by | Jan 30, 2025 4:18 pm | Comments (8)
Laura Glesby photo
The target found outside Panzarella's house.
Local Peace Garden steward Frank Panzarella raised his hand and held a paper shooting target up for the mayor, police chief, and a crowd of his neighbors to see.
by | Dec 24, 2023 9:06 am | Comments (17)
Laura Glesby photos
Gaylord Salters offers "Truth With Proof" on Church Street.
Gaylord Salters imagined the event years before it took place, back when he was still fighting for his freedom.
Then, during a year in which newly-freed Black men put New Haven’s criminal justice system on trial, Salters made the event happen: Seven days in a row of calling public attention to how law enforcement manipulated evidence to pin crimes on himself and others.
by | Feb 17, 2023 3:34 pm | Comments (10)
COMPASS outreach specialists Sarah Alkire, Nanette Campbell and Jennifer Vargas.
When someone camping out on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard called 911 last month to report their makeshift shelter had caught fire, they weren’t just connected with the fire department — but also to social workers stocked with blankets, pillows, clothes, comforters and a new tent.
by | Feb 1, 2023 1:00 pm | Comments (30)
Zoom image
At Tuesday's online book talk for Revolution in Our Time.
A dive into the history of the Black Panthers once again reverberated loudly into the present — from the Black Lives Matter movement to the backlash against critical race theory to the killing of Tyre Nichols — as educators and community members gathered online to hear award-winning author Kekla Magoon talk about her new book, Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People.
by | Jan 27, 2023 3:52 pm | Comments (0)
Kimberly Wiplfer photos
Kolton Harris and film student Joaquín Morales.
At Thursday's BITE kickoff.
“Who would have ever thought I’d be back in here watching a film?” asked Tracey Massey, in a hushed whisper, in the back row of a film screening at the former Stetson Branch library building in the soon-to-be-demolished Dixwell Plaza.
On the projector played “Black Joy,” a musical short film by Kolton Harris, which tells the story of a group of Black students in detention who find pride and celebration in their Blackness through song and dance.
“I came to this library 40 years ago as a child growing up in this neighborhood. It is here where we learned the first stories of Black joy. Here’s where we read books about Martin Luther King Jr., where we heard the first Michael Jackson song, the first Nina Simone song. We learned about Malcolm X. All of those stories generated out of this library.”
“It was joy. It was magic. [Harris] is reminding us of that. It was really just like it is in his film,” said Massey.
Continue reading ‘"Black Joy" Film Fest Bids Farewell To Former Stetson’
by | Jan 16, 2023 6:30 pm | Comments (12)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Rev. Eldren Morrison: “The church has lost its activist spirit."
A former New Haven-based faith leader returned to Dixwell Avenue Monday to lift up Martin Luther King Jr.‘s legacy of church-led progressive political action.
Continue reading ‘Rev. Morrison Returns To Preach "Good Trouble"’
by | Oct 6, 2022 10:06 am | Comments (20)
Maya McFadden Photos
Asst. Chief Ettienne at Black and Brown Male Empowerment Conference: "Who knows someone who has died from gun violence?"
Street outreach worker William "Juneboy" Outlaw.
Surround yourself with people who help you thrive — and watch out for those around you who are up to trouble.
Marshawn Moore first learned that lesson three years ago soon after his older brother was shot and killed. The 13-year-old New Havener learned that lesson a second time during a college-campus panel discussion with city cops.
Continue reading ‘Teen Conference Message: "Stay Around The Right People," "Away From Guns"’
by | Oct 4, 2022 3:16 pm | Comments (20)
Maya McFadden photo
Shafiq Abdussabur.
(Opinion) Let’s take a deeper look at gun violence in New Haven. A look beyond the retroactive approach of throwing resources to violence-plagued communities after the fact.
Continue reading ‘City Is Overdue For A Gun-Violence Action Plan’
by | Jul 12, 2022 2:05 pm | Comments (1)
Laura Glesby Photo
Religious and secular leaders gather for dialogue with police brass.
Fifty Black pastors and community activists filled the pews of First Calvary Baptist Church on Monday evening, offering visions for a new era of public safety to city leaders and one another.
Continue reading ‘Church Leaders & Cops Explore Post-Cox Policing’
by | Apr 29, 2022 10:10 am | Comments (10)
Ronald Thomas Rendition
Artist's rendering of Lucretia.
We don’t know where in Africa Lucretia was born. We don’t know where she’s buried. We do know where she lived in New Haven — and Ann Garrett Robinson and Steven Winter are working, four centuries later, to make sure her name lives on there.
Continue reading ‘Petition Drive Supports "Lucretia's Corner"’
by | Apr 25, 2022 1:12 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photos
Comic fans leave the pages to meet real-life superheros.
Javon Stokes at DiasporaCon.
A justice league of comics creators, collectors, and historians were all signaled to gather for a first annual African DiasporaCon.
