by | Jun 21, 2021 12:50 pm | Comments (2)
Wooster Square Monument Committee
A sample design for the four panels.
Six artists are competing to design a monument to Italian-American heritage to replace the now-removed Christopher Columbus statue in Wooster Square Park.
The Wooster Square Monument Committee now faces the task of narrowing down the options.
Continue reading ‘Six Artists Vie For Columbus Statue Replacement’
by | Jun 21, 2021 8:44 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photos
Kevin Monroe and Devotion.
Before Kevin Monroe and Devotion hit the stage Sunday afternoon on the Green, Rev. Kevin Ewing of Baobab Tree Studios (and formerly of Center Church on the Green) addressed the hundreds of people who had gathered to hear the music and the message. He pointed out that gospel music has been a part of the programming of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas for years, and this year was no different. He welcomed people who already knew gospel and people who were about to get their first taste.
“For those of you who don’t know what gospel is, sit back,” Ewing said. “You’re about to learn something.”
He then turned to the faithful. “Church folks know what to do,” he said. “I hope you brought your shouting shoes.”
by | Jun 21, 2021 8:40 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Abiodun Oyewole.
Park of the Arts became a poetry garden on Friday night as famed poet and teacher Abiodun Oyewole led a poetry workshop for grateful attendees as part of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas.
by | Jun 21, 2021 8:38 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Ceschi.
Ceschi, Phat A$tronaut, and Siul Hughes stood together on the stage of the Space Ballroom Friday night, near the end of a triple bill that marked the reopening of the venue since Covid-19 shutdown restrictions were lifted. A packed house stood close to the stage in front of them.
“I was very hesitant” to put on the show, Ceschi (a.k.a. Julio Ramos) said. “I didn’t know if people wanted to do this. Obviously you do.”
Continue reading ‘New Haven Music Heroes Reopen Space Ballroom’
by | Jun 19, 2021 10:43 pm | Comments (9)
Maya McFadden Photo
Solar Power and community at Dixwell festival’s dance party.
Tracey Massey at Hill fest: “We’re building another Wall Street.”
From the Hill to Dixwell, New Haveners celebrated Juneteenth with dance, soul food, and investments in Black businesses.
by | Jun 18, 2021 3:38 pm | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photos
Rohn Lawrence and Jay Rowe light up the stage.
Toad’s owner Brian Phelps (center) with SBA CT Director Marx, Rep. DeLauro, and Sen. Blumenthal.
For the first time in 15 months, musicians took the stage at Toad’s Place — with the promise of more tunes to come, thanks to a federal bailout slowly making its way to shuttered venues across the country.
Continue reading ‘Toad’s Place Snags Fed Bailout $, Announces August Reopening’
by | Jun 18, 2021 1:13 pm | Comments (12)
Lisa Reisman photos
Co-owners Danny and Luann Scarpellino in action.
The Tony Soprano.
In August 1981, Danny Scarpellino sold his 1974 Cutlass Supreme for $800 to buy a new stove for the first Scarpellino’s Sub Shop on 140 Park St.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Danny’s The Tony Soprano’
by | Jun 18, 2021 10:02 am | Comments (0)
Steve Vlazo Photo/Graphic design Andrea Sicco
Cover art for Ready For the Morning.
“I’ve been down underneath the ocean of sound, got bloodied in the battle of the blues. Yeah, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but I’m ready for the morning.” The unmistakable voice of Kelly Reilly shines through like a summer sunrise on her newest single, the ethereal rocker “Ready For the Morning,” released two weeks ago after a year of indelible changes. Now the legendary New Haven singer and lifetime fan of music and the local scene is ready to record again.
by | Jun 17, 2021 6:23 pm | Comments (0)
by | Jun 17, 2021 9:33 am | Comments (0)
Allison Baker’s installation transforms the front gallery of the Ely Center of Contemporary Art on Trumbull Street into something between a playground and an uneasy dream. All is glittering, but also unnaturally balloon-like — whether it’s immediately recognizable objects such as hangers, brassieres, and cleaning gloves, or less obvious (but no less glittery) shapes strewn on the floor and suspended from the ceiling. Further exploration reveals that the installation spills over into the next room, taking over half the first floor of the building. It’s fun, yes, but threatening in its entertainment. Everything is fine. Everything is wrong.
by | Jun 16, 2021 8:37 am | Comments (0)
Evan Bakke Photo
O.K. Company
“I’m looking for a little bit of trouble,” sings LaQruishia Gill on “You Got Me Up,” one of two new songs by the New Haven-based band O.K. Company, formerly known as The Let Loose and currently finding its way back into the music scene after quarantine with a new release titled A Mini EP and three live shows over the next two weeks.
by | Jun 15, 2021 8:00 am | Comments (1)
It’s a lunar volvelle, a device dating to the medieval era used to chart the passage of the moon across the sky and determine days and dates. But this particular volvelle has two distinguishing features. First, it involves fragments of poetry. Second, the family members of poet and artist Monica Ong appear in a small parade in the center as one moves through the possible positions on the volvelle. Using the volvelle also reveals different fragments of poetry, so that each day produces a new poem, introduces a family member, all in the process of scientific observation.
by and | Jun 14, 2021 7:49 pm | Comments (1)
Natalie Kainz Photo
Graduates at Floyd Little Athletic Center.
