by | Feb 4, 2025 10:47 am | Comments (4)
Nora Grace-Flood File Photo
Resident Suki Godek outside her Catholic Worker House "tiny" home.
Nora Grace-Flood file photo
At DESK's drop-in center.
The following release was submitted by the Wessel Fund:
The Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen and Amistad Catholic Worker are this year’s recipients of the Unsung Heroes Award from the Irmgard and Morris Wessel Fund.
by | Dec 24, 2024 9:22 am | Comments (3)
Laura Glesby Photo
IfeMichelle Gardin shows off her James Baldwin earrings.
There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
Then there are years marked by someone like IfeMichelle Gardin, who in 2024 “exposed the questions that the answers hide” — as artists do, according to James Baldwin.
Gardin is authoring a new chapter of New Haven’s literary history in the form of Kulturally Lit, an organization that blossomed over the past year during what would have been James Baldwin’s 100th year of life.
by | Nov 14, 2024 10:34 am | Comments (5)
Paul Bass Photo
Bill Dixon at WNHH FM (above); Rally the Raven, with tail intact (below).
Bill Dixon has one regret: What happened to Rally the Raven’s tail.
by | Oct 21, 2024 9:43 am | Comments (1)
Laura Glesby photos
Dr. Robinson, with Alder Streater: “We are part of a story. That story can be better and better.”
The sign is revealed.
A seemingly ordinary street corner morphed into a dance floor, a concert hall, and a classroom, in honor of a beloved neighbor and teacher who has made history by remembering it.
by | Jul 2, 2024 9:18 am | Comments (6)
Maya McFadden photos
Family gathered to celebrate library dedication honoring Hazel Pappas (pictured below).
Maya McFadden Photo
A mother, grandmother, sister, and advocate for thousands of young New Haveners — and for the broader public school community — will live on, through the newly dedicated Hazel B. Pappas Media Center at Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy.
by | Jan 12, 2024 1:26 pm | Comments (10)
Maya McFadden Photo
Huggins helps a Cross student scan in for a summer job.
Ronald Huggins made his way through the Wilbur Cross High School hallways greeting students with handshakes and a “What’s up bro?”
And a pitch to enter the summer jobs pipeline.
by | Oct 6, 2023 4:35 pm | Comments (16)
Kevin McCarthy (left): Booted from top job. Kevin McCarthy (right): Making the most of retirement.
On Tuesday’s historic morning, Kevin McCarthy woke up at 6. He made himself “a very simple breakfast”: some raisin bread toast and a cup of coffee. Then he left the house.
No, not that Kevin McCarthy. And not that House.
by | Jul 25, 2023 12:56 pm | Comments (1)
Mia Cortés Castro Photo
Shoot-off between the high school girls' and boys' teams on Monday.
After 10 rounds of hoops shoot-offs against the Lady Heat, New Haven Heat basketball players Amir Durant and Romel Holmes-Gordon took to the sidelines to reflect on the “big family” that their team has become.
Continue reading ‘Basketballers Bring The Heat In Fair Haven’
by | May 30, 2023 2:51 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass File Photo
IRIS's Chris George (at right in photo) with Gov. Ned Lamont and state housing chief Seila Mosquera-Bruno at 2021 Scranton Street event highlighting need for apartments for Afghan refugees.
After 18 years of making New Haven a national leader in refugee resettlement, Chris George is ready to hand over the reins.
by | Mar 20, 2023 11:37 am | Comments (0)
Allen Samuel Photos
Women paying tribute at Sunday's event (clockwise from top left): Ethnic Heritage Center Walk New Haven Coordinator and JHSGNH Past President Rhoda Zahler Samuel, close Schiff friends Rachel Leff and Sara Fraim, Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford Executive Director Elizabeth Rose, JHSGNH President Marjorie Drucker, Yale Alumni Magazine Editor Kathrin Day Lassila (holding Yale Medal awarded to Schiff).
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven (JHSGNH) kicked off a tradition Sunday: An annual Judith Ann Schiff Women’s History Program. The event took place at New Haven Museum in conjunction with an exhibit about “Trailblazing Jewish Women” from New Haven and Connecticut. The first event honored Schiff herself, the “people’s historian” who served the City of New Haven as well as Yale and helped found the JHSGNH, and who died last year at the age of 84. Following is the published JHSGNH tribute to Schiff, written by Carole Bass.
by | Feb 10, 2023 2:55 pm | Comments (27)
Lucy Gellman / New Haven Arts Paper Photos
"Ms. B" helping a student-actor get ready for Newsies, Jr. in January.
Briana Bellinger-Dawson left her “dream job” as an arts educator at Nathan Hale School earlier this month after deciding that she could no longer afford to work part-time and not receive the support she needed to get her teaching certification.
Her departure has left a community of Morris Cove families already feeling the beloved teacher’s absence — and speaking out about their frustration that the city’s public school district didn’t do enough to hold onto a life-changing role model who went above and beyond to bring performing arts to city students.
Continue reading ‘Praise, Frustration Follow Star Teacher's Departure’
by | Dec 23, 2022 11:01 am | Comments (10)
Maya McFadden photo
Honda Smith at the Shack: Banking on trust and community.
