by | May 3, 2023 8:45 am | Comments (0)
Marty Tucker, a recently minted member of New Haven Theater Company, recalled how he was asked to join the troupe. “One night Kevin” — that is, J. Kevin Smith, NHTC’s president — “bought me a beer and said, ‘hey, I got a question for you.’ How are you going to say no after someone buys you a beer?”
by | May 2, 2023 2:22 pm | Comments (5)
Lisa Reisman Photo
Imagining the Hiptec Suit Version 1
Behold the Hiptec Suit Version 1, a VR full suit created by a group of 10 eighth graders from Truman School on a field trip to DAE, formerly known as the afterschool program District Arts + Education.
Portable, adjustable, and a lightweight microfiber nylon, it features a body tracking belt that regulates the user’s temperature, a sensor that recognizes anxiety and tells you to breathe, and the option for virtual reality therapy sessions.
There’s just one caveat. Hiptec Suit Version 1 exists only on a whiteboard.
by | Apr 20, 2023 3:23 pm | Comments (5)
Thomas Breen photo
The not-yet-opened canal trail, viewed from Whitney south of Audubon.
Concrete has been poured and hard-hatted construction workers are busy on site, but the final downtown stretch of New Haven’s Farmington Canal Heritage Trail won’t be done until the fall — thanks to a mandatory break to accommodate summer camps in an adjacent park.
Continue reading ‘Canal Construction Finish Pushed To The Fall’
by | Apr 20, 2023 2:44 pm | Comments (15)
Thomas Breen photo
Construction underway at 842-848 Chapel.
Shoveling ceremonial dirt for "The Archive."
One hundred and sixty-six new market-rate apartments — and at least one sauna — are en route for Chapel Street thanks to two new now-under-construction buildings slated for two long-vacant lots downtown.
by | Apr 18, 2023 12:02 pm | Comments (15)
Thomas Breen photos
Mohamed Lamine behind the counter at the newly opened smoke shop at the old Egidio's Hair Studio on Orange Street. (Below)
A former Orange Street hair salon has newly opened its doors as a smoke shop.
Several months after a former Chapel Street cellphone store shuttered to become a smoke shop.
Not long after the former Ann Taylor on the Green cycled through its afterlife as a rapid Covid testing site to become — wait for it — a smoke shop.
Continue reading ‘Surprise! Downtown Gets ... Another Smoke Shop’
by | Apr 17, 2023 1:32 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photos
Ray Shaw: No parking meters needed during Chapel construction closure.
Closed eastbound lanes on Chapel at Church.
Ray Shaw hustled out of the rain and back towards his city transit department van after turning off the parking meters on an eastbound block of Chapel Street that will be closed to car-and-foot traffic for the next 16 months to make way for the construction of 166 new downtown apartments.
Continue reading ‘Construction Boom Shutters Chapel Lanes, Sidewalk For 16 Months’
by | Apr 13, 2023 8:25 am | Comments (0)
Greg Aimé
Sir MacArthur and Pope Francis
Greg Aimé’s Sir MacArthur and Pope Francis are already intricate enough from a visual perspective. They are riffs on, even explosions of, classic European portraiture. They are collages to get lost in, places where cultural signifiers blend and collide. They capture the scrum of history, the messy generation of culture, where suffering, celebration, experience and investigation commingle. Aimé then adds a layer for anyone with a device that can read a QR code; there’s music, narration, that gives more context, broadens and deepens the themes. The layers of aural and visual components are a statement in themselves. There’s always more to learn, always ways to dig deeper.
Continue reading ‘Ely Center Show Sees "Truth In Three Colors"’
by | Apr 11, 2023 4:46 pm | Comments (42)
Brian Slattery File Photo
Now-former Ely Center employee Max Schmidt: "I think we can do better."
A now-former employee at a Trumbull Street visual arts gallery left his job after finding out about a board member’s decade-old child pornography arrest.
That employee is now speaking out about what he describes as an insensitive and unsupportive workplace, as well as an alleged exodus of board members sparked by their former colleague’s criminal record.
by | Apr 10, 2023 12:47 pm | Comments (6)
Brian Slattery Photo
Conversation facilitator Kim Weston: "I want young people, and children, and anyone who walks into this space to be safe."
