by | Nov 30, 2023 9:59 am | Comments (4)
Allan Appel photo
Co-owner Michael Massey with a young customer.
The Black Corner Store on Edgewood Avenue isn’t closing. For now. But it is up for sale, as Kenia and Michael Massey try to find a way to keep their neighborhood storefront afloat as both a for-profit business and a nonprofit hub for classes in financial literacy and other community resources.
by | Oct 6, 2023 9:18 am | Comments (3)
Allan Appel photo
Rashaan Boyd inside A Hustler's Vibe: "They’ve been looking for me so long, now [here I am!]”
Thanks to a combination of foot traffic and web traffic along with deep neighborhood roots, the newest entrepreneur on lower Edgewood Avenue is about to hit his 1,000th customer and has a new six-month lease in hand.
That entrepreneur, Rashaan Boyd, breathed new life into a vacant storefront at Day and Edgewood with his A Hustler’s Vibe clothing outlet and is going strong.
He is among the merchants the Independent is interviewing who are figuring out how to make small business work along largely residential stretches of Edgewood Avenue.
Continue reading ‘Dwight Entrepreneur Makes The Hustle Work’
by | Aug 14, 2023 12:14 pm | Comments (2)
Allan Appel photo
Friends of Kensington Park's Olivia Marston, Myles Branch and his sketch of future equipment.
How about an upgraded splash pad — one where there’s not only refreshing spray, but the really cool kind where buckets of water fall on your head?
Continue reading ‘Pizza & Playground Plans Prevail At Kensington Park’
by | Jul 31, 2023 4:13 pm | Comments (22)
Maya McFadden Photo
Queenie Nkrumah (center) in class for S.T.R.E.E.T Credit and Enrichment Program.
Fifteen-year-old Queenie Nkrumah penned a letter to her future self five years from now detailing her goals to buy a home for her mother, become a real estate agent, and work toward making $1 million by age 21.
Continue reading ‘Black Corner Students Study For Financial Freedom’
by | Jul 27, 2023 11:32 am | Comments (4)
Maya McFadden photo
Troup graduate and school board Prez Yesenia Rivera reads to Troup second graders.
Board of Education President Yesenia Rivera returned to her alma mater middle school on Edgewood Avenue — and then traveled with the help of a children’s book back home to the beaches of Puerto Rico — while reading to second graders at one of the public school district’s summer programming sites.
Continue reading ‘Rivera Book-Travels To Puerto Rico At Troup’
by | Jul 3, 2023 11:14 am | Comments (3)
Asher Joseph photos
Ranezmay (right) and her friends delight in the spouts of water on the splash pad ...
... as volunteers prepare to mulch a nearby patch of dirt.
The sound of rustling leaves merged with squeals of joy and the gurgling of the Kensington Playground splash pad as a light mist wafted through the heavy heat. Despite the stifling smog that hung in the air, neither the Friends of Kensington Playground clean-up volunteers nor the neighborhood’s kids let it deter them from rejoicing in the beauty of a recently saved public park.
Continue reading ‘Splashing & Mulching At Kensington Playground With Ranezmay, Pat, Jane, & Friends’
by | Jun 28, 2023 11:00 am | Comments (1)
Eleanor Polak Photos
Kristie Entwistle leads a group in seated dance at Fellowship Place.
Six members of the Artship Artists’ Cooperative at Fellowship Place, an agency that provides therapeutic support and rehabilitation services for adults living with mental illness, sat in a circle of chairs in front of a butterfly mural. Each person had a large container in front of them and a pair of drumsticks in their hands. As the Beatles’ “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” played on the loudspeakers, dance instructor Kristie Entwistle led the group in seated dance filled with hand-clapping, swaying, and beats on the drums.
Continue reading ‘Seated Dance Class Finds Healing Through Art’
by | Jun 15, 2023 2:57 pm | Comments (33)
Thomas Breen photo
Kishaun Jenkins: Celebrating "the coolest spot to be."
A Boston-based affordable housing developer has dropped its plans to buy a Kensington Street public park and construct 15 new apartments in its stead — prompting the Elicker administration to move to end a related years-long lawsuit on the grounds that the contested public greenspace will remain public and green.
by | May 31, 2023 5:09 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
Rashaan Boyd (shown above at center right), makes his new venture official, surrounded (from far left) by city Deputy Economic Developoment Director Cathy Graves, brother Tyson, Mayor Justin Elicker, mom Medria Givens, and partner Alonte.
Carlos Eyzaguirre hustled to squeeze in some family shopping while conducting city business Wednesday on Dwight Street.
Continue reading ‘Officials Hustle To Cut Streetwear Shop Ribbon’
by | May 18, 2023 9:13 am | Comments (9)
Paul Bass Photo
A car was driving the wrong way down the street yet again. Christopher Nguyen knew that can mean trouble.
by | May 11, 2023 5:44 pm | Comments (1)
“Semi-retired” carpenter Michael Blackman was out working, as usual, on Platt Street helping his son create community.
