by | Nov 27, 2020 4:02 pm | Comments (3)
RABHYA MEHROTRA PHOTO
Event organizers Marcella and Dudley Monk.
The pandemic is not stopping Marcella Monk Flake from spreading the joys of music.
Flake has won a $4,999 Connecticut Humanities’ “Quick October Grant” grant. The grant will support her organization, Monk Youth Jazz and Steam Collective Inc., run a special event for students and families.
by | Nov 27, 2020 9:00 am | Comments (0)
REINALDO GOEYENECHEA/ LA VOZ HISPANA
by | Nov 25, 2020 1:09 pm | Comments (0)
Thanksgiving’s coming yet the words get in the way
Of the gratitude I feel for my sleepy eyes
by | Nov 25, 2020 10:46 am | Comments (0)
Cynthia Y. Cooper
A Show of Strength (Banner).
Cynthia Y. Cooper’s A Show of Strength might conjure a host of associations — ocean waves, birds’ wings, the ceiling of a church. It’s all of these things, and at its core, none of them. It’s just a pattern of line and color, repeating ideas. We fill the pattern with meaning, as humans do. Sometimes that tendency to find patterns, and meaning in patterns, leads us astray. But, when handled with grace, it also leads constellations in the sky and holidays around solstices and equinoxes. It can be the foundation of building a community.
by | Nov 24, 2020 10:59 am | Comments (0)
Kevin Sanchez Walsh
by | Nov 24, 2020 10:36 am | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen Photo
Pedersen and James Wyrtzen.
“Silver rings and Oxford shirts / shoulder bag and patchy skirts / should have known everything would fall through / But a shade of blue above your eye / And a long-lost love up in the sky / for some reason, it was all up to you,” Alec Pedersen sings on “Up to You,” the first song from his recent EP New Haven County, released just last week. The lines begin a cascade of verses that Pedersen delivers in a swinging, rushed cadence, over an urgently strummed guitar, interspersed with bursts of harmonica. It’s soaked in pre-electric Bob Dylan, but it’s written now, in 2020, by Pedersen — who’s a teenager.
Continue reading ‘Songwriter Delivers Ode To New Haven County’
by | Nov 23, 2020 10:49 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Salwa Abdussabur.
Film, music, theater, art, activism: on Friday night all five were intertwined and illuminated during New Haven’s inaugural Black Haven Film Festival. Presented by CTCORE — Organize Now, the festival was originally planned for that night in person at Science Park. Due to Covid restrictions, it became a virtual event continuing onward with its original intent to celebrate Black art and representation with five short films, interviews with the filmmakers, and a musical performance, each shining its own ray of light on to the proceedings and creating a collective glow.
Continue reading ‘Black Haven Film Festival Makes Virtual Debut’
by | Nov 23, 2020 10:30 am | Comments (0)
by | Nov 20, 2020 11:14 am | Comments (1)
Bek Andersen
Power Portraits, detail.
Kerry Ellington, Addys Castillo, and Orisha Ala Ochumare stand with confidence on the walls of Artspace’s gallery. As captured by Bek Andersen in her piece Power Portraits — part of Artspace’s exhibition “Who Governs?” running through Dec. 12 — they become the images of the leaders and activists they are. Their voices and work in reshaping the city is palpable. But just as their actual political work involves revisiting and learning from the past, so “Who Governs?” delves into New Haven’s past, coming up with vivid questions about how unique the moment we’re in really is. What has changed? What has stayed the same? And what does progress mean when it seems that sometimes we find ourselves asking the same questions again and again?
by | Nov 19, 2020 11:14 am | Comments (6)
Laura Glesby Photo
Del Carpio-Beltran reads artist statement at 600-square-foot mural.
While the city sleeps through a pandemic, the Ninth Square has come alive with outdoor murals — as local artists like Francisco Del Carpio-Beltran demonstrated on Wednesday.
by | Nov 19, 2020 10:45 am | Comments (3)
Ted LIttleford
by | Nov 19, 2020 10:37 am | Comments (0)
With the Music a la Carte Series, the New Haven-based Kallos Chamber Music Series has figured out how to deliver short, online bursts of chamber-music joy — enough to enliven the coldest Monday night and still leave time to make dinner.
by | Nov 18, 2020 10:19 am | Comments (1)
William Ruiz, of New Haven’s new coffee roasting company, Bequest Coffee Roasters, knows and understands the power of a good cup of coffee powered by good beans. A graduate of Collab + CitySeed’s Food Business Accelerator program, Ruiz has opened Bequest online first, and is ready to deliver good beans to the people of New Haven and beyond.