The lessons taught by the arts transcend barriers.
Continue reading ‘135 Co-op Grads Take Arts Education With Them Along With Diplomas’
by | Jun 14, 2021 8:57 am | Comments (16)
City of New Haven images
The planned new NEBCO brewery, coming soon to River Street.
Plans for a new 80,000 square-foot brewery, tap room, and event space for a vacant former-industrial lot on River Street are moving ahead, as the city prepares to welcome “The Beatles of Craft Brewing” to Fair Haven.
Continue reading ‘Brewing Co. Details Planned Fair Haven Move’
by | Jun 14, 2021 8:56 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
My Everything Everything bagel with Greenwave kelp schmear.
Bagels, beer, and seaweed don’t sound like three things that commonly go hand in hand, but this past Friday night they melded together deliciously as part of Food of the Future with Greenwave and Olmo, a Food Experience presented by the International Festival of Arts and Ideas.
by | Jun 14, 2021 8:50 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Schlesinger.
Best Video’s transformation into a steady outdoor club continued on Friday evening with sets by two bands with different angles on their music, but a common commitment to psychedelia and a mission to transform the space into something else.
Continue reading ‘Two Bands Put Best Video On Their Wavelength’
by | Jun 13, 2021 12:30 pm | Comments (3)
Steve Hamm Photo
Painting by numbers is no longer the home crafts fad that it once was, but two New Haven artists dusted off and rejuvenated the practice for a socially-conscious mural project in the Hill neighborhood on Saturday.
by | Jun 11, 2021 12:29 pm | Comments (2)
Brad Mahler Photo
Rachael Price and Lake Street Dive performing Thursday evening at the Westville Music Bowl.
For Lake Street Dive, concerts in New Haven this Thursday and Friday night mark the end of an era of musical magic.
For New Haven, they mark the beginning of a new one.
by | Jun 11, 2021 8:33 am | Comments (3)
Amethyst Kiah has been making waves as a Black artist asserting her place in the world of folk music and reaching beyond it. Parsonsfield and Maggie Rose both use sonic experiments to bring new textures to well-honed songwriting skill. And Pokey LaFarge reaches into the thick American stew of carnival sideshows and revival tents to create modern carnivalesque nightmares. All four performers — and more — are part of CT Folk’s lineup for Folk at the Edge, a new concert series coming to Edgewood Park throughout the summer and early fall.
by | Jun 10, 2021 4:45 pm | Comments (0)
The Mexicans come from the indigenous, the Brazilians from the jungle and the Argentines come from the European ships … Now we have the ship a little sunk …
by | Jun 10, 2021 9:08 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Outside the thick humidity broke into a pounding thunderstorm over New Haven, but Wednesday evening inside the Holberton School at District New Haven on James Street, Chris Bousquet — a.k.a. American Elm — made it warm and inviting for a live and livestreamed performance that pulled in a lifetime of music, from days on the beach to departed friends.
Continue reading ‘At Hybrid District Show, Music Gives Shelter From The Storm’
by | Jun 9, 2021 12:54 pm | Comments (14)
Keep it up, Superintendent: Jon Voight in supportive tete-a-tete with Iline Tracey near the temporary “Ray Donovan” set at Union Station.
“That’s Jon Voight!”
by | Jun 9, 2021 8:46 am | Comments (0)
Maria and Ndemeh.
Making a painstaking cup of coffee the traditional way while recounting a harrowing story of flight from Ethiopia into an unknown future. Family photographs lovingly thumbed through, even while the speaker mourns a sense of childhood lost. And dancing that invokes ancestors and reaches back into the past to both face trauma and draw strength.
Curated and produced by Jasmin Agosto and featuring Haben Maria, Colleen Ndemeh, Paul Bryant Hudson, Zvlu, Yexandra Diaz, and Ch’Varda, Yerba Bruja is part ceremony, part storytelling, part music, spoken word, and dance performance, and all honesty and respect, as the participants ruminate on what it means to leave home, lose home, and reconnect and stay resilient, in ways large and small.
Continue reading ‘“Yerba Bruja” Finds Roots In Elm City Earth’
by | Jun 8, 2021 6:16 pm | Comments (8)
Adam Weber Photo
Newly completed designs in State/Chapel crosswalks.
The Hill’s right down the street. Wooster Square? East Rock? Right down those other streets.
by | Jun 8, 2021 8:32 am | Comments (0)
Sheila Kaczmarek’s English Sycamore grabs the eye as soon as you enter City Gallery on Upper State Street. Viewed one way, it appears almost as if it could move, like a mobile. Viewed another, it’s possible to imagine it’s growing out of the wall. Its organic forms add up, fully, to an enveloping composition — and it’s possible to imagine it could have kept growing, or that the pod in the middle of it might hatch. That sense of completeness and open possibility isn’t just part of the finished piece, but also is present in the way it’s made.