Continue reading ‘Word On Platt Street: Pop Pops In With The Crew’
by | May 11, 2023 8:45 am | Comments (2)
Contributed photo
Dwight neighbors at Saturday's cleanup.
With shovels and rakes in hand, roughly 30 Dwight neighbors took to the streets for a neighborhood cleanup.
Continue reading ‘Dwight Turns Out For Neighborhood Cleanup’
by | May 5, 2023 4:07 pm | Comments (7)
Contributed photo
Hillhouse senior and aspiring future congresswoman Ma'Shai Roman.
School board student representative Ma’Shai Roman is on track to graduate from Hillhouse High School in less than two months to pursue a college degree in political science with the goal of one day becoming a U.S. congresswoman.
If you had read her that sentence two years ago, Roman likely wouldn’t have believed it — as she was in the midst of transferring to her third high school while struggling with her mental health, all against the backdrop of the isolating and education-disrupting effects of a global pandemic.
Continue reading ‘Ready For College, Hillhouse Senior Persevered’
by | May 2, 2023 11:17 am | Comments (6)
Paul Bass Photo
Boyd outside his new storefront.
Rashaan Boyd has returned to the corner of Edgewood Avenue and Day Street to reclaim a piece of the block.
by | Apr 18, 2023 3:42 pm | Comments (26)
Thomas Breen file photo
Brennan (right) with Fabian Menges, Max Choulideer, and Dave Cruz-Bustamante.
Don’t rely just on bashing Yale and begging the state when it comes to raising enough money to fill city budget gaps.
Liam Brennan offered those words of caution as he pitched his mayoral campaign’s vision for how best to craft a “fair share,” pro-housing budget that rethinks the bounds of permissible local government action.
Continue reading ‘Brennan Looks Beyond Yale, State For Budget Boosts’
by | Mar 22, 2023 2:46 pm | Comments (1)
Paul Bass Photo
John Onoforio had on a Milwaukee hoodie, not a golf shirt, as he emerged from his Toyota Sienna minivan Wednesday morning.
Continue reading ‘The Word On Edgewood: "Maintenance Guy" Comes To The Fore’
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 1, 2023 2:37 pm | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photo
Started young, still painting: Matt Bleythings and Robert Picagli at work site Wednesday.
In their fathers’ footsteps, Robert Picagli and Matt Bleything picked up the tools to prepare a century-plus-old Dwight building to house new generations of renters.
Continue reading ‘Word On Kensington Street: Paintbrushes Pass Down’
by | Feb 27, 2023 4:05 pm | Comments (0)
Contributed photo
James Rawlings, visiting Wall Street for Founders Day.
With his feather-adorned Stetson hat firmly on his head, James Rawlings visited the New York Stock Exchange for a “Founders Day” celebration of successful Black businesspeople — and returned to New Haven fired up about how to inspire a next generation of corporate leaders and healthcare advocates.
Continue reading ‘Sickle Cell Awareness Advocate Pays Wall Street A Visit’
by | Feb 10, 2023 12:33 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photo
Christine Janis and John Deming at Brick Oven Pizza during Thursday's fundraiser.
Christine Janis and John Deming ordered up a dinner pie with extra toppings — and a message for the earthquake-shattered people of Turkey.
Continue reading ‘Pizza-Fueled $10K On Its Way To Earthquake Victims’
by | Feb 9, 2023 2:00 pm | Comments (3)
Paul Bass Photo
Mid-morning at the oasis: Dominique and Bamboo Thursday in Rainbow Park.
Dominique decided to turn right a block sooner than usual on her way home. She walked by a rainbow and entered a new world.
Continue reading ‘During Dwight Detour, Dominique Discovers Eden’
by | Feb 7, 2023 2:50 pm | Comments (4)
The rubble in Diyarbakır, Turkey.
Paul Bass Photo
Stepping up: Kadir Catalbasoglu Tuesday at Brick Oven Pizza.
The tragedy unfolding in his native Turkey prompted Kadir Catalbasoglu to do what he usually does when people need help: He got busy.
Continue reading ‘Pizzeria Raises Dough For Turkish Earthquake Victims’
by | Jan 30, 2023 4:00 pm | Comments (1)
Paul Bass Photo
Eugene J. Foreman Jr. looked surprisingly calm with his walkie-talkie out on the Beers Street sidewalk outside Augusta Lewis Troup School as a siren sounded and kids poured out of the building.
by | Jan 19, 2023 4:23 pm | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photo
Kasheem “Kash” Knight returned to Dwight from the overnight shift to throw in a load of laundry, and keep working.
by | Jan 10, 2023 5:24 pm | Comments (6)
Derrex Conner was on his way to the dump when he noticed a dozen bags trashing the curb on Elm Street between Beers and Orchard.
Continue reading ‘Word On The Street: Dumped Trash Disappears’