For once, there’s a good thing to keep us awake at night.
by | Nov 18, 2020 10:14 am | Comments (5)
Ted Littleford
Kevin Sanchez Walsh
by | Nov 17, 2020 11:36 am | Comments (0)
Liz Antle-O’Donnell
Tick Tock 2
Liz Antle‑O’Donnell’s clock is an older work made new. Those who’ve followed her work recognize the busy circular pattern of buildings and color. Turning it into a clock doesn’t just lend a piece a functional air. The moving hands animate the image behind them. In a sense it can be understood as a clock for our times. The pattern resonates with the way time feels a little different during the pandemic, a little more flexible, as days can sometimes seem slower while weeks slip away. The buildings can be read as waiting, minute by minute, for the busier street life we know before March.
by | Nov 16, 2020 3:56 pm | Comments (7)
Laura Glesby Photo
Holiday spirit uprooted Monday on the Green.
As the pandemic ramps up again, apparently even the weather wasn’t feeling the holiday spirit — as a storm toppled the city Christmas Tree on the Green.
by | Nov 16, 2020 11:46 am | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
Kimberly Sewell-Poole inside More Amour.
In New Haven, women favor wearing sneakers, not heels. But they love their sequins.
Baltimore transplant Kimberly Sewell-Poole got up to speed on all that, as she hits round two of trying to launch a retro-chic boutique on Whalley Avenue during a pandemic.
Continue reading ‘Baltimore Fashionista Flows With Elm Style’
by | Nov 16, 2020 11:32 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
The Right Offs on the roof!
As the city braced itself for the possibility of another shutdown, Cafe Nine decided to raise a safely distanced ruckus one more time with one more roof show, starring another group of local rock ‘n’ rollers, The Right Offs. Saturday night saw the band take to that stage three floors up that Dust Hat had previously christened back in September under much warmer conditions.
by | Nov 13, 2020 11:31 am | Comments (4)
Lulu Villa’s planned home.
The team behind Pacifico is expanding their presence in New Haven just a mere two doors down: Owner Moe Gad and Chef Rafael Palomino plan this winter to open a new Italian restaurant called Villa Lulu on 230 College St.
The menu will focus on Italian old-school classics in a contemporary yet homey setting.
by | Nov 13, 2020 11:22 am | Comments (0)
There’s a quote from Spanish artist Joan Miró, written when he was 85 years old, sitting in the window at the entrance to City Gallery on Upper State Street: “I painted in a frenzy so that people will know I am alive, that I’m breathing, that I still have a few more places to go and I’m heading in new directions.”
“That’s how I felt,” said artist Roberta Freidman — whose exhibition, “Breathe: 2020,” is up now at City Gallery through Nov. 29. As the pandemic and its associated lockdown descended on the country and the social aspects of artistic life ground to a halt, “I could slink off into the studio and find some light in the day.”
by | Nov 12, 2020 3:55 pm | Comments (18)
Ephrat and Benny Lieblich inside soon-to-open Ladle and Loaf near Edge of the Woods.
Paul Bass Photos
Co-owners Choni and Esther Grunblatt with Operations Manager Zee Kessler outside their soon-to-open Westville Village restaurant.
An Argentinian entrepreneur is about to start selling kosher sushi up the block from a new Peruvian restaurant, a new Mexican eatery, and a new Syrian coffee shop.
Did somebody say something about a pandemic recession?
by | Nov 12, 2020 2:04 pm | Comments (0)
Ted Littleford
by | Nov 12, 2020 11:09 am | Comments (0)
Yvette Mayorga
Homeland Promised Land.
Yvette Mayorga’s Homeland Promised Land is as colorful as a birthday cake and as sharp as the knife that cuts it. Its central figure is assailed by a whirlwind of fake Fanta bottles and cell phones, held captive by it all. But the artist isn’t just painting a screed against consumerism. There’s strength in the way she makes her art. Her style is asserting its own kind of resistance. When that figure in the center rises, maybe all those colors will burst from the frame, and take over — letting all of us live in a better place.
by | Nov 11, 2020 1:41 pm | Comments (0)
RABHYA MEHROTRA PHOTO
Sample bowls: Pitaya on the left, Greens on the right.
Patti Ochsendorf filled two cups with a green and pink smoothie base each, then topped it with crunchy honey granola and blueberries, strawberries, mango, and pineapple. The green color came from kale and spinach blend. The pink color came from pitaya, also known as dragonfruit, which has a rough exterior with a pink or white inside.
by | Nov 11, 2020 10:54 am | Comments (0)
Winter may be coming, but Gorman Bechard and NHDocs have no plans to hibernate. Instead, they are debuting a monthly online series offering a new documentary feature to fans hungry for more after a successful online festival this past summer.