East Rock

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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Transience Meets Transcendence On Everit Street

by | Oct 6, 2023 4:13 pm | Comments (1)

Allan Appel Photo

Rabbi James Ponet in his sukkah on the last night of the holiday.

In these fragile times, it is possible to find celebration and even the joy of a little truth lurking in the midst of the most temporary and vulnerable circumstances.

So I was reminded Thursday night when I hung out in Rabbi James Ponet’s sukkah.

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AFT Prez Gets Hands-On Education At Cross

by | Sep 27, 2023 6:27 pm | Comments (10)

Nora Grace-Flood photo

Randi Weingarten (right) helps a student laminate and cut a school sign in the Wilbur Cross print shop.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten returned to New Haven — a decade after helping turn the city into a national model for school reform — and lauded Wilbur Cross High School as a potential leader in hands-on schooling amid a new era of learning loss.

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Mayor: I'm Keeping Park Road Mostly Car-Closed

by | Sep 21, 2023 4:08 pm | Comments (132)

Thomas Breen photo

At Wednesday's parks commission meeting: this crew doesn't have power over summit road.

The Elicker administration — and not the parks commission — will have the final say over whether or not the road to the top of East Rock Park remains largely closed to cars, and open to pedestrians and cyclists only.

The mayor said he has received widespread community support for keeping the road largely closed to cars, so he plans not to make a change.

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CT Folk Fest Sweetens The Heat

by | Sep 11, 2023 8:43 am | Comments (0)

Karen Ponzio Photos.

Lara Herscovitch and The Highway Philosophers.

Lara Herscovitch sang through her sound check, making up lyrics apropos for the day and place: We are not in a monsoon. It’s a beautiful day.” 

Not a drop of rain was to be found on Saturday at the CT Folk Fest and Green Expo, though the heat and humidity was of the late summer variety. A full day and night of music and spoken word on two stages, as well as hourly activities for children and adults, food, drink, and a multitude of vendors awaited visitors behind the stone walls of Edgerton Park. This reporter took in a third of the acts that performed from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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At School Year's Start, Wilbur Cross Keeps Growing

by | Sep 8, 2023 4:03 pm | Comments (6)

Maya McFadden Photo

Cross sophomores Charlotte Herzog, Alma Barjamovic, and Maya Harpaz-Levi.

On the third day of the 2023 – 24 school year, Wilbur Cross sophomores Charlotte Herzog, Alma Barjamovic, and Maya Harpaz-Levi reminisced on a summer of travels to Denmark, Israel, Ireland, and Maine — while also celebrating their return to the city’s largest public high school, which they described as overflowing with opportunity, variety, and diversity.

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Ex-Philly Mayor Stumps For Goldenberg

by | Sep 1, 2023 12:27 pm | Comments (6)

Thomas Breen photo

Michael Nutter: Goldenberg has "the capacity, he has the intellect, the drive, the focus, the commitment that I look for in folks looking to run for office."

Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter took a 5:15 a.m. Amtrak to New Haven to grab a cup of orange juice and talk politics at East Rock Market, survey the transit hub-adjacent desolation of Church Street South, and throw his support behind his former student’s run for mayor.

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AcoustiQueers Fill Black Box With Song

by | Aug 21, 2023 8:53 am | Comments (0)

Karen Ponzio Photos.

That Virginia at Witch Bitch Thrift.

The Black Box at Witch Bitch Thrift echoed with music, laughter, and an ever-present sense of community as AcoustiQueers made its premiere at the event space on Saturday night. A series that — according to Witch Bitch’s social media post, creates an intimate space to celebrate queer music and queer joy” — was started by artist Eli Wood in New York City in 2017. After playing one of those events, the store’s co-owner and musician Virginia Semighini received permission to bring the series to Connecticut, where it ran until 2018. With the evolution of the Whitney Avenue thrift store to now include an event space, the series is being revived and, on this evening, features Semeghini, the New Haven-based trio Untold Joys, and a solo performance by Olive Tiger.

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Elm Shakespeare Makes New Haven Merry

by | Aug 18, 2023 7:23 am | Comments (1)

Detail from promotional art for Merry Wives of Windsor.

Here will be an old abusing of God’s patience and the King’s English,” says Mistress Quickly, played with cheeky humor by Martine Fleurisma in Elm Shakespeare Company’s production of one of the bard’s lesser-known works, The Merry Wives of Windsor. The production plays fast and loose with the audience’s expectations, but it never betrays their patience or wastes their time. Instead, The Merry Wives of Windsor — running now through Sept. 3 at Edgerton Park — provides exactly what it promises: wit, wiles, wanton scoundrels, and scheming wives. Most of all, it supplies the audience with over two hours of good, old-fashioned fun.

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Old Friends Band Together

by | Jul 26