Lt. Kenny Howell, Capt. Denise Blanchard, Officer Donna Aponte, Officer Stephanie Johnson & Retired Officer Cleveland Roach.
Assistant Police Chief Petisia Adger sent in this write-up of a recent cop-class graduation anniversary and remembrance of a fallen classmate.
On Nov. 22, police officers from the New Haven police department (State of Connecticut Municipal Police Training Council’s (MPTC) Class of 233), celebrated their 20th anniversary year as law enforcement officers in the City of New Haven. The New Haven police department graduated 25 police officers from this class.
Anat Weiner sent in these photos and the following write-up about an event at the Holocaust Memorial on Whalley Avenue. Click here and here for previous stories and background about the memorial.
Rodrick shows a finished pattern ready to be translated into a final product.
Walking or driving through the center of Westville Village, intriguing window displays at Rodrick Gilchrist Design at 911 Whalley Avenue, signal the artful creations one will find inside. Beyond the gleaming coat-of-arms that bears a large tailor’s shears at the studio’s entrance, is a polished mosaic floor of chunky irregular granite pieces. Racks of clothing are arranged in a setting that seems more art gallery than boutique, more museum than working studio. That vibe may soon change with the advent of new fashion sewing classes that will be offered to the public beginning on September 19, according to partner/owners Rodrick Williams (Gilchrist) and Aysegul Ikna.
The following article was submitted by literacy volunteers Josiah H. Brown and Susan Monroe to coincide with International Literacy Day, which is Thursday.
In discussions of education, the economy, and civic engagement in the United States, rarely acknowledged are the many adults who are functionally illiterate.
Sept. 8 is International Literacy Day. It’s appropriate as a new school year begins — even though much reading, like much learning generally, happens outside of school. UNESCO reports, “In 2008 … the global adult literacy rate was 83%, with a male literacy rate of 88% and a female literacy rate of 79%.” The lowest literacy rates were in sub-Saharan Africa, with under half of the adult population literate in ten countries, while “gender disparity was greatest in Southern Asia, where 73% of all men but only 51% of women had the ability to read and write.” (1)
In the U.S., the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL, 2003) distinguishes among three types of literacy: prose, document, and quantitative literacy.
According to sources including the NAAL, 2 in 5 adults in Greater New Haven have only basic or below basic prose literacy skills. This is consistent with Connecticut at large, with 1 in 10 statewide below the basic level. In New Haven proper (and other cities), the situation is more severe: about 3 in 5 adults have basic or below basic prose literacy skills.
David Sepulveda of Westville sent in this report about Sharece Sellem, a city mime who will be performing an autobiographical play in the neighborhood on July 30.
Back in the 1950s, when Michael D’Avino was just 16 years old and a student at West Haven High School, he got a part time job at Green’s Cleaners at 233 Grand Ave. in New Haven. At that time nobody could have predicted that the youngster would 19 years later buy the business and continue to operate it into the next millennium.
Hugh Price, former president and CEO of the National Urban League, was honored on June 18 by the African-American Historical Society, Inc., at its 8th annual awards ceremony. This year’s theme was “Change and Empowerment.” Price received the Lifetime Contributions award for “A Lifetime Commitment to Social Justice and Social Advocacy.”
The Arts & Ideas Festival is in full swing on the Green, but sometimes some of the best stuff is off the beaten path — like this New Orleans-style jazz street ensemble that was rocking Broadway Plaza Thursday evening.
About 200 people showed up for the first Festival of Inner Peace June 4. The festival, organized by the Center of Light Ministries, took place in Wooster Square Park as part of an event taking place simultaneously in 14 other cities across the country.
Wilbur Cross High School Assistant Principal Larry Conaway with his daughter, Nyla.
When the Christian Community Commission (CCC) launched the Promise Land Project in January, it made a few promises to the residents of the 10-block area that the group targeted for change. Basically, CCC committed to ensuring that neighborhood fear and negativity would be replaced with community pride and safety.
The newest addition to Westville’s expanding economy and its emergence as a destination is Trader’s Market, a year-round flea market that beckons customers to “shop, swap and save.”
During its grand opening last weekend, a giant tethered balloon drew a visual line in the sky to the market’s location at 86 Fitch St., at the corner of Onyx Street, just a block away from bustling Whalley Avenue.
Al Gimm, Amos Smith, Larry Stewart and Greg Walton.
In honor of National Community Action Month, the Community Action Agency of New Haven (CAANH) celebrated its second annual Diversity Day: a day of laughter, bonding and learning for everyone.
In a dual fundraiser for the Robin I. Kroogman New Haven Animal Shelter and the New Haven police K‑9 unit, about two dozen dogs turned out for a “Bark Mitzvah” and some human-canine bonding.
Paula Panzarella sent in this write-up and these photos from an annual event she helped organize on the Green.
May 1 in New Haven was a great day of international solidarity. The event, on the Green, was a bold proclamation of peace and showed an unyielding determination for justice.
Amid a march to support workers’ rights, there were fun activities, from the traditional maypole (pictured at the top of the story) to hula-hooping and juggling.
(Abigail Roth sent in this write-up about a community project she and other volunteers undertook in West Rock and in the Hill this weekend. Chris Randall sent in the write-up following it about an Americorps community garden in Newhallville.)
The sidewalks near Yale-New Haven Hospital and near Katherine Brennan and Clarence Rogers schools were transformed on Saturday, May 14th. Kids from Solar Youth, Inc., Yale alumni and staff participating in the Yale Day of Service, Yale-New Haven Hospital employees, and city employees together painted the city’s “Street Smarts” logo and a community-created elm leaf design on area sidewalks. About 30 adults and children helped with the project.
Liberty Community Services held its third annual “Project STYLE” fashion event attended by 300 local fashionistas at the New Haven Lawn Club to support its efforts in helping New Haven’s homeless community living with HIV/AIDS and mental illness.
Students in the parking lot of the Episcopal Church of St. Paul & St. James.
More than 350 students at Southern Connecticut State University joined in “The Big Event” earlier this month, cleaning property, sidewalks, parks and streets all around the city.
Lending a helping hand has become an annual event for SCSU students, who are following in the footsteps of a quarter-century of service by their counterparts at Texas A&M University. What began there as a community clean-up has spread to more than 60 campuses around the nation.
Pastor Donald Morris and Eugene Brunson, chairman of the CCC.
Bullhorn in hand, Pastor Donald Morris led 15 other pastors on a march through the streets of Newhallville Saturday afternoon, despite the hard rains and high winds that stormed across New Haven. It was the latest effort of the Promise Land Project, a community outreach program aimed at stemming the tide of violence in the neighborhood.
The march began at the Dee Dee’s Dance School building on Dixwell Avenue and followed a route all the way to the front steps of Bassett School. Each member of the clergy used the bullhorn to broadcast a plea to the neighborhood to stop the violence and turn to God for salvation and guidance.
Edgewood student Arlo Bruckmann tests out the giant lollipops.
The Edgewood School play, “Willy Wonka Jr.,” delighted as ever, with kids in grades 3 – 8 acting, singing and dancing their hearts out. But if you took a closer look, you might have concluded that what goes on behind the scenes is almost as dramatic as the theatrical production itself.
Behind the production was a whole community of adults — not necessarily with a kid in the play, or even at the school — and professionals, lending their incredible talents to the production. And had you been there, either during intermission, or at the end of the play, you would have heard spectators speaking emphatically of their appreciation for the level of professional quality in the actors, their costumes and the stage sets.
