East Rock

Lights Up Lands "Little Mermaid"

by | Mar 6, 2024 9:30 am | Comments (0)

June Lanpher, Zara Baden-Eversman, Erin Palmer.

Ariel keeps disobeying her father, Triton, king of the ocean, who tells her not to try to explore the world above the waves. But she can’t resist. She sees the passing ships, collects the artifacts they drop in the water, clambers onto rocks to gaze at the land beyond. And in time, she sees a prince — and the prince hears her singing — and suddenly both feel a tug, binding them together, that no injunctions from parents can dislodge.

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Cross Bakeshop Gets Meal Out The Door

by | Jan 30, 2024 12:03 pm | Comments (4)

Maya McFadden Photos

Junior Klever Chilel practices omelet making.

Friday's fresh blackberry scones and brown sugar banana muffins.

Genesis Correa flipped a farmer’s omelet onto the grill, Damani Wheeler cut thick slices of ciabatta toast, Klever Chilel delivered the fresh off the grill breakfasts, and Tracey Salazar poured customers of the Wilbur Cross Bakeshop a cold cup of fresh grapefruit juice. 

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Sacred Harp Brings The Joyful Noise

by | Jan 17, 2024 9:00 am | Comments (0)

The Sacred Harp participants for the evening.

Do you like to sing? I do, but I haven’t done much formally or had any instruction in it. For 2024 one of my goals was to truly find my own voice without shame or judgment. Lucky for me, Volume Two at Never Ending Books has a gathering of the New Haven Sacred Harp every third Monday of the month, where new and inexperienced singers are always welcome. 

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Calls Renewed For Crosswalk To Edgerton Park

by | Jan 9, 2024 2:10 pm | Comments (33)

Laura Glesby Photo

Darko Jelaca has a vision for this intersection.

Yet another driver barreled down Whitney Avenue, crossing the New Haven-Hamden town line far faster than the 25 miles-per-hour limit.

TWENTY FIVE!” Darko Jelaca shouted at the car, having just made it to the corner of Whitney and Cliff after darting across the avenue.

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Mandy Buys Albertus Student Housing For $7.4M

by | Nov 28, 2023 12:21 pm | Comments (12)

Thomas Breen photo

490 Prospect St.: Now owned by Mandy, leased by Albertus.

Tapping the current advantageous real estate market,” Albertus Magnus College has sold 20 units of student housing and related office and meeting space for $7.4 million to an affiliate of Mandy Management — and has entered into a long-term lease with the local megalandlord to preserve the property for school use.

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FiFac's House Makes A Home At Never Ending Books

by | Nov 27, 2023 8:19 am | Comments (0)

Karen Ponzio photo

Michael Slyne at Volume 2.

On the day after Thanksgiving, many scattered through stores to find the best prices on holiday presents. Others settled into couches to catch college football. A select few found themselves making their way to FiFac’s House, a monthly music series held on the last Friday of each month over the past year at Never Ending Books. Not unlike the multitude of series held at the State Street gathering space — both before and after its reimagination under the Volume Two collective — the night offered an array of performers that established a symbiotic relationship between creator and listener via dissonance, dreaminess, and experimentation. 

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Student Climate Activists Speak Up About What To Fear, What To Be Thankful For

by | Nov 22, 2023 8:29 am | Comments (3)

Maya McFadden file photo

Student composters at work in Cross's cafeteria back in June.

This Thanksgiving season, Wilbur Cross sophomore Manxi Han is thankful to have a home that is not routinely submerged in several feet of water as sea levels rise, for access to food despite climate change-related disasters destroying farm lands, for healthy and clean air year-round, for minimal heat waves as the earth’s temperature rises, and for biodiversity as rates of extinction increase. 

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Special Needs Meet "Life Skills" In Cross Class

by | Nov 17, 2023 9:22 am | Comments (2)

Maya McFadden Photo

Margaret Stevens in her "life skills" classroom.

