Visiting seven events and eating at three different restaurants in 48 hours

Last week, I accepted the role of Interim Contributing Editor of the Arts Paper alongside Zoe Jensen. I imagine this brings up all sorts of questions, such as “Who are you?”, “What happened to Lucy?”, and “What is an ‘Interim Contributing Editor’?” So, in order:

• I am a writer; I was born and raised in Argentina, my family moved to Brazil when I was twelve, and then I moved to the United States in 2015 to pursue a writing career across multiple mediums, including playwriting and journalism.
• Lucy is now the arts and culture editor at the CT Mirror!
• “Interim Contributing Editor” means that Zoe and I will hold down the fort while the Arts Council finds a new permanent editor. We are very excited and hope you’ll have as much fun reading the paper as we’ll have while editing it for the next few months!

I did leave out two very important details in my bio: one, I live in Brooklyn, NY, and two, I am a longtime friend of Hope Chávez, whom I met while she herself was still a New Yorker (in fact, I helped her move to New Haven the first time around, when she came to work at Long Wharf Theatre). So while I’ve been coming to the city for years now, I can’t really be considered a local—which is why Hope planned a madcap weekend for me to get really immersed in the scene as I work with Zoe on this new role, for which I’ll be coming in a couple of times a month.

What follows is an account of everything that happened in those two days.

Friday

New Haven Union Station tunnel (picture by Traci Lawson)

3pm

I get to Grand Central almost half an hour before my train, and they haven’t posted the gate yet. I’d be annoyed, but I can’t: I’ve made it in time for the 3pm, which true Metro-Northers know is thee get for a Friday afternoon—it’s both off-peak and super express, taking less than two hours to get to New Haven.

I board early, choose a seat next to the bathroom (I’m a Small Bladder King), and spend the whole ride working on an essay for my own publication, titled “All media is porn now.” Spicy!

5pm

I get to New Haven. Hope can’t pick me up (rude), so I get a [redacted big rideshare company] car. I never take cars in New York because a) I have motion sickness and b) more importantly, it’s so expensive there that I’d have to sell all I own just to get a couple of blocks down the road. So I’ve come to associate ride-sharing with New Haven. Is that fair to the city? I don’t know, but all the drivers here are incredibly nice and we always strike up conversations about where we’re from and what we think of living in the U.S.

7pm

After having settled in, properly greeted both of Hope’s cats (I will keep their names private because of child protection laws), and been walked through all the home renovations Hope’s partner, Nichole, has worked on around the house, we order dinner. Traditionally, House of Naan has me on lock, but Hope and Nichole convince me to try a new spot that’s nearer their house, Dosawala. I get their Malai Kofta and I quite like it!

Saturday

9:30am

I wake up much later than my usual 6am, because I’ve had a very long week (this is not my only job). But I take a shower and I’m ready to go—I just need, as I tell Hope, “coffee and carbs” before our first stop. We drive by [redacted big chain coffee place] and get all the sugar anyone could ever need in one lifetime compressed into a single order.

11am

Kulturally Lit Fest Founder & Executive Director IfeMichelle Gardin (center) with the Director of Arts, Culture, & Tourism of the City of New Haven Sha McAllister (left) and featured speaker/poet Yexandra Diaz (right) at the opening panel of the Kulturally Lit Fest (picture courtesy of Kulturally Lit Fest)

We make our first stop: The 7th Annual Kulturally Lit Fest at Southern Connecticut State University. One of the first people I see there is Samir Iydroose, one of our Youth Arts Journalism Initiative participants, who’s officially covering the event. I also meet Babz Rawls Ivy, who’s speaking in the opening panel. We joke around and I get some art gossip (not for print…at least not yet).

I stop by the table display set up by Possible Futures, where founder Lauren Anderson walks me through not just the curation of the table—books by, for, and about Black women, as well as pertaining the subject of liberation and possibility—but also the easter eggs hidden in the bookstore’s logo (two very important punctuation signs). Multiple books on display are written by the speakers in the festival’s panels!

We go to the vendor area. I browse some delightfully punny pins, and almost buy one of a cat hanging from a branch (titled “Hang in there,” of course) because the cat looks like mine. I then listen to entrepreneur Carolyn Lyons tell me all about shea butter at the display for No Excuse! I joke that I now have no excuse to have chapped hands, and she agrees: “No excuse to be ashy!” I leave with my hands feeling (and smelling) like heaven.

12pm

Children work on a community mural at cARTie’s 2026 Fall Festival (picture courtesy of cARTie)

We get in the car again, our iced coffees now turned to undrinkable slush, and head over to Westville. cARTie has parked its bus there and taken over part of Central Avenue with kid-friendly activities like interactive art-making and a community mural.

I go into the bus to look at the art of teenagers who are a third of my age and fifty times as talented: I am blown away by the range, which included anything from incredibly detailed portraits to surreal landscapes. Co-founder Claire Murray tells me that the art comes from middle- and high-schoolers, but it is appreciated by kids ages 3 to 8, who are not used to the idea of a museum or art gallery and have the opportunity to be introduced to it in a much more accessible way.