A downtown visual art gallery has kicked off a public reckoning with how to become a “safe” workplace in the wake of resignations by several board members and an employee.
Continue reading ‘After Resignations, Ely Center Charts Path Forward’
by | Apr 10, 2023 12:00 pm | Comments (1)
Abiba Biao photos
Workshop attendee Nathalie Garcia: "You just need to be ready and know how to take care of yourself and others."
A box of Narcan nasal spray.
Shrunken pupils, shallow breathing and blue nail beds are signs that someone may be overdosing on opioids — and cues that more New Haveners may now be able to pick up on, thanks to a library-hosted class educating the public on how to intervene in such situations.
by | Mar 30, 2023 8:32 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Sooyun Kim, Kate Arndt, Tanner Menees, Christine J. Lee, and Bridget Kibbey (l. to r.)
Min Young Kang, founder and artistic director of Kallos Chamber Music Series, smiled at the full house in the ballroom of the New Haven Lawn Club before Wednesday night’s concert began. “It always feels so great to come back here to share music with such a welcoming and warm audience like you,” she said. “Every single one of you plays a huge role in our performance, because we feed off our audiences.”
by | Mar 27, 2023 3:39 pm | Comments (34)
Lisa Reisman file photo
Isidore "Izzy" Juda with 1938 passport issued after escaping to Switzerland.
Midway through a discussion at Congress Avenue’s John C. Daniels School, fifth-grader Lucas Rivera posed a question to Holocaust survivor Isidor “Izzy” Juda that caused Rivera’s roughly 50 classmates to inch even further forward in their seats.
Continue reading ‘Survivor Brings Holocaust History To Class’
by | Mar 22, 2023 9:40 am | Comments (2)
Alejandro Hernández, Camila Moreno, Mónica Sánchez, and Alma Martinez.
Armida has a proposition for the family in front of her. She wants to make Hason, who already works for her, more of a business partner. Hason is game. He’s been working for this opportunity for a while now. Acan, his son, is also ready. He’s been getting used to his life in Los Angeles. But Medea, Acan’s mother, isn’t so sure. She worries about what Hason may be giving up. She and Tita, the family’s matron, worry that maybe Armida’s designs on Hason extend past the professional. In that moment, there is a sense that the family, which has held together through several hardships, might just start coming back. And Medea doesn’t know what to do.
by | Mar 16, 2023 3:18 pm | Comments (18)
Thomas Breen photo
Wilfred Fuentes, Jayuan Carter, Tom Goldenberg aboard the 206.
Wilfred Fuentes is not looking forward to paying $1.75 again every time he needs to commute from his home in the Annex to his job in Hamden.
Fuentes found a sympathetic ear in a Democratic mayoral challenger who rode the bus and talked to riders roughly two weeks before fares are set to resume for the currently free-to-ride state-run public transit system.
by | Mar 16, 2023 11:10 am | Comments (18)
City of New Haven rendering
A sketch of the proposed new Long Wharf Drive park.
An aldermanic committee endorsed the Elicker Administration’s plan to build a new community marina and expanded waterfront park on Long Wharf — as well as a cafe kiosk and bathroom on the Green and a family-friendly playground downtown — if the city manages to secure $32.1 million in infrastructure-boosting state aid.
by | Mar 16, 2023 8:45 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery photo
Warren Leftridge, Finn Crumlish, Amelia Tamborra-Walton.
Seymour, who works in a flower shop, has found an unusual plant. He stumbled across it during a total eclipse and has brought it to the store, where it’s attracting customers. His boss, Mr. Mushnik is pleased. But Seymour has discovered a terrible secret: the plant only grows by being fed human blood, and is ever hungry for more. Plus, it seems to be able to talk. What is Seymour going to do? And how will all of this affect the relationship he hopes to have with his co-worker, Audrey?
Continue reading ‘Hillhouse Drama Opens Little Shop Of Horrors’
by | Mar 15, 2023 8:55 am | Comments (1)
Amelia Maurer
Maeve and the Monsoons.
