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West Haven Brightens The Holiday Season

Lucy Gellman | November 28th, 2022

West Haven Brightens The Holiday Season

Culture & Community  |  Music  |  Arts & Culture  |  West Haven  |  Christmas  |  ArtsWest CT  |  West Haven Green  |  West Haven United

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Top: Musicians from the Indonesian Association of Connecticut introduce West Haveners to the angklung at Saturday's tree lighting on the West Haven Green. Bottom: The tree. Lucy Gellman Photos. 

The notes rang out one by one over the West Haven Green, new and familiar all at once. Keys hit, and a listener could almost taste December stirring in the air. To a jingling downbeat, angklung entered the frame, its jingle and bounce percussive on the stage. As it spread to the growing crowd below, Indriyo Sukmono soaked in a sound from his childhood. 

Feliz Navidad!, sang members of the Indonesian Association of Connecticut around him. Feliz Navidad! Prospero Ano y Felicidad!

Song, dance, and long-awaited visits with Santa ushered in the holiday spirit in West Haven Saturday evening, as over 300 people gathered on the West Haven Green for the city’s annual tree lighting ceremony and miniature holiday village. Organized by West Haven United, ArtsWest CT, First Congregational Church and the City of West Haven, the four-hour event doubled as a celebration of the city’s vibrant cultural diversity. 

The holiday cheer continues with a menorah lighting on Dec. 18, the first night of Hanukkah, also on the West Haven Green. Check the city website for more information.  

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ArtsWest CT's Elinor Slomba, volunteer Kathy Abate, and West Haven United's Rosella Crowley. 

“West Haven is a city, but it’s still a small town. We have a lot of history. When anyone needs something, we all rally,” said lifelong Westie Rosella Crowley, who founded West Haven United with beach and neighborhood cleanups in 2018. “All I want is to see these kids happy. And kids were happy here tonight.”

As the sun began its descent into an orange and blue sky, those words came to life over and over again across the dark expanse of the Green. On a portable stage set up close to Campbell Avenue, DJ Sonja Denyse dusted off a Christmas playlist, and got the audience dancing, folding in hits from holidays of yore to Ariana Grande and the Queen of Christmas herself. Every few moments, emcee Brian Smith jogged up the steps in a top hat strung with twinkling white lights. 

In the still-damp grass beside the stage, members of the Indonesian Association of Connecticut waited for their moment in the spotlight. Among them were almost two dozen stories of a diaspora, from immigrant families who moved to Southern Connecticut in the 1980s and 90s to young professionals who are in the state on their own. 

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Top: Nikita Sukmono, who grew up in Westville but has been playing angklung for years as part of her Indonesian heritage. Bottom: A section of the group playing. Selections included "White Christmas" and "Feliz Navidad."

For weeks, members have gathered to rehearse on the angklung, an instrument made of bamboo tubes fitted on a bamboo frame, each tube set at a different octave. When musicians move or rotate the instrument, a sort of jingling rattle comes from the vibration. To an ear that has never heard it before, it is part bell, part steel drum, part marimba, and entirely its own. 

As they prepared to play, Christmas cheer soared from the stage into the darkening night, wrapping the crowd in its warmth. At the front of the group, conductor Indriyo Sukmono cued up a track to “Walking In A Winter Wonderland,” and a burst of bright sound flowed into the air. The crowd, which had started as just a handful of people, grew to three or four dozen by the end of the first number.

Cheers rose into the night, fading only as Debby Pongoh kicked off the vocals to Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas.” Around them, attendees continued to watch, faces lit by the stage as they studied the instrument for the first time. In the face of devastating news from Indonesia last week, as an earthquake left at least 310 dead, it became a show of joy-making and resolve.       

For Sukmono and his daughter, Nikita, the angklung represents both a tie to Indonesian culture and the multiplicity of a diaspora. Born and raised in Java, Indonesia, Sukmono came to the U.S. in the 1990s—first to Arizona, and then to Connecticut, where he is raising his family in New Haven. As a teacher of Indonesian languages at Yale, he pointed to the fact that Indonesia is itself incredibly diverse, an archipelago of many languages, customs, and religious traditions. WestHavenTreeLighting - 8

Tenor Michael Cartwright, soprano Erin Ring-Howell, alto Lori Cartwright and bass Peter Robinson as the Yuletide Carolers. 

“Music is a universal language,” he said. While Indonesia is a majority-Muslim country, Sukmono misses the Christmases of his youth. Angklung, played in perfect harmony at the cusp of the season, helps keep that magic alive far away from his birthplace. 

A volunteer with ArtsWest CT, Dabar Ratupenu said that the instrument also gives him a piece of home when his family is thousands of miles away. Born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital city, Ratupenu moved to the U.S. years ago as a high school student, and then stayed to study English and political science at Southern Connecticut State University. In 2016, he started playing angklung as a way to connect with Indonesian culture across the distance. 

“I want to have a medium to showcase where I came from,” he said, adding that he was excited to share the instrument with hundreds of people who may never have heard of it. Long after the group had finished playing, he stayed close to the stage, taking in acts from the West Haven High School Dance Team and Top Hat Dance Academy.  

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Top: Cheryl LaFond, a member of West Haven United, at the letter-writing station. She said she has felt very welcome ever since joining the group, although she remains the only member of color. Bottom: Tony Sankar, Manny, Haydyn, and Lizzy, and Dellon Singh. 

