Lyric Hall Parties With A Purpose

Lyric Hall is incredibly lucky!Seems like just yesterday they were getting bailed out from leaving stuff in a flooding basement. Good thing they are in wealthy Westville! Meanwhile, in the Hill New Haven alders are fighting over a school!!

Adelaide- Lyric Hall has not built its community goodwill on "luck." Rather, it has earned a place in the hearts of the community through the sweat, blood, sacrifice and skill of its steward, John Cavaliere. For the few periods of assistance the community has rendered, it has received a priceless gem of a gathering place that has no equal. It is not only the gateway to the Westville Village corridor, it is a place that embodies the spirit of the community, offering cultural and creative events that are seared into the hearts of those who have had the good sense to attend events there.

I would agree that Westville is wealthy, but not because of its economic demographic. It is the cohesiveness of a real community that makes Westville wealthy. It is people like John Cavaliere who continue to weather the natural storms and "acts of God," the forces of runaway taxation, the slings and arrows of the judgmental, but who keep to their vision with perseverance and sense of mission.

That the good people of Westville have all this, is not something that should be a tool of envy, divisiveness or even comparison of one community against another. It should, however, serve as a template of what is possible in every community if the critics channel their energies beyond talk to actual works for the common good.

It is not the economically wealthy that have lifted Lyric Hall above the proverbial tide waters, but the dedicated individuals who all contribute, each in their own small way, realizing that we are all in this together. Westville citizens are, in fact, creating their own luck even as the critics continue to gnash their critical teeth .

To take a cheap shot at a tiny theater that hopes to bring together the neighborhood as a place of goodwill and cultural gathering is only fit for internet trolls.

If you'd like to hassle something, go after many of the large corporations and shotty apartment complexes downtown. To spew negative remarks at a local business owner who wishes to raise $8,000 to continue on sounds petty. I'm pretty sure it costs a lot more than that to run the school you're referring to.

I'm happy to hear news of Lyric Hall continuing on. Westville may be rich, but the village center needs places like this theater to keep people coming to it. To help keep other businesses profitable too.

Truth Avenger has just written one of the best comments I've ever read in the Independent. Perfectly expressed.

Lyric Hall has become a real community center, and a non-profit makes much more sense as a business model. I always wondered how he could stay afloat -- there's no way the bookings paid the rent, and it seems that the restoration business could not subsidize theater space. That's no surprise.

Wealthy Westville? Maybe relative to other neighborhoods, but what I see is a grassroots effort by working people to help one of their own.