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Brian Slattery |
Apr 17, 2025 11:00 am
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Alexander Bushnik
Rhino with Teacups.
Alexander Bushnik’s Rhino with Teacups is whimsical enough that it’s easy to overlook the skill it must have taken to create it. But look again: How exactly does it stay together? Why doesn’t it tip right off the wall?
The balancing act on display in the piece is mirrored in the walls around it, displaying portraits, landscapes, and abstract canvases that in some ways couldn’t be farther apart in style, but are brought together and made into a cohesive whole.
Stanley Heller, Shelly Altman, Martha Hennessy, and Mark Colville.
A local peace organization convened at the downtown library Monday afternoon to hand out its inaugural Dorothy Day award to a pro-Palestinian protest leader who — without clear legal charges or due process — is currently imprisoned far from home.
Wuzzardo and Martorana lead the post-film discussion.
When you invite librarians somewhere, expect to walk away with more than what you started with.
A partnership between New Haven’s Shubert Theater and PBS ended up becoming a citywide library pop-up movie screening tour this month, hitting all five branches of the New Haven Free Public Library with the not-yet-released documentary film Free For All: The Public Library. I caught up with the tour’s third stop Saturday afternoon, at the library’s Ives branch downtown.
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Brian Slattery |
Apr 10, 2025 3:03 pm
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Christina Hunt Wood
Human Nature.
We see crushed cans in the natural urban habitat all the time, but artist Christina Hunt Wood makes us look at them again. There they are, on the road, on the sidewalk, in a layer of scattered leaves. But by turning them to gold, one solid color that connotes value, Wood lets us appreciate the shapes they make, and how varied they can be. Sometimes art is just about a change in perspective, a way to see that we’re making art all the time, even if it’s just because we smashed a can of Coke under the front wheel of our car.
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Laura Glesby and Jordan Allyn |
Apr 6, 2025 5:49 pm
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Laura Glesby Photo
All eyes (and phone cameras) on newly inaugurated Yale Prez McInnis.
Instagram photo
Meanwhile, pro-Palestine student protesters remained masked amid fears of legal retaliation.
Yale has “endured,” said newly inaugurated university President Maurie McInnis, through “the breeze of public criticism” over the course of centuries.
Outside, that “breeze” seemed more like a storm — from frosts over federal funding at peer institutions to the thundering chants of pro-Palestine protesters across the street.
Fair Havener Ana Paola Juarez: "Everyone is so on edge in my neighborhood."
Scenes from Saturday's rally on the Green ...
Thomas Breen photo
... where protesters said to Trump and Musk: "Hands off!"
“Let’s talk about hands off,” New Haven Federation of Teachers President Leslie Blatteau said to roughly 2,000 fellow protesters on the Green on Saturday. “First, hands off our curriculum.”
Shelly Altman, from Jewish Voice for Peace, continued, “Hands off the mouths of students who cry out for an end to the genocide in Gaza.”
Gretchen Raffa, from Planned Parenthood, zoomed out further, “Hands off our bodies.”
Climate activist Sena Wazer added, “It is not only about saying ‘hands off’ to the federal administration. It is also about saying ‘step up’ to the last of our elected officials.”
Spirals Multi-genre arts event 770 Chapel St. March 30, 2025
What is protest art? What is political art?
Since the dawn of state-regulated “artivism,” artists have felt the pressures of society to either opt in to the whole label — use the right keywords on applications, categorize themselves neatly for gatekeepers and audience members, and perhaps be taken less seriously by those who espouse the ideals of “pure art” — or attempt to stay out of politics, an impossible task for someone whose existence is inherently political.
On Sunday afternoon at 770 Chapel St., artists and art-lovers alike simply chose a secret third approach.
by
Jisu Sheen |
Mar 31, 2025 12:10 pm
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Jisu Sheen Photos
Fernanda Franco engaging a new generation.
Jonathan Bower, Myra, Caleb, Louise Umutoni, and Estelle gather together for a quick moment before exploring what to draw next.
Aristocratic portraits lined the walls of the Yale Center for British Art on Day 2 of its grand reopening weekend Sunday, accompanied by the low din of museum-goers walking around, pointing out famous pieces. But the kiddos knew where the real action was at. They were on the fourth floor, sitting on the carpet being mesmerized by local literacy org New Haven Reads’ art-themed storytime.
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Karen Ponzio |
Mar 31, 2025 11:36 am
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A still from "Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles."
Voulez-vous French 75? No, I’m not asking about the gin-based cocktail, but rather the latest series from the Yale Film Archive, which celebrates a trio of French films made in 1975 that are in turn celebrating their 50th anniversary this year.
The first of the series was shown Friday night in all of its three-hour and 22-minute glory. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles brought forth cinephiles who filled nearly every seat of the theater in the Humanities Quadrangle on York Street to experience the film Sight & Sound magazine ranked number one in their “Greatest Films of All Time” poll in 2022.
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Lisa Reisman |
Mar 27, 2025 11:19 am
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Lisa Reisman photo
Strega New Haven's Danilo Mongillo.
Midway through a recent conversation at Strega New Haven on Chapel Street, Danilo Mongillo paused. His phone was ringing again.
Mongillo, Strega’s owner and executive chef, was talking about the roots of his ragù sauce. “There is nothing really to it, there is no other way to do it,” he went on, after hanging up. “The roots are there. You can’t change it. You can put a different ingredient on top to finish, but in the end this is about knowing our roots.”
