New Haven Independent

As part of New Haven’s holiday events, the city will host “Unsilent Night,” a “boombox symphony,” announced Mary Lou Aleskie, executive director of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, last night. On Dec 13, participants will gather at the Shubert Theater and process through town for 45 minutes, toting boomboxes that will be playing a piece of music composed for the event.

Unsilent Night was one of the holiday happenings announced at the 2007 Holiday Kick-Off Monday night at 116 Crown St., the trendy downtown bar. The event, organized by Market New Haven, the organization in charge of publicity campaigns for the city, announced the schedule of holiday activities and, with the help of New Haven alders, officially unveiled the city’s holiday marketing campaign.

Holiday Haven
City officials, members of the press, and representatives of the New Haven’s various cultural organizations crowded into the narrow restaurant to mingle and drink cocktails. 116 Crown Street, so hip that it’s known only by its address, combines an atmosphere of chic with a sort of Big-Brother-surveillance motif. Above the bar Monday night was a row of closed-circuit TV monitors showing live video of attendees ordering drinks at the (literally) glowing marble bar. In the dimly-lit rear of the restaurant, patrons nibbled pita bread, hummus, and fancy cheeses.

This year, among the many theater and music offerings, holiday events will include the annual tree lighting ceremony on Nov 29, complete with carousel rides, hayrides, choral performances, and an animated “Alpine Safari.”

Another highlight of the season will be the annual Luminaria. Every Thursday evening from Nov 29 to Dec 20, the green will be lit by more than 1200 white paper lanterns. Visitors to downtown will be able to “adopt” and decorate their own lantern at the Light Your Way Station, at 1000 Chapel St.

New to this year’s festivities is Unsilent Night, which is sponsored by the International Festival of Arts and Ideas. Two boomboxes played a sample of the “symphony” for the crowd last night. It is an ethereal, ringing tune that Mary Lou Aleskie, the festival’s executive director, said sounds “like bells, like ice cracking, like ice cubes in a glass.”

The boombox symphony, created by New York artist Phil Kline, has been performed in cities around the world, said Aleskie, including New York, London, and San Diego. Kline will be in New Haven for Unsilent Night. Participants are encouraged to bring their own boomboxes, but there will be some portable stereos available to borrow.

Aleskie said that she hopes that Unsilent Night will become a “New Haven holiday cult classic.”

Naughty and Nice

“It’s good to see so many aldermen here eating the hummus,” said Mayor John DeStefano, who was the first of several speakers to offer thanks and enthusiasm for New Haven’s holiday offerings. DeStefano went on to say how great it was to see all the downtown changes in recent years that had made holiday events possible.

Market New Haven’s Chief Marketing Officer, Anne Worcester, introduced the city’s new ribbon-topped holiday logo, which is distinguished from last year’s by the addition of “sparkles.” Worcester also enlisted several alders to help unveil three new holiday advertisements.

In a reprise of last year’s performance, Alderwoman Bitsie Clark (pictured at the top of this story) offered a dramatic interpretation of the city’s new holiday dining advertisement, mounted on an easel nearby. “Naughty can be sooo nice!” she read off the poster, winking and smiling suggestively while standing on a small plastic footstool. The ad features a close-up of a dramatically lit piece of rich chocolate cake.

Not to be outdone, Alderman Alex Rhodeen introduced the ballet-themed “culture” advertisement with a sort of modified pirouette.

Yale University is the Market New Haven’s second largest funder, after the City of New Haven. Yale Vice President Bruce Alexander offered these words as he left the event, “We want to invite all the people of New Haven and all the people from the suburbs leading lives of quiet desperation to come and enjoy New Haven for the holidays.”