When Wilbur Cross English teacher Margaret Stevens told her class of multilingual students that the word of the day was invent,” her students put their fingers to their bottom lips to feel the vibrations as they pronounced the word aloud with a va” sound rather than a ba” sound more familiar to Spanish speakers. 

That exercise took place as part of a new effort at the East Rock public high school to teach life skills” to students with special needs who are also still learning English, along with peer mentors, all in one class.

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Nature Journal Club Draws From "Urban Oasis"

by | Nov 9, 2023 9:25 am | Comments (3)

Karen Ponzio photo

Map sketching and nature journaling in East Rock.

East Rock Park on a sunny November Saturday was an idyllic setting for the most recent New Haven Nature Journal Club meet-up. The biweekly event focuses on gathering in natural settings to witness, observe, and document the surroundings through drawings and writings, with a bit of guidance and a bunch of support. 

The group, led by Madelyn Neufeld, meets on Saturday mornings twice a month: once in East Rock Park and two weeks later at another location that changes each time. Neufeld started this club back in August after researching the Wild Wonder Foundation — which provides free nature journal resources — and finding no groups in Connecticut.

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"Jobs You've Never Heard Of" Come To Class

by | Nov 8, 2023 12:11 pm | Comments (1)

Maya McFadden Photo

Nataly Magana with a doll she uses to help explain to child hospital patients what they're going through.

Nataly Magana told a classroom full of New Haven Academy students that she once considered becoming a teacher herself.

But instead she took a different career path — one that also involves counseling young people in need and helping them stay calm and flourish amidst challenging circumstances — as a certified child life specialist at Yale New Haven Hospital.

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5 Write-Ins Run For Alder

by | Nov 6, 2023 9:57 am | Comments (2)

Thomas Breen / Lisa Reisman / Paul Bass / Laura Glesby photos

Write-in alder candidates (clockwise from top left) Josh Glaab of Ward 10, Fred Christmas of Ward 21, Ira Johnson of Ward 11, Dennis Serfilippi of Ward 25, and Susan Campion of Ward 18.

A high school science teacher in East Rock, a community organizer in Dixwell, a budget watchdog in Westville, and a Tweed critic in Morris Cove are some of the five alder hopefuls this year seeking to convince voters to put pen to ballot to support their write-in candidacies for local legislative office.

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Hispanic Heritage Celebrated At Wilbur Cross Panel

by | Oct 25, 2023 4:40 pm | Comments (4)

Maya McFadden Photo

Wilbur Cross' Hispanic heritage panel Wednesday.

What do a retired educator, the city school district’s superintendent, an information technology director, a nonprofit program manager, a former New York City Councilman, and a social justice activist all have in common?

For one, they all love their Hispanic heritage.

They also all visited Wilbur Cross High School Wednesday morning.

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Marlinworks Open Studios Falls Into Place

by | Oct 23, 2023 8:21 am | Comments (0)

Karen Ponzio Photos

Jo Kremer.

The top floor of the Marlinworks Eagle building in East Rock was the setting for the opening of the studios of a small but dazzling array of artists on Saturday afternoon, with a display of works as eye-grabbing as the foliage of East Rock Park right outside their windows. The five artists — Linda Lindroth, Nancy Karpel, Craig Newick, David Margolis and Jo Kremer — were participating in the artist-organized City-Wide Open Studios weekend this past Saturday and Sunday, which also included events in Erector Square and City Gallery. 

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So Long Home Fries, Hello Malanga

by | Oct 13, 2023 9:16 am | Comments (3)

Allan Appel photo

Maria Espinal with malanga in the right hand, mangu in the left

Humberto and Maria Espinal tried out serving home fries at their home-style, Dominican cuisine-inspired new restaurant on Orange Street in East Rock.

But they quickly learned that customers wanted the real stuff”: malanga, which is pureed root vegetable different if similar to taro root and having a kind of deep nutty taste; and mangu, a puree of green plantains.

We gave it a two-week chance,” Maria said about the staple American-style home fries. But malanga and mangu, to customers’ delight, have won out. 

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