Culture & Community | Arts & Culture | Arts & Anti-racism
Harmony The Valkyrie at Pride New Haven, a block party in the Ninth Square that took place in October. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
The transformation was a little like a magic trick. On a recent Tuesday, nothing seemed immediately different about 50 Orange St. Long white blinds hung across the office windows, where Artspace had left unceremoniously over the summer. Dreary gray lettering stretched across the doorframe, announcing the building’s past lives. At the front door, Juancarlos Soto slid the key into the lock, and walked quietly inside.
But by that Thursday, Daniel Quasar’s Progress Pride Flag was hanging in the front window, a bright hello to all who passed by. And 24 hours later, those colors had multiplied across the building, as buzzing bodies filled the space, set up office chairs and bookshelves and lamps, and got to work turning it into an above-ground community resource hub.
The story of the New Haven Pride Center, which began the year with employee furloughs and has ended it in a long-awaited downtown home, is just one of the ways artists bounced back this year, navigating a new normal as they planned parades, expanded festivals, built new partnerships, and got back to the grassroots. Many did so for the first time since 2020, charting a return that did not always seem promised in the depths of the pandemic.
They were makers and tinkerers, musicians and dancers, studio painters and public artists who never wanted to be confined to a single space. They were doctors-turned-superheroes and educators and artist-organizers who filled the streets with joyful noise. They made the city tick and lent it a vibrant heartbeat, working through the unraveling of a municipal art scene (or at least, some of its historic, entrenched and white-led institutions) to keep making and bringing art to the community.
Anita Abdinezhad, Bahar Beihaghi, Shadee Vossoughi, Vaneh Assadourian, and Ava Lalezarzadeh in a scene from Wish You Were Here by Sanaz Toossi, directed by Sivan Battat. Yale Repertory Theatre, October 5–28, 2023. Photo © Joan Marcus.
This is not an exhaustive list; it never is. We could have come up with a top 20, or a top 50, or a top 100 and would still feel like things were missing. At the Yale Rep alone, we were profoundly moved by performances of Mojada on the cusp of summer and Wish You Were Here, directed by ECA alum Sivan Battat, as it opened the fall season.
In West Haven, we feel so lucky to have gotten to see the opening of ArtsWest CT’s brick-and-mortar offices on the city’s Main Street. In May, we watched Long Wharf Theatre soar in the first performance of its itinerancy, with Live From The Edge at Hamden’s Space Ballroom.
In between, there were summer festivals that made our hearts sing, new collaborations between artists and arts nonprofits working to build (and in some cases, build back) community trust, and city projects from the Department of Arts, Culture & Tourism that continued to champion equity across New Haven, despite a comparatively small allocation in the municipal budget. There were mind-blowing high school plays done on a shoestring and youth theater festivals that put collaboration over competition.
In truth, we could write about all of these and not feel like we were done. But here are the top 10. Thank you for a gorgeous 2023, New Haven. We’ll see you in the New Year.
10. Library Faithfuls Bid Farewell To The Old Stetson
Ms. Ella Smith with Young Minds and Family Learning Librarian Phillip Modeen, or "Mr. Phil." Lucy Gellman File Photo.
On a cold Saturday night in early February, a few dozen people filtered through the old Stetson Branch Library at 200 Dixwell Ave. to say goodbye to the building with a dance party and evening of impromptu story sharing. Two weeks after Black Haven hosted a pop-up festival inside the space, bibliophiles and Dixwell neighbors alike returned to send the building off into its next chapter one last time. Read about that here.
The Connecticut Community Outreach Revitalization Program (ConnCORP) has announced plans to demolish the plaza for a mixed-use neighborhood hub called ConnCAT Place; that demolition began in November of this year with the historic Elks Lodge.
A week before, many of those people had gathered for “Stetson Stories,” a celebration of the old Stetson Branch Library from Black Haven Independent Theater and Entertainment (BITE). The brainchild of artist and Black Haven founder Salwa Abdussabur—who grew up in the library—the event became an intimate display of how memories are built and preserved.
It was the beginning of what was, more broadly, a year of growth and transition for the New Haven Free Public Library. After a laughter-studded Mardi Gras returned in person to the Ives Main Branch, the library faced several proposed changes in New Haven’s city budget, including a move from the city Chief Administrator's Office to the Community Services Administration, a (ahem, small) pay bump for the city’s chief librarian and a new, desperately-needed budget line for a children’s librarian at the Wilson Branch Library.