Earlier this month, Gambero Rosso, the world’s foremost authority on Italian food, wine, and travel, recognized the pocket-sized Chapel Street restaurant for its excellence in authentic Italian cuisine.
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Zachary Groz |
Mar 26, 2025 4:24 pm
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Thomas Breen photo
Posted outside Donut Crazy.
The red neon sign reading “Let’s Eat” still glimmers faintly in the window of Donut Crazy’s York Street storefront — but not a whole lot of eating is happening inside there these days.
Carrying red, white, and blue signs reading “U.S. MAILNOTFORSALE” and chanting “Whose Post Office? The People’s Post Office,” roughly 15 U.S. postal workers marched down Elm Street to protest a recently announced Trump- and Musk-led effort to slash the service’s workforce and budget.
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Karen Ponzio |
Mar 17, 2025 9:52 am
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Sesame Street Live! Say Hello Shubert Theatre March 14, 2025
Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? Friday night, it was on College Street. The Shubert Theatre to be exact. It was the place to greet and get playful with the iconic children’s show’s crew of monsters and other lovable birds and beasts in their newest Sesame Street Live! stage production, aptly titled Say Hello. This reporter, a lifelong fan, and her husband made a date to dive back into some core memories while watching a captivated and super cute crowd party with their fuzzy faves.
Farnam's Carol Horsford (right) with CT Tenants Union Prez Hannah Srajer: Don't protest the wrong people.
1455 State's Lauren Palulis (at mic): "Our electric bills have been insanely high."
(Updated) “We have bills here that are sky high,” Lauren Palulis said, as she confronted her temporary landlord with a copy of her apartment’s $702.38 electric bill for the month of January.
“Call the electric company and PURA” if you have complaints about the cost of electricity, replied her landlord for-now, Farnam Realty’s Carol Horsford. Make sure the city’s Building Department properly inspected the complex’s insulation. But don’t protest a group that has no power over the price of power.
That scene — and reckoning over rising utility costs — played out during a protest on the sidewalk in front of Farnam Realty’s downtown office at 107 Whitney Ave.
More signs with more history and more accessible storytelling about our nearly 400-year-old national historic landmark are coming to the New Haven Green in the next month or two.
That doleful and spirit-crushing 200th anniversary was marked Sunday afternoon at Trinity Church on the Green by a somber “service of lamentation and healing.”
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Brian Slattery |
Mar 7, 2025 1:39 pm
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The three posters are faded, aged, and wrapped in plastic, but the conviction in the messages — and the strength of the design — remain intact. Notes fixed to the wall, as aged as the posters themselves, offer context for non-Spanish speakers.
One translates the slogan on the left-hand side: “Mother: Wherever your name is spoken, victory is said.”
“For the blood of our dead and the future of our children, we defend the revolution,” the center one reads. “AMNLAE, the national women’s organization, is named for a woman killed by the National Guard under Somoza.” At the time of writing, the organization had 60,000 members and influenced “policies related to health, education, child care, adoption, family law and employment. In León, the Sister City Project was instrumental in opening a women’s legal office under the auspices of AMNLAE.”
The third poster is perhaps the most direct: “The Nicaraguan people will never surrender.”
by
Laura Glesby |
Mar 7, 2025 10:23 am
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Mara Lavitt Photos
Justices Nora Dannehy, Steven Ecker, Andrew McDonald, and Raheem Mullins.
How should a judge respond to racist tirades in court from a man purportedly experiencing psychosis?
The state Supreme Court weighed that question at a hearing held at Yale Law School as part of the court’s “On Circuit” initiative to bring oral arguments to educational institutions across the state.
Decades after an aborted attempt by local officials to deliver an honorary certificate at Toad’s Place, New Haven’s mayor joined an alder onstage to officially express the city’s pride in the 50-year-old legendary York Street rock club.
Teachers union Prez Blatteau: "We will stand up and fight back."
Maya McFadden Photo
HSC juniors Japhet and Jonaily making a case for their future education.
High School in the Community (HSC) junior Japhet dreams of becoming the first college graduate in his family — but also worries that dream won’t be possible if federal education cuts are made by the Trump administration.
Holding signs reading “People over profit” and “fund our schools,” Japhet marched alongside hundreds of fellow New Haveners to fight for the future of public education.
Tuesday afternoon snapshots of a handful of commuters on the Green revealed bus riders who actually felt quite positive about their bus-taking experiences, if less so about the atmosphere of smoke, noise, and negative behaviors that often surrounds the hub.
Their stories shine a light on what’s working, and what could be a lot better, about New Haven’s state-run public transit system at a time when the hub of the city’s hub-and-spoke bus network is on the verge of some major changes.
At an album release party Friday night at Cafe Nine, DJs from New Haven’s HEATSYNC all-vinyl collective dropped tracks from their new 4‑track techno dance EPBuddy City. The crowd pulsated as fog and humming beats pumped into the space. Every so often, a dancer would take over the floor for a moment, flowing alongside the distortion and sweet noise.
As DJ 7Ways played one of the original tracks from Buddy City, his voice floated over the crowd: “This record is for sale. And this is the first time a mic has ever been used at HEATSYNC. Goodbye.”
