Arts Paper
As the editorially independent arm of The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, the Arts Paper seeks to celebrate, explore, and investigate the fine, visual, performing and culinary arts in and around New Haven.
Olichka sings. Photos Kapp Singer. Sporting a long yellow dress, Olichka brought a microphone to her lips and began singing “Ukrayina – tse ty” (“Ukraine is you”), an upbeat pop anthem by Ukrainian artist Tina Karol. In the audience, dozens of hands started clapping alone. Then, one by one, members got to their feet. In the blink of an eye, a full-on dance party had broken out. “I know you don’t understand Ukrainian, but just feel it,” Olichka told the audience. On Saturday, a group of roughly 50 people gathered at United Church on the Green to celebrate World Refugee Day, coming together a week after several similar celebrations on the Green. Residents of the city old and new—from Syria to Sudan and Ukraine to Kenya—came together to share music, food, crafts, and stories. The event was co-sponsored by Havenly, New International Hope, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS), Refugee Congress, and Elena’s Light. The United Nations’ official World Refugee Day was on June 20—due to scheduling conflicts, Saturday’s event was held a week later. 25 years ago, Olichka—whose off-stage name is Olga Borsh—moved from Odesa, Ukraine to Connecticut. She currently lives in Marlborough and works as a financial advisor. When Russia attacked Ukraine in February, 2022, initiating the ongoing war, she decided to start performing Ukrainian songs around the state to raise money for medical supplies in her home country. “It is my duty to use the talent that God gave me to help my people,” she told the audience in between songs. But beyond spreading her own heritage, Olichka asked the others in the room to spread theirs. “People love to hear your culture,” she said. Kallou Gindeel, a Sudanese immigrant, took the stage to speak about the civil war and famine in his home country and share a dance to a Nubian song. As he moved to the swirling sounds of the oud and tip-tapping of the tabla, the audience got right back on its feet to join him. Once again, the room burst into movement. Next, Brian Jarawa Gray got the audience bobbing their heads with his djembe drum performance. “This is a rhythm from the heart,” he said. Brian Jerawa Gray. Gray, who is from New Haven, said that he wanted to play the djembe to honor his ancestors’ West African heritage—but he also wanted to show the cultural reach of the instrument. He said that on his travels to Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Brazil, he heard all sorts of different djembe rhythms and techniques. “I left to check on something, and when I came back a lot of the room was up and dancing,” said Rebekah Sookdeo, PR coordinator at Elena’s Light and the emcee of the event. “That was not on the program,” she said. “It was full-on, intense-energy dancing.” A spontaneous dance party. As audience members settled back into their seats, Mohamd Shoaid offered a serene and mournful counterpart to the joyous dances. Shoaid sung a poem in Dari, the most widely spoken language in Afghanistan, wishing for war to end. He closed his eyes as he sang. His clear voice echoed, bringing a reflective quiet over the room. Nour al Zouabi, a medical researcher and recent graduate of the University of Connecticut who fled Syria due to the civil war in 2012, also asked the audience to embrace a sense of optimism. “Despite the darkness, I’m still hopeful,” she said. “I believe in our solidarity.” Nour al Zouabi. On Saturday, participants got a glimpse of that solidarity as they danced and ate together. “When I see people here, I get more hope,” said Fereshteh Ganjavi, the founder of Elena’s Light. The organization serves refugee women and children through advocacy and direct services. They provide English as a second language (ESL) tutoring, health literacy classes, and ‘know your rights’ workshops. The organization started in 2018, serving three women. Today, it serves over 100. “Depression is hard, being alone is hard, not having hope is hard for refugees and immigrants,” said Ganjavi, who came to Connecticut in 2011 from Herat, Afghanistan. “Cultural events like this make them alive again and tell them ‘you can build your community again.”
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Top: Johnny Rivera and Elena Hogan-Perez. Bottom: The Queen gets her moves on. Lucy Gellman Photos.
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Meredith Truax Photo, courtesy of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. In addition to Joy, musicians included Evan Sherman, Paul Sikivie, Donavan Austin, David Mason, Connor Rohrer, Jason Charos, and Kendric McCallister.