That was March. In May, NHFPL Public Services Administrator Maria Bernhey was named City Librarian, stepping into the role almost exactly a year after the passing of beloved City Librarian John Jessen and tenure of interim City Librarian Maureen Sullivan. Less than a month later, the library kicked off its summer reading challenge with events at all five branches, working with city officials, educators, and area nonprofits to address an ongoing literacy crisis in the city.
In June—in which librarians also finished contract negotiations after three long and contentious years—the library also unveiled a portrait of Jessen, which will travel to all five branches before living at Ives. Bernhey, meanwhile, hit the ground running. Across the city, branches held bilingual stay and play sessions, drag queen story hour, and exhibitions that centered the work of New Haven youth. Librarians joined forces with city and state officials to boost banned books and build new community connections. We can’t wait to see what they do in 2024.
9. Elm Shakespeare Grows Its Educational Footprint
Mekhi Robertson as Laertes and Catherine Wicks as Hamlet. In the backround are Eliza Vargas as King Claudius and Ronisha Moore as Queen Gertrude. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
In early February, in a theater nestled in Fair Haven, two Hamlets emerged from Castle Elsinore, one sweeping through each arched doorway on a stage. Against the heavy, gray stone, two identical black capes gathered and flowed behind them. Two pairs of feet, both sheathed in shiny black, made their way toward the edge of the stage.
“To be, or not to be?” one started. “That is the question,” the other answered. It wasn’t a trick. It was an ambitious directing choice—and it paid off in an unprecedented year of educational growth for New Haven’s favorite Shakespeare Company.
This year, Elm Shakespeare—which for years has centered education—was able to expand its educational work, thanks to both longstanding partnerships with Ice The Beef and Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School and a grant from the Seedlings Foundation and New Haven’s Neighborhood Cultural Vitality Grant Program. The first will allow Elm to continue growing its mission in the New Haven Public Schools this coming year.
What that translated to was a roster of plays that spanned many of the city’s neighborhoods, and jumped from Bregamos to Mauro-Sheridan to Common Ground. After a performance of Hamlet in February, the company returned with a thrilling performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Metropolitan Business Academy, followed by Julius Caesar at Mauro-Sheridan and performances at Common Ground and the Educational Center for the Arts in the fall.
A few of the students, including Metro’s riveting Atlas Salter, also appeared again over the summer, in Elm Shakespeare’s run of Merry Wives of Windsor in Edgerton Park. In early December, the organization ended its year with a youth theater festival that celebrated all of that work, centering collaboration over competition. We didn’t make it to that, but our colleagues at the New Haven Independent did. Read about that here.
8. Puerto Rican Festival of New Haven & Miss Puerto Rico Returns
Proud mom Zeidy Cruz, Allen Araujo, Kelvia Cruz, and Miriam Magalis Cruz. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
A balmy August brought the Puerto Rican Festival of New Haven (Festival Puertorriqueño de New Haven) to the New Haven Green, where afternoon rainstorms proved no match for nearly 10 hours of music, food, dancing and Boricua pride in the heart of the Elm City. The flagship event of Puerto Ricans United, Inc. (PRU), this year's festival took time to recognize both the breadth of "la Música de Puerto Rico" and celebrate a community's resilience, from a revived Miss Puerto Rico Pageant to Bomba fierce and fast enough to bring the sun out from behind the clouds. Read about it here.
It was part of a triumphant year that started with the first Miss Puerto Rico Pageant in a decade, which arrived at Wilbur Cross High School on a chilly Saturday morning in March. Hosted by Puerto Ricans United, Inc. with support from partners across the state, the event brought together dozens of middle and high schoolers to compete for the crown, taking time to honor the rich traditions of their heritage throughout the day.
In late October and November, PRU returned in East Haven to support Pa'lante Theater Company as it brought its production of Calling Puerto Rico to the Cabaret on Main for the first time. After winding this year down with its annual Christmas Parranda at Bregamos Community Theater, it will return in early 2024 with its annual celebration of Three Kings Day at Casa Otonal in the city’s Hill neighborhood.
7. Ongoing Labor Negotiations and Price, Bonds & Hagan at the New Haven Symphony Orchestra
Michelle Cann. Matt Fried Photos courtesy of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
After four concerts looking for a new music director in the first quarter of 2024, Maestro Alasdair Neale returned to the podium in May for a truly astounding performance at the John Lyman Center for the Performing Arts at Southern Connecticut State University. Over two hours, it featured the work of composers Margaret Bonds, Helen Hagan, Florence Price and Quinn Mason—all Black artists whose sonic influences range from African American spirituals, juba and jazz to Antonín Dvořák and Igor Stravinsky.