Honda Smith made a promise to herself and to her West Hills neighbors that, after retiring from three decades of working for the city, she would find a way to keep serving her neighborhood.
As a reborn westside community center thrives under her watch and neighbors keep busy and fed, that promise has been well kept.
by | Dec 21, 2022 9:11 am | Comments (2)
Kimberly Wipfler photo
Ann Swain and Kim Harris at management team holiday party.
Ann Swain wiped tears from her eyes as Newhallville Community Management Team Chair Kim Harris listed all of the little reasons that make her a neighborhood hero — from returning trash cans to neighbors’ homes after the garbage truck comes to going door-to-door to making sure every kid on the street gets treats from block parties they couldn’t attend.
by | Oct 28, 2022 3:17 pm | Comments (9)
Paul Bass Photo
Before he moves on from his city job next week, Martin Torresquintero is hustling to finish one last bridge to connect New Haveners to an overlooked nature wonderland.
by | Sep 15, 2022 5:20 pm | Comments (0)
Maya McFadden Photos
Judge Robinson with Mauro seventh graders.
Retired Superior Court Judge Angela Robinson ordered seventh and eighth-grade students at Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School Thursday to chase their dreams.
by | Aug 25, 2022 10:20 am | Comments (5)
Maya McFadden photo
Phara Dorleans: "I'm not giving up on the kids."
A city celebration of educators and school staff reminded Mauro-Sheridan Magnet School French teacher Phara Dorleans of the moments that have kept her in the profession for seven years and counting.
At the top of that list: When her then-kindergarten student cried all weekend to her father, “I want to go to school to see mademoiselle. I miss her!”
by | Aug 12, 2022 3:44 pm | Comments (1)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Next-gen ambassador: Newly retired firefighter Erika Bogan at 2019 community event telling 7-year-old Shy Bond about the profession.
Smoke was everywhere: Erika Bogan couldn’t see. But she could feel the stairs below her. And she discovered — yes, she could do this job.
by | Aug 2, 2022 4:18 pm | Comments (4)
Maya McFadden Photos
"Team Get Right" and "Young Kings" square off in OT in day's final game.
Basketballs soared in the air. Stuntin’ Is A Habit played on the loud speaker. Families competed in spades. And grill smoke ignited the crowd’s appetites.
Continue reading ‘With Summer Tourney, Newhallville Gets Right’
by | Jul 6, 2022 6:18 pm | Comments (7)
Wanda Gibbs.
Beloved city educator Wanda Gibbs has died after a lifetime of helping her students turn around their lives in and outside of the classroom.
Continue reading ‘"Fearless" Champion For Children Dies At 70’
by | May 26, 2022 1:44 pm | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen photo
Ed Mattison (center) chairs a 2019 City Plan Commission meeting.
For the past 14 years, Ed Mattison has had as up-close of a view as anyone of New Haven’s changing built environment — and has helped guide that development through countless volunteer hours spent trying to balance the strictures of land-use law with the real-world needs of people and neighborhoods.
It was a good run. Mattison announced Wednesday that, thanks to an obscure and sometimes overlooked city law, he’ll be stepping down from his post on the City Plan Commission to make way for new voices to take the lead.
Continue reading ‘Term Limited, City Plan Veteran Mattison Moves On’
by | May 15, 2022 2:48 pm | Comments (0)
Maya McFadden Photos
Raheem DeVaughn performs at Shubert.
Freedom Fund 2022 honorees.
After a three-year hiatus, the annual Freedom Fundraiser held by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) returned full-force Thursday evening with a rhythmic and intimate remixed celebration at the Shubert Theater.
Continue reading ‘NAACP, Raheem DeVaughn Take To The Shubert For "Freedom Fund" Return’
by | May 11, 2022 3:31 pm | Comments (7)
Melissa Bailey Photo
"The guy keeps winning": The late Winfred Rembert in the Newhall Street apartment where he made the magic happen.
Estate of Winfred Rembert / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Looking for My Mother, 2019; reprinted in Chasing Me To My Grave.
Lillian Rembert dropped her mail sack on Shelton Avenue to see why her phone was blowing up with alerts — to discover that her late father won a Pulitzer Prize.
by | Apr 8, 2022 11:25 am | Comments (18)
Courtney Luciana Photo
Reggie Gibson cleaning "the bridge."
Nip bottles, candy wrappers and cigarette butts cluttered the road. Until Reggie Gibson showed up with his broom.
by | Apr 7, 2022 3:10 pm | Comments (3)
Maya McFadden Photo
Students, Women of the Village, Yale police, and NHPD partner.
A trio of New Haven high schoolers joined the fight to address local food insecurity by supporting a food pantry run by the nonprofit Women of the Village.
Continue reading ‘Students Team Up With Cops, Women Of The Village To Feed Hungry Families’
by | Mar 15, 2022 7:36 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photos
Gonzalez's daughter Diane Mora-Valez and grandson Nathaniel check out honorary portrait.
City police, elected officials, and family celebrated the life of Officer Diane Gonzalez at the unveiling of a memorial portrait and plaque two months after she succumbed to injuries suffered in an on-duty car crash.
Continue reading ‘Portrait Of Fallen Officer Diane Gonzalez Unveiled On NHPD Memorial Wall’