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Esther Chiang (right), Melanie Barocas Mayer, and Sherry Pocknett (left) make corn cakes. Photos Kapp Singer. Esther Chiang added a few cups of cornmeal, some baking soda, and a touch of salt and pepper to a bowl. She slowly poured in water until the mixture was the consistency of thick pancake batter. After stirring in a few scallions and cranberries, she scooped it into a hot pan. “I want to cook, I want to eat, and I want to hear the stories,” said Chiang, the food justice education coordinator at Common Ground High School. As she made corn cakes alongside two other volunteers, Chef Sherry Pocknett looked on, giving them tips—a little more water, a little hotter pan, “too much oil!” On Tuesday, the two came together at an Indigenous cooking workshop and dinner with Pocknett, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe and the first Indigenous woman to receive a James Beard award. Held at Gateway Community College’s Cafe Vincenzo as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, the event brought in roughly fifty people. Diners enjoyed samples of venison skewers, salmon bites, and turkey meatballs. As they ate “Indian tacos” with fry bread and beef, blueberry fritters, and quahog fritters, Pocknett told stories about Indigenous cuisines of the Northeast and her own journey to becoming a chef. Diners line up to try the food. Her first food memory came on a trip she took with her father when she was eight, to Washburn Island off the southern end of Cape Cod. Her father dropped her and her siblings off on the island, gave them some matches and fishing line, and told them to fend for themselves. She remembers picking blueberries and digging for clams, quahogs, and mussels. “There was an abundance of food,” she said. “I learned well, and I try to teach my children the same.” Back at home, after receiving a Suzy Homemaker oven, she began cooking. She remembers stealing all the food out of the fridge at home and making a meal for her brothers. “I knew then I was going to be a chef,” she said with a laugh. As she grew up, she learned to cook at The Flume, her family’s restaurant on Cape Cod. Her uncle was the chef and her grandmother the baker. She eventually became the food and beverage director at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Ledyard, Connecticut. There, she transformed a menu of hotdogs and grilled cheese into one with dishes like turtle soup, venison, and smoked fish. In 2023, she received the prize for best chef in the Northeast category for her Charlestown, Rhode Island restaurant Sly Fox Den Too. The restaurant, which she opened in 2021, was meant to be a simple stepping stone for a larger farm-to-table location that she is planning to open in Preston, Connecticut. But while she fundraised to open the larger restaurant, her food started turning heads. “I got nominated and I was like ‘what the heck is the James Beard Award?’” she said. Pocknett. With the restaurant she is developing in Preston, she hopes to bring new life to the traditional foods of the Northeast. In addition to the dining room and kitchen, her plans include a cultural center and a two-and-a-half acre farm, which she’s already begun planting with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and sassafras. “I’m hoping to bring the beach plums back,” Pocknett added. “I don’t notice so many on the Cape anymore.” Pocknett recounted that, since she grew up on Cape Cod, she’s seen the toll that environmental degradation takes on Indigenous food systems and traditions. The ponds she swam in as a child have since been contaminated by the area’s septic systems and fertilizer runoff from lawns and golf courses. Combined with warmer water temperatures, frequent blooms of toxic algae make swimming dangerous. “My grandkids can’t swim in that lake anymore,” she added. “It just makes me so sad what’s happening with the water.” Not only does the algae cause the pond to be unswimmable, but it also kills fish, frogs, and other animals and plants, disrupting traditional Mashpee Wampanoag foodways. “Instead of making that grass green, just plant some food. That grass is poison,” Pocknett said. Despite this, Pocknett’s visit to Arts & Ideas was one of hope. Just a week before coming to New Haven, she found out that she was cancer-free after a years-long battle with the disease. She is finishing her chemotherapy treatment next week, just as she turns 64. “I’m gonna live to see my new restaurant open,” Pocknett said, as tears welled up in her eyes. That hope found its way into the food on Tuesday. Diners scraped their plates clean and fresh corn cakes were passed around. “My mom always says you have to put love into your cooking,” said her daughter and business partner Cheyenne Galvin-Pocknett. “That energy goes into your food.”
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