With Grammy-winning pianist Michelle Cann, it also marked the premiere of Helen Hagan's 1912 Piano Concerto No. 1, Mvt. 1, orchestrated by Dante Anzolini. From its first note to a final standing ovation, it doubled as a triumphant celebration of Black voices and Black futures, blazing a clear and bright path forward for the organization and for classical music in New Haven. Prior to the event, the NHSO built and expanded partnerships with the New Haven Free Public Library and Black Lives Matter New Haven, with events including “Pearls and Pianos” and a night of music and history at the Stetson Branch Library.
All of those moments have taken place against a backdrop of ongoing labor negotiations that came to light more clearly this month, as members of an NHSO Orchestra Committee and the American Federation of Musicians Local 400 voted to authorize a strike. After an emergency board meeting earlier this week and negotiations on Friday (members of the Orchestra Committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment), it appears that those negotiations will continue into 2024.
6. New Haven Enters The 6th Dimension
Artist and curator Juanita Sunday, photographed in the exhibition at the LAB at ConnCORP. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
There are not enough ways to heap praise on this festival, organized by artist and curator Juanita Sunday (a.k.a. New Havener Juanita Austin) as a months-long Afrofuturist odyssey that graced New Haven and Hamden from August through October of this year. After opening an exhibition of the same name in New London in January, Sunday worked with community partners including BLOOM, Possible Futures, and Best Video Film & Cultural Center (BVFCC) to spread the cultural goodness in New Haven.
We didn’t make all of those events, but we made several of them. From an exhibition opening at the LAB at ConnCORP (the Connecticut Community Outreach Revitalization Program), the festival bloomed across the city, from book club meetings and a 75th birthday party for Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton to low-lit jazz concerts and an Afrofuturism summit that still has us thinking about pleasure activist Ingrid LaFleur. Read about all of those here.
5. Fair Haven Day Comes Back To Grand Avenue
Proyecto Cimarron takes the stage early in the day. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
Early May marked a sun-soaked Fair Haven Day, as thousands of friends, families, and neighbors gathered outside of Fair Haven School and the Fair Haven Library for hours of music, artmaking, sports clinics, bike month joy, and a vendor and nonprofit fair in the parking lot. The work of a 22-member planning committee, the event both showcased the neighborhood and brought back a celebration not seen in over a decade. Read about it here.
Organizing partners included Junta for Progressive Action, ARTE, Inc., the Fair Haven Community Management Team, New Haven Free Public Library, Fair Haven School, the Semilla Collective, Grand Avenue Special Services District, Movimiento Cultural Afro-Continental (MCAC), the New Haven Board of Alders and the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
This year, it came as the International Festival of Arts & Ideas celebrated a decade of its neighborhood festivals in Fair Haven, Dixwell, Newhallville, The Hill, and West Rock/West Hills.
It also doubled as a kind of public launch of Fair-Side, a new community of practice from Ruby Gonzalez Hernandez that centers and celebrates the work of artists living and working in Fair Haven. Read more about Fair-Side here and here, and listen to an interview with Gonzalez Hernandez here.
4. Semilla Collective Centers Joy As Resistance
Members of the Tapacamino Colectivo include Fernando Guadarrama, Gregorio Quiros, Sinuhé Padilla-Isunza, Maria Puente, and Ik' Balam. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
In mid-November, members of the Semilla Collective held their third annual “Festival de la Resistencia” (Festival of Resistance) at Bregamos Community Theater in the city’s Fair Haven neighborhood. Over eight hours, dozens gathered to celebrate resistance in many different forms, from Indigenous organizing and artmaking to Son Jarocho music that could have kept the room dancing for hours.
“This is a space where we can bring together the movement to talk about why we resist, why we defend our land,” said Fatima Rojas, a longtime activist who for years has been one of the festival’s organizers, and who later testified on the importance of immigrant rights before the New Haven Board of Alders. “This is a space where we can share resources, create awareness, build solidarity and build knowledge with each other.” Read about it here.
3. The Freddy Fixer Parade Returns
The Village Drill Team and Drum Corps. Abiba Biao File Photo.
In early June, the Elm City Freddy Fixer Parade made a triumphant return to Dixwell Avenue, where thousands of attendees and hundreds of participants welcomed back New Haven’s long-running celebration of Black community, neighborhood preservation, and New Haven pride that has blossomed over generations of marchers. For the first time since 2019, a spirit of deep, jubilant community care carried the parade, which traveled the mile and a half from Visels Pharmacy to Lake Place.