As she danced in the grass with her three children, attendee Dellon Singh praised the event as culturally rich, with something for every person who came. A child care professional and student by day, “I wanted to see the diversity and culture,” she said. Born in Guyana in the West Indies, Singh moved to West Haven 16 years ago, and has since made the city her home. 

As a mom, she now wants to expose her kids “to as much culture and experience as possible,” she said. Despite cold hands, she said that she and her family were enjoying the night. Beside her, her kids Lizzy, Manny and Haydyn moved to the music, a lightsaber from Haydyn moving through the air.  

“Make some noise for Santa Claus!” Smith yelled back on stage, and Singh cheered in time with her kids and partner, Tony Sankar.  

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Members of Top Hat Dance Academy. A video of their performance is at the bottom of this article. 

Around them, the festivities showed no sign of stopping. As a cover of Mariah Carey’s “If You Believe” blasted over the speakers, members of Top Hat Dance Academy spread out across the grass, arms windmilling through the air as they dipped, jumped, and carried each other through the lyrics (video at the bottom of this article). Down a walkway that criss-crossed the grass, carolers looked over their music, then began a spirited rendition of “Joy To The World.”   

A few feet away, 11-year-old Abby and her five year old brother, Ryan, fell to an awed hush to listen. Already, the two had visited stations for ornament making and letter-writing to U.S. Troops and VA Hospital patients, which West Haven United runs through a partnership with the Connecticut State Department of Veterans Affairs. Now, they were delighted into silence by the music.  

With their mom Nicole, the two were celebrating their first tree lighting in West Haven after a move from Mount Vernon, New York earlier this year. As a parent and a relatively new Westie, Nicole said that she was thrilled to see how much work had gone into the event—and into keeping it free for families in the city. Standing next to her, Abby said she is excited for her first Christmastime in a new home.  

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Top: Nicole, Ryan, and Abby (they declined to give a last name). Bottom: John, Kayla, and Linda Haas. 

Other families returned to the lighting as part of a long-held and treasured Christmas tradition. There with their daughter Kayla and her friend H, Linda and John Haas both said they were excited to return to the lighting after the Covid-19 pandemic turned the holiday season on its head. Each year, Linda and John sing in their church’s Christmas Eve service in Milford, then return home to West Haven, don their pajamas, and watch The Polar Express with longtime family friends.

The tree lighting, along with decorations at home, is part of getting in the holiday spirit. “It’s so wonderful,” Linda Haas said.  

Beneath the John C. Ireland Bandstand, face painter Laura Feist-Roche appeared to be catching up with a huge inflatable Christmas tree, which only revealed itself on closer inspection as West Haven United’s Jaime Connellan. As they chatted, Connellan lifted her hands excitedly to her chest, then waved them through the night air. They cut through the evening in a blur of green.  

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Jaime Connellan and Laura Feist-Roche. Both grew up in West Haven. 

A Grinch and inflatable gingerbread house with a candy cane roof swayed in a light breeze behind her. Blue snowflakes danced on Feist-Roche’s wool hat.   

Raised in West Haven, Connellan recalled coming to tree lightings as a kid, once performing in the 1980s as a member of the city’s local Girl Scouts troupe. Years later, she said she was glad to play a part in the celebration, and specifically making the bright holiday village come to life. The only thing missing, it seemed, was a fresh layer of snow underfoot. 

“I think it’s great,” she said. “We’ve made it so inclusive … I think, the more, the merrier.”  

Back on the stage, Smith began a cheer-flecked countdown, and two trees lit up the night with a glowing W H in twinkling lights in the middle. As Santa and Mrs. Claus made their way from the North Pole to a covered hut, a blocks-long line formed, kids ready with their holiday wishes. 

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Top: Mike Antrum, Ariel Rogers and Andre Williams of The Kettle King. Bottom: Friends and West Haveners Elivia Pinkett, Daniel Davis and Nyrie Lumpkins. 

Nearby, steam rose from a tent for The Kettle King, the smell of burnt sugar and fresh, sweet-and-salty popcorn drifting into the air. In the center of the action, founder Andre Williams called it a full-circle moment, his hands steady as he poured sugar over a hot tray. 

As a kid in West Haven, Williams came to dozens of tree lightings, building his own food truck dreams as he got older. While working for Amtrak, a friend suggested kettle corn as an entryway into a small food business. Over a year ago he started experimenting with recipes at home, making the leap from a small pot to a bigger one, then a tent with equipment, and then ultimately a truck.  

Thirteen months in, it has been extremely successful, Williams said: the Kettle King rolled up to 13 events this year. Williams has done it all while still holding down full-time work with Amtrak. He doesn’t do it alone, he is quick to say: around him, Ariel Rogers and Mike Antrum orbited the kettle like excited electrons, ready for the slightest movement in either direction. 

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Elinor Slomba and Rosella Crowley at the hot cocoa station.

Every event is special—but the tree lighting felt personal, he said. “Coming back here as a small business owner” made him incredibly proud. As he chatted, kids and parents eagerly came by the tent, picking up still-warm bags of popcorn for the cooling night.  

Watching the action unfold around her, Crowley said that the event was everything she had hoped for. As a lifelong West Havener, she grew up coming to the city’s tree lighting when it was a much smaller event, with little to do after the trees were aglow and Santa had a line that stretched three city blocks. As the decades went by, she became a doting mom to six kids, and then a grandmother to 14. After launching West Haven United, “I had this vision,” she said. 

“The vision was to make memories for the kids,” she said. “I wanted the kids to have something to do.” 

 

Learn more about West Haven United here. Learn more about ArtsWest CT here and subscribe to their newsletter here