Continue reading ‘"DiasporaCon" Brings Black Heroes To Life’
by | Mar 11, 2022 12:19 pm | Comments (3)
Trequon Lawrence.
Half a year since 27-year-old Trequon Lawrence was murdered, his family is looking to help others grieving over other unsolved homicides.
Continue reading ‘Slain Man's Family Launches Foundation To Spread Healing And Peace’
by | Mar 2, 2022 2:44 pm | Comments (0)
Ray Paige Photo
SCDAA CT/Michelle's House President and CEO James Rawlings with Board Chair Sharon Jones at poster unveiling.
Ray Paige Photo
by | Jan 19, 2022 9:21 am | Comments (9)
Paul Bass photo
Newly approved Commissioner Rhonda Caldwell at a 2019 rally calling for the firing of Hamden Police Officer Devin Eaton.
Five Hamden residents with diverse policing perspectives have officially taken over Hamden’s Police Commission — after a final debate over whether citizens who question police policies should be involved in decision-making on public safety.
Continue reading ‘Cop Critics Join Cop Commission In Hamden’
by | Jan 4, 2022 1:48 pm | Comments (3)
Paul Bass photo
Nominee Rhonda Caldwell at a 2019 rally calling for the firing of Hamden Police Officer Devin Eaton.
A new day for Hamden’s police commission has come into view after five nominees won the first of two needed votes to take over — and promised to bring heightened transparency and a more diverse outlook on public safety.
Continue reading ‘Auguring New Direction, Hamden Cop Commission Nominations Advance’
by | Nov 10, 2021 1:24 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
Frank E. Brady at WNHH FM.
Shout-out to Miss Henderson: You lit the spark that led to Frank E. Brady versifying for a worldwide audience to mark an historic moment.
by | Nov 4, 2021 10:41 am | Comments (6)
When we argue about statues and historic monuments, what fundamental questions are we discussing —or not discussing?
by | Oct 22, 2021 3:16 pm | Comments (31)
Michael Jefferson
What Black people (who care) must do to combat gun violence in the Black community.
by | Oct 15, 2021 1:13 pm | Comments (40)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Mom Janina Tauro at Friday’s protest outside Rascals.
A toddler was barred from a gym preschool program for wearing a Black Lives Matter T‑shirt — leading roughly 50 adults and kids to return two days later in protest. All wearing shirts with the same message.
Continue reading ‘Gym Bans Toddler Over “Black Lives” Shirt’
by | Oct 13, 2021 11:35 am | Comments (9)
Among the top 100 (clockwise from top left): Michael Jefferson, Barbara Fair, Gary Winfield, Erik Clemons, Khalilah Brown-Dean, Marcella Nunez Smith.
Almost a quarter of the state’s most influential Black people wield that influence from right here in New Haven.
Continue reading ‘Dozens Of New Haveners Among State’s “100 Most Influential Blacks”’
by | Oct 11, 2021 11:28 am | Comments (6)
Maya McFadden Photo
Ariana Akani meets Strawberry Sunday in Goffe Street Park.
On her fifth birthday, Ariana Akani made a new friend named Strawberry. If all goes well, Strawberry will return to New Haven and Ariana again in the spring — and perhaps offer her a ride.
by | Oct 11, 2021 8:27 am | Comments (5)
Lisa Reisman Photo
Discovering Amistad leader Paula Mann-Agnew at return event. In background, CT Freedom Trail Chair Charles Warner, Jr.
Paula Mann-Agnew looked across the waters of New Haven Harbor at the 78-foot Baltimore Clipper replica of the Spanish schooner, La Amistad, docked, in all its majesty, at Long Wharf Pier.
“Sankofa,” Mann-Agnew, executive director of Discovering Amistad, told a gathering Saturday of 50 people in the cool autumn air. “It’s a West African concept that focuses on the fact that in order for us to move forward in a positive way, we need to look back on our history.
by | Oct 2, 2021 7:33 pm | Comments (16)
Lisa Reisman Photo
Latasha Brown at Saturday’s event at the Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence.
Latasha Brown’s wails tore through a quiet, sun-dappled Saturday morning as she cradled a red brick bearing the name and age of her son, Tashawn Eddie Brown.
by | Oct 1, 2021 1:56 pm | Comments (4)
Estate of Winfred Rembert / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Looking for My Mother, 2019; reprinted in new book about the art and life of Newhallville’s Winfred Rembert.
The railroad tracks stretched ahead for miles and miles. Winfred Rembert walked them all day and half the night, searching.
It would take a full 60 years for him to reach his destination, to find what he was truly looking for. He found it right before he died. And laid it out for the rest of us to see.
by | Sep 20, 2021 2:53 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
LaShanté James back at Southern, to make a change.
As LaShanté James outlined her plans to bring more student voices to the table at Southern Connecticut State University, her eyes couldn’t help but watch a trio of Greek steppers make music between their body and the pavement.