchet, a New Havener who was the first Black man to get a doctorate in the United States. Bouchet got his Ph.D. in physics from Yale in 1876. Yet, most children in the Elm City don’t know about him.
Muralist Kwadwo Adae hopes to change that one brushstroke at a time.
by | Aug 30, 2021 10:18 am | Comments (6)
by | Aug 30, 2021 10:17 am | Comments (0)
“Summer Song” — the first song from Past Midnight, the latest EP from the New Haven-based band Arms Like Roses — earns its title from its opening guitar lines, sunny, chiming, and intertwining. The vocal climbs through them: “Time flies with a blink of an eye / And a whisper that reminds you it’s cold outside / Again, not again,” the vocalist sings. As percussion enters, adding urgency, the whole band digs deeper into the late-summer vibe, the kind that’s the most poignant for how truly fleeting it is.
by | Aug 26, 2021 8:07 am | Comments (7)
Reinaldo Goeyenechea/La Voz Hispana
Ted Littleford
by | Aug 25, 2021 11:08 am | Comments (1)
by | Aug 24, 2021 10:20 am | Comments (0)
To longtime fans of New Haven rap icon Steven Williams, a.k.a. Stezo, who died in April 2020 at the age of 52, the voice from his 1996 song “Where the Funk At” is instantly recognizable, the flow easy yet urgent. But so much else has changed: the sound and pattern of the drums, the introduction of a bubbling organ part, and perhaps most poignant, a chant at the beginning of the song: “Clap your hands for Steven,” they say. “It’s all right.”
by | Aug 23, 2021 10:30 am | Comments (3)
by | Aug 20, 2021 8:15 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Mightymoonchew.
Thursday night’s music bill on the Best Video deck in Hamden began under an ominous umbrella of dark clouds and ended in a burst of sunshine and blue, all to the soundtrack of two New Haven-based bands.
by | Aug 19, 2021 3:40 pm | Comments (0)
The New Yorker has a new 20-minute documentary out about celebrated Westville-based Syrian artist Mohammad Hafez (who also owns the Pistachio coffee shop).
Continue reading ‘Documentary Features Mohammed Hafez’s Story’
by | Aug 19, 2021 2:48 pm | Comments (0)
Reinaldo Goeyenechea/La Voz Hispana
“I assume total responsibility for Afghanistan … the Taliban are facing an existential crisis …”
by | Aug 19, 2021 8:07 am | Comments (3)
Nathaneil Donnett Photos
From the sidewalk, you might see it from across the street. It looks like it’s supposed to be there, a bit of straightforward wooden fencing that might contain an electrical box or some other public utility.
But if you look closely, you might notice one slat of the fencing is painted a deep blue. If you cross the street, you’ll see the wood is patterned, and that the whole object stands as an entirely different kind of public utility.
Inside the fencing is an altar that celebrates music and the celestial world within — and for — a community
by | Aug 18, 2021 7:47 am | Comments (0)
“Harder Than It Should Be,” the latest single from Goodnight Moonshine — the New Haven-based duo of Molly Venter and Eben Pariser — starts with a cooing, provocative line from Venter while Pariser joins on guitar. It’s a simple setup that lets the song unfold in its own time, as Pariser gradually adds in other elements while Venter’s voice, front and center, unfurls lyrics range across the history of a relationship and politics, striking just the right balance of personal and universal.
by | Aug 17, 2021 12:08 pm | Comments (7)
Natalie Kainz Photo
Willie Bell, one of Negaro’s original employees from Atticus Bookstore, measures out fresh poolish.
At 6 a.m., Willie Bell was already at work at Chabaso Bakery, measuring and mixing flour, water, and yeast to make a preferment known as a poolish.