1pm

Linda Lindroth’s studio (Picture courtesy of Linda Lindroth)

It’s that time of year: Open Studios is happening all across New Haven! To learn more, I leave you in the hands of the Arts Paper’s (former) own Lucy Gellman with a great article about it for CT Mirror.

We stop by two of them: Erector Square and Marlin Works. Erector Square is a feast for the senses—not just the eyes, with its endless display of paintings and sculptures, but also the nose and mouth, since there are drinks and snacks galore. There’s too much to go over (and I’m planning to do a larger piece on artist housing/studio availability), but it would go against my journalistic ethic not to mention that fellow immigrant Oi Fortin has the most handsome, friendliest dog.

Marlin Works is less overwhelming. Linda Lindroth regales me with the stories that her work captures, such as that of the infamous “Radium Girls” at the New Haven Clock Company (a box for one of the watches, flattened and shot for Linda’s piece, proudly states “Radium”). Nancy Karpel shows me a display of the work she “will never sell”, which of course means I spend the rest of my time in her studio focusing exclusively on it, lusting after that which I cannot have.

2pm

We stop by Katalina’s, which is having a goodbye party (if you haven’t read Lucy’s profile of Katalina and her bakery, you must). Katalina takes us to the back, where kids are crowded around a table, elbow-deep in frosting activities. Hope and Katalina catch up while Nichole and I watch the kids and eat naked cookies.

Before we leave, Hope makes me try the Raspberry Oatmeal Bar, and Katalina gives me a Mexican Wedding Cookie. I am ruined for life: other pastries can never again have their way with me as sweetly as this.

3pm

The notebook array at Slackline Press (picture by Anthony DeJesus)

We go to Slackline Press, which is celebrating its 3-year anniversary. I have a problem with stationary stores: within seconds of browsing, I fall under the delusion that I am a person who can—and must—have multiple journals where I write out all sorts of ideas and make beautiful drawings with delicate pens, even though the evidence to back this up cannot be found anywhere in my life story. Slackline’s arrays are so exquisite that I must recite calming mantras to resist buying everything in sight.

The coquito they are serving slaps.

4pm

We make it to our last stop: Seeing Sounds World, an immersive experience by the eponymous brand held at the gorgeous Canal Dock Boathouse.

As we check in, I study the Boathouse’s exhibit on the Amistad instead of, you know, standing in line like a good patron. Then we go in, and DJ Ati sends me with some amazing mash ups as I browse the stands—everything from illustrations to clothing and even a pop-up to welcome the (new) New Haven Advocate, which is back on stands (they warn: “While it’s technically possible, please don’t read us online. We’re too sexy for that”).

I briefly meet Seeing Sounds Founder Trey Moore, then watch a part of Justin Esmer’s show as they play something “very experimental,” in Trey’s words (I find it beautifully haunting). I then roam to the next room, where an installation mixing light, projections, and live music has taken over. I see two women drinking mate, so I naturally approach them and ask: “Are you Argentinian?” One of them, Guillermina, is. She’s best friends with another one of the artists, Mattia Vezzoli, whose activation, “This is Not AI”, has robots painting to the music:

5pm

Before leaving, we stop by the food truck outside, Portabello, to grab dinner. I get a chicken quesadilla (yum) and an arepa (double yum). I also, of course, grab a glass-bottle Mexican Coke, which tastes like home (it’s that bitter sugar cane sweetening—American Coke is too syrupy).

During dinner, Hope asks me what I made of the day. I tell her I am awed by how much space people take up here: they want to organize an event, open a business, or make some art… and they just do it. New York is all about talking about it for five years and canceling before the kick-off meeting; I am awed by how committed New Haveners are about putting themselves out there.

Hope nods: “It’s what I love about New Haven. It’s small enough that you can try things unabashedly, but big enough that you can see the change rippling through interconnected spheres.”

It makes me glad I took this job.

Sunday

New Haven Union Station (via Wikimedia Commons)

9:30am

I sleep in again, and when I finally drag myself out of bed, I need more coffee and carbs. My wallet has been stretched thin, but I get a delicious egg sandwich and coffee at Olmo while Hope and I do a crossword (our favorite pastime as friends). I try not to do any work, since Sundays are supposed to be my day off.

3pm

The Metro North is not running as expected due to renovations, so I need to take a bus back instead. Not ideal, due to my aforementioned motion sickness, which means I can’t use my laptop on board. Oh well—I will be forced to not work. Good!

Hope is off at the 3rd Annual Jazz & Gospel Brunch (where Lucy is being honored!), so I get to the station by myself like a big man, and board the Peter Pan 3pm bus to New York. It takes us an hour and a half longer than expected to get to the city (that Lincoln Tunnel is incorrigible)—and once I get in, I realize I can’t wait to go back.

See you next week, New Haven!