In total, 67 groups participated, from mid-routine drill and dance teams and high school marching bands to social service organizations to historic parade partners who have been marching—and in some cases, revving their engines along the route—for decades. Among them include former Mayor Toni Harp, who marched with her family as Grand Marshal. Read about it here.
The parade—which ushered in a season of sizzling summer festivals—followed an unwelcome, pandemic-enforced three-year hiatus and months of planning, during which an executive committee worked to build new partnerships with groups that had never marched in the parade (and many for whom it was annual tradition). Read more about that here.
Finn Crumlish as Seymour in James Hillhouse High School's performance of Little Shop of Horrors. Behind him are Jose Saez, Mikaila Matta, Warren Letridge, Laila Wooten, and Amelia Tamborra-Walton. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
In March—after getting kicked out of their own auditorium—actors from James Hillhouse High School brought a campy, surprising, and totally delightful Little Shop of Horrors to the gymnasium at New Haven Academy. A production of Hillhouse’s Academic Theatre Company (ATC), it was a testament to a small but mighty, talented and tight-knit cast and crew that has found family on the stage—and gotten creative with the limited resources they have.
It was an example, in every way, of the scrappy theater department that could. Last year, the ATC made a comeback with BKLYN, most of the set for which was repurposed for this show. Then they were kicked out of the auditorium at Hillhouse, leaving director Ty Scurry scrambling for a new space. With the blessing of New Haven Academy’s Meredith Gavrin and Greg Baldwin, Scurry ultimately moved the show to Orange Street, where he has been teaching part-time.
The work paid off. Over the summer, cast members were recognized for the show during the Halo Awards, in which New Haven’s schools go head-to-head with whiter, wealthier schools from across the state. Actors HFinn Crumlish, Laila Wooten and Mikaila Matta took Best Specialty Ensemble in a Musical.
It was also not a year to sleep on school theater, performances for which spanned multiple academic years. In January, Nathan Hale put on a show-stopping performance of Newsies that doubled as a goodbye to Briana “Ms. B” Bellenger-Dawson, a beloved arts educator who left the district for a more financially stable position at Wesleyan University (she did return for a moving Little Mermaid, Jr. over the summer).
The plays kept coming, from a foot-tappingly-good Hairspray and original senior show at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School to You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown at Wilbur Cross High School to Moana, Jr. at Wexler-Grant Community School.
At Hill Regional Career High School, students shone bright with a May performance of Cinderella that brought the drama department back in the able hands of music teacher Jacqueline DiMarco. Scurry, fresh off Little Shop, flexed his dramatic muscles as he built out a theater program at New Haven Academy, first with a spring musical and then with performances of Dominique Morisseau’s Paradise Blue and his own world premiere of Heart this fall and winter.
1. The New Haven Pride Center Reaches Back To Its Roots
Top: Ryder Die, a drag artist who is based in Norwalk, at Pride New Haven in October 2023. Bottom: Tikki Malone reads at a drag queen story hour at the Mitchell Branch Library. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
In January, the New Haven Pride Center began the year without its 501c3 nonprofit status and the news that it would furlough eight of its nine employees. By November, it was making moves into a new above-ground space on Orange Street. Its mission, dedicated staff, and board tell the story of how it got there.
It marked, within a little under a year, an entire metamorphosis for the organization. In February, the Pride Center reinstated nonprofit status, a move that allowed it to further reopen its doors and slowly begin to bring back employees. Meanwhile, staff began to build new partnerships, nurturing those that had existed for years as they also forged ones with local restaurants, libraries, and service organizations.
By June, the Pride Center and the city were working together on a flag raising on the New Haven Green, in lockstep with National Pride Month for the first time staff at the center could remember (in Connecticut, observance of Pride Month often takes place in September). It was the beginning of an eventful summer and fall for the organization, including a back-to-school “Shopping Spree” for LGBTQ+ youth and September lineup of Pride events including a drag queen story hour at the Mitchell Branch Library.
Despite a bomb threat during Pride Week, the Center continued to bounce back with a message of community care and resiliency, ultimately holding its Pride celebrations in the Ninth Square in October. Then last month, staff announced that they would be moving into 50 Orange St., the former home of Artspace New Haven. Just last week, staff celebrated the move with a holiday party and donations of food and winter clothing that are continuing to help grow its mission.
"It just feels so good to think that this year, we came out of everything with this space," said Executive Director Juancarlos Soto last month, sitting in the new space. "Part of the reason I fought so hard for a space like this is to show the work that we're doing. We're gonna be here for a very long time."