Arts & Culture | Arts In CT | Westville | Edgewood Park | Arts & Anti-racism
As she started to groove on the corner of West Rock Avenue, Arts In CT's Barbara “Babs” Alexander couldn't help but get lost in the music. For a moment, she let herself sway to a steady bachata beat, taking a break from her busy day to take in the scene around her.
Throughout the day, that smile never left her face, passing on the joy that she felt as music, food, and different cultures came together for a single afternoon.
That delight unfolded last Saturday at Edgewood Park, at the second annual International Cultural Arts Fusion Festival, hosted by Arts in CT. The organization is a Westville-based nonprofit focused on providing arts programming for kids and adults alike. For the past year, it has been fighting to find a permanent home for its arts programming, which ranges from student theater to adult dance.
The festival seeks to help people “learn about each other's cultures,” and expose the artistic talents of the greater New Haven community, said Alexander, founder and executive director of Arts in CT. After viewing other events like the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Alexander became inspired to hold her own festival but with a twist, focusing on amplifying performers making art across the diaspora or diasporas.
“Everything is an art,” she said. “When people think art, they think visual art, they think performing art, but they don't think about [how] everything was made from a blueprint that’s tangible.”
Lor Cara Palulis and Carmen “Katy” Lowden.
Sharing a table were friends and makers Lor Cara Palulis and Carmen “Katy” Lowden. The two business owners met while vending at a local yarn shop in Windsor and have become best buddies ever since.
Palulis, 34, is the owner of Knitten Word, which creates and sells hand-dyed yarn. She started the business over two years ago, after she had to leave her full time teaching position due to a chronic headache disorder.
“Once I started teaching, I wanted something to relax. I went back into my favorite hobbies as a kid, and knitting was the one that stuck,” she said.
The dyeing process is an intensive one, she added. Using a mixture of boiling acid dyes and citric acid to color the yarn, she dyes eight skeins—a length of yarn that is loosely coiled and knotted—at a time. It takes about an hour to complete.
While she has an online storefront, Palulis also hopes to expand in the future and open a brick and mortar store that serves as a cafe and stocks locally made items from other artisans. She was excited to be making connections Saturday, as festival attendees rolled into the park.
Beside her, Lowden showed off the custom drawstring, vinyl and crocheted bags and crochet plushies that build her small business,. What started as a pastime in the first year of the pandemic, she said, has stuck with her and helped her create income.
As a stay-at-home mom with two daughters, Lowden said that she sometimes runs into burnout while creating products and managing her business, but has found times to work that match her natural energy cycle.
“Sometimes, if I am not capable of doing any work during the day, there's a lot of nighttime work,” she said.
Dalayah Prescod and Natalya Perez.
Nearby, Hamden Academy of Dance and Music students Kai Davila, Dalayah Prescod and Natalya Perez took a moment to unwind and relax on a park bench. Minutes before, they had been performing, and were now coming down from that high. The routine is based on the BET series 106 & Park, said Prescod.
As Prescod and Perez got comfotable, the two both admitted that they were nervous when they first went on stage, but eventually found their rhythm.
“As we were dancing, obviously we were very nervous at the beginning,” Perez started. “But like, when we started dancing, I started feeling powerful. Dance just brings out the alter ego.”
Prescod, 16, is a senior at Metropolitan Business Academy, and has been dancing since she was 4 years old. Perez, 17 is a junior at Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS). She has only been dancing competitively for two years, but you couldn’t tell from her tenacious attitude on stage.
The pair also had some advice for dancers and performers facing similar anxiety on the stage.
“Pretend nobody's there,” Prescod said, “Like, if anything, if you're really nervous, just pretend your dancing your mirror at home, just doing you [and] being yourself.”
Watching in support were sisters Sharai Adams and JohVonnie Freeman. While they live in Middletown, the pair came out in New Haven to support the dance group, which Freeman is a part of. They weren’t disappointed by the festival.
“It's very laid back. It's very comfortable,” Adams said. “Everybody's super nice. It's a nice variety of different things out here.”
Like Prescod, Freeman has had a long career in dance, starting back when she was two years old. She recently joined the Hamden Academy of Dance and Music in July. In her transition switch dance studios, Freeman said that she felt supported and described the atmosphere at the Hamden Academy of Dance and Music, as a “good environment.”
Now a senior in Middletown High School, the 16-year-old added that she’s “ready to graduate,” but not without seeing the various attractions across the state and supporting her fellow dancers.
“I never really go to vendors, but I like seeing people put their business out,” she said, “and I just like seeing and learning new things and trying new things and seeing people put out their talent on the stage.”