Amelia Maurer’s surreal image evokes power and magic, a sense of fearlessness. The viewer is the intruder in this scenario; the subject is a guardian, and she’s holding all the cards. The piece is striking enough on its own. Presenting it as the cover art for an imaginary album only magnifies its allure. It suggests that the associated music is strange and visionary. You haven’t heard anything like it, but you want to.
by | Mar 14, 2023 9:10 am | Comments (16)
Rendering of a new lab-and-office building ...
... to be built by Ancora at SW corner of ex-Coliseum site.
A North Carolina-based real estate developer has purchased the southwest corner of the ex-Coliseum site for over $10.6 million — furthering an already-city-approved plan to build up that part of the property into a new 11-story lab and office building.
Continue reading ‘Lab Builder Buys "10th Sq." Corner For $10M+’
by | Mar 13, 2023 2:15 pm | Comments (1)
David Weselcouch at Sunday's parade.
While expounding on the near-perfect symmetry of his outfit, David Weselcouch paused mid-sentence.
“Wait, hey — St. Patrick is going by,” he called out from his station on Chapel Street.
Continue reading ‘Chapel St. Goes Green For St. Patrick's Day Parade’
by | Mar 9, 2023 11:26 am | Comments (14)
Tom Breen file photo
Alders Eli Sabin and Carmen Rodriguez on a State St. redesign walking tour last October.
A downtown-adjacent stretch of State Street is one step closer to seeing new life as a place to walk, bike, shop, and live — now that alders have formally accepted a $5.3 million state grant to remake a car-centric Urban Renewal-cleared corridor.
by | Mar 8, 2023 5:00 pm | Comments (6)
Laura Glesby photos
Marilyn DeJesus and John Antoni protest for higher pay, lower childcare costs.
Marilyn DeJesus was making $12 an hour as an early childhood educator — and paying $1,700 a month for childcare as a single parent.
Having since left that job to teach toddlers at a center with better compensation, DeJesus joined hundreds of other early educators on the Green to call for higher wages and lower childcare costs.
Continue reading ‘Hundreds Rally At "Morning Without Childcare"’
by | Mar 7, 2023 9:04 am | Comments (8)
Isaiah Crowe of Gorilla Lemonade with Dena at Schwarzman.
With a single sip of lemonade, history was made on the lower level of Yale’s Schwarzman Center.
Continue reading ‘Gorilla Lemonade Lands Yale Beverage Supplier Gig’
by | Mar 7, 2023 9:01 am | Comments (0)
Goldfish, the first full production by New Haven Theater Company since Annapurna last May, features a scenic design by director John Watson that truly sets the stage: on one side, a kitchen in a scrappy apartment where 19-year-old Albert Ledger (Nick Fetherston) lives with his father Leo (John Strano), a widower who has a problem holding onto money whenever there’s something to bet on; on the other side, a sumptuous house where a divorced mother, Margaret (Sandra E. Rodriguez), swills martinis in her pajamas and pearls, while sharing smokes with her daughter Lucy (Sara Courtemanche), also 19. In between is a shifting space — now library, now cafeteria, now bed, now bus stop — that serves as the upstate college, set amidst rolling hills, where Albert and Lucy meet and evolve a relationship.
Continue reading ‘NHTC Production Depicts Life In A Fishbowl’
by | Mar 6, 2023 9:07 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Cloudbelly.
Corey Laitman, a.k.a. Cloudbelly, smiled at the eager crowd about halfway through their set Sunday afternoon at Cafe Nine. “I’ve never done a matinee show,” they said, marveling at the experience of performing earlier in the day. “I don’t feel tired at all. I don’t have to rally.” Laughter rippled through the room.
“Me neither!” said someone from the audience.
“I feel so relaxed!” Laitman said.
by | Mar 3, 2023 8:32 am | Comments (0)
The pulsing hook of Ionne’s “The Last Time” reverberated through the speakers at Lilly’s Pad, the upstairs stage at Toad’s Place. Dancer Tadea Martin-Gonzalez struck a pose, then moved from it, her actions graceful and strong. As the beat churned to life, Ionne himself (a.k.a. Maurice Harris) sang the first few lines, clear, concise, mixing mournfulness and hope. “All we ever feared / Was killing time / Several hundred years / Amount to / Castles that we’ll never own / And songs I write / But cannot sing myself / Our dreams of spaceships / And their secret plans / To take us somewhere else.”