Essential Services
by | May 12, 2020 12:08 pm | Comments (1)
First of all comes breathing
That’s the heart of our story
Arts & Culture
Storytellers, Moving Online, Broadcast The Past
by | May 12, 2020 9:36 am | Comments (2)
A grandfather who left his homeland, vowing never to return, and a grandson who visited that place to reconnect.
On Monday night, Saul Fussiner told his story as part of Storytellers New Haven, hosted by Karen DuBois-Walton.
The series usually runs out of ConnCAT on Winchester Avenue. With the help of Baobab Tree Studios on Orange Street, the series drew dozens to its YouTube streaming, keeping the connections that stories can create healthy and strong during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Social worker Amy Joy Myers also told a story; please watch the video above to hear it in its entirety.)
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Towers Residents Crochet For First Reponders
by | May 11, 2020 2:25 pm | Comments (1)
Towers Volunteer Coordinator Sarah Moskowitz with the handmade blankets.
Women in The Towers assisted-living apartments have added homemade blankets to a Covid-era mask-making network.
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Refugees Reopen Shuttered Bakery
by | May 11, 2020 9:43 am | Comments (6)
Emily Hays Photo
Havenly Treats’ Passoni and Nieda outside Sweet Mary’s, where they plan to start serving free food this week.
When Caterina Passoni and Nieda Abbas heard that downtown bakery Sweet Mary’s was temporarily suspending business during the Covid-19 pandemic, they saw an opportunity to support two bakeries at once.
Stout Streams Live From The City
by | May 11, 2020 9:33 am | Comments (0)
Flanked by two women who were alternatively adoring and accusatory, Stout began her show with Nina Simone’s “My Name Is.” There was nothing behind them but a blank white space, an empty canvas. Stout moved to a small electronic rig just within arm’s reach, pressed a button, and started off a drum beat to slip into “See-Line Woman.” Then she added a coda that layered her own voice to create a lusher soundscape.
Voices intertwined. The drums dropped out. A sound emerged like a UFO landing.
“Queen Nina. That’s what you are. Even though you left us, your legacy still resides,” Stout said.
Today’s Ted Takes
by | May 10, 2020 1:18 pm | Comments (0)
Census Party Rolls Thru Fair Haven
by | May 8, 2020 2:01 pm | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photos
Kaylib, DJ Rob Nice, and DJ Skorp riding up Blatchley Avenue during Friday’s Census party on wheels.
Behind a face mask, DJ Rob Nice stood on the back of a flatbed truck driving up Blatchley Avenue and shouted through the mic: “2020 Census, baby! Wash your hands! Wash your hands!”
We Lost Joel
by | May 8, 2020 11:42 am | Comments (0)
He was once in this house and I went to see his plays
And laughed at his labored puns and afterwards toasted life
Live Music Debuts At Home In New Haven
by | May 8, 2020 10:14 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Stephen Gritz King.
“Are you with me?” said New Haven musician Stephen Gritz King. “No time like the present.”
The present was Thursday night, and Thursday night was the first musical performance from At Home In New Haven, a new virtual stage that began operations on Monday, May 4.
King was the first of three acts to play on this night, the other two being Frederic Anthony and Patrick Dalton. Each act played from their own space and was broadcast via Zoom.
At A Stop & Shop In New Haven
by | May 7, 2020 3:09 pm | Comments (2)
With thanks to Allen Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in California”
Donning mask, gloves, and baseball cap
Like a thief I go out to shop
An Historic Has A Spring Awakening
by | May 7, 2020 10:15 am | Comments (0)
Adam Matlock, a.k.a. An Historic, starts off “Nicer In This World” with a flourish from an electric piano before settling into a mellow groove like stripped-down Afropop. Then comes his voice, unfurling a set of lyrics shot through humor, sarcasm, and sincerity, all at once: “You’re starting to like all the time you spend out there in nature / digging a crater for all your friends and their intentions / Oh, did I mention? I’m starting to see you for what you are / I admire your clarity of vision / I get too distracted by something that isn’t a reasonable action / Pulled off the course but I made my way home by the light of your star.”
Baby, Don’t You Wanna Go ...
by | May 6, 2020 12:03 pm | Comments (0)
Travis Carbonella
Rocky Lawrence & Thabisa recording performances outside their homes for this year’s virtual ArtWalk.
Westville’s artistic and community-building movers and shakers are not letting a pandemic wipe out their annual ArtWalk celebration.
They’ve found a way to pull off the two-day blow-out with all the variety of performers and events, but without the dangers of in-person crowds.
Higher Heights Throws Virtual Block Party For Class Of 2020
by | May 6, 2020 11:58 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
DJ ShortyLove via Facebook Live
“Let’s go!” yelled DJ ShortyLove as she got the party started — the College Block Party to be exact, for the Higher Heights Youth Empowerment Programs, Inc.
Tuesday was the first of two nights that the Harlem deejay would be spinning tunes via Facebook and Instagram Live to celebrate the Class of 2020 and to help raise money as part of the program’s annual Great Give fundraiser to support their College Access program.
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Opening Up
by | May 6, 2020 11:53 am | Comments (1)
They told me to open up, they told me I was ready
They told me it was safe, measures had been taken
Ely Center Leaps Into Virtual Space
by | May 6, 2020 9:25 am | Comments (0)
Generalova Kate
Revelation.
Generalova Kate’s Revelation is part political cartoon, part street manifesto, simple and provocative. It has an effect even without Kate’s explanation, conveying the raw immediacy of today’s headlines and a sardonic, intriguing distance from them.
“It became a “revelation” for me when the news began to report that doctors are subjected to aggressive behavior by the urban population,” Kate, who lives in St. Petersburg, Russia, writes in an accompanying statement. “This is due to the fact that people panic and are afraid of being infected by doctors.” Revelation, she explained, was made in solidarity with health workers, who help protect so many from the virus but are vulnerable themselves.
A Saxophone Somewhere Far Off Played
by | May 5, 2020 7:01 pm | Comments (11)
It was about 7:50 pm. The streets were empty. And the unlikeliest sound was wafting onto Sachem Street: a tenor saxophone playing pop.
Neighborhood Music School Leans Into The Lag
by | May 5, 2020 9:36 am | Comments (2)
Marvin Warshaw, conductor for the Greater New Haven Concert Orchestra out of Neighborhood Music School, looked at his rapidly filling Zoom meeting.
“Oh, good, everyone’s joining in. Do you all have your Beethoven parts?” he said.
“I wanted to look at the Allegro, where it starts forte at 29.”
To warm up, he said, “let’s try playing along with the recording. This is the Berlin Philharmonic. Everybody join in.”
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Musicians Are Free As Birds To Support Fellow Artists
by | May 4, 2020 9:46 am | Comments (0)
Patrick Dalton croons over a stuttering soul beat, a warm wah bass beneath his voice. “Blues came and they knocked you to the floor, took your face away,” Dalton sings. “Tell me everything’s gonna be OK, tell me everything.” Ceschi sings over flutes and pastoralia: “But these days seem darker and these nights seem longer, like I’m waiting for the Nothing or a god or something stronger.” Daniprobably puts down the guitar and picks up synthesizers.
It’s just the beginning of Waiting on a Sunrise, Vol.1, a scintillating compilation by some of New Haven’s hardest-working musicians, making new sounds for a good cause.
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Sandra’s Points The Way In Pandemic
by | May 1, 2020 3:05 pm | Comments (4)
Maya McFadden Photo
Steady stream of customers at Sandra’s Next Generation.
Miguel and Sandra Pittman have figured out how to keep their popular soul food restaurant hopping during the pandemic — and picked up some ideas for how others, too, can adapt when the state gradually reopens.
Cinema Stare Gets Comfortably Uncomfortable
by | May 1, 2020 10:06 am | Comments (0)
Lea Ciarcia Photo
Cinema Stare.
“Hum and the Glow,” the title track from the new album by the New Haven-based Cinema Stare, charges out of the gate, a bright flash of guitars, bass, and drums. As the drums settle into a galloping roll, the singer’s voice is full of promise, even he’s singing about a kind of malaise. “I met you in a rainy suburb where just walking down the street,” he sings, “feels like every step moves further back through the 20th century / And not in the most romantic way.”
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Nightmare Of The Narcissist
by | May 1, 2020 10:00 am | Comments (1)
with thanks to W.H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939,”
I sit here in a room
With my cable news and my Zoom
Reinaldo’s Corner
by | Apr 30, 2020 5:05 pm | Comments (0)
What do they want me to do? My name is ‘Messiah,’ but I don’t work miracles.
“People Forget, New Haven Remembers” Debuts
by | Apr 30, 2020 1:37 pm | Comments (3)
Hannah Cooperstock in the documentary.
Paul Bass Photo
New Haven’s Holocaust Memorial.
When the community of Holocaust survivors in New Haven raised a memorial to their dead – the first on public land in America – they numbered about 250 strong.
That was 1976. The founders went out to the community, especially the schools, to tell their stories to young New Haveners.
Now there are a dozen left, and they are increasingly unable to perform that critical “I was there” role – especially at a moment when anti-Semitic incidents and Holocaust denial are having an ugly resurgence.
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City Hip-Hop Pioneer “Stezo” Dies At 52
by | Apr 30, 2020 1:09 pm | Comments (10)
Steve “Stezo” Williams, the New Haven-born rapper, dancer, and producer who made his mark on hip hop history in the late 1980s, died Wednesday evening.
Legislators To Arts Community: Add Your Voices To Reopening Plan
by | Apr 30, 2020 10:22 am | Comments (0)
Kit Ingui, managing director of Long Wharf Theatre, had a question for state legislators on Wednesday afternoon about the strategy to reopen the state, whenever that should happen.
“How can we be considered as a reopening plan is crafted?” she asked. “How can we receive some guidance and support that helps us ensure the health of our artists and patrons so we can invite them back into our space?”
The answer, from State Rep. Dorinda Borer: “Any suggestions from you would be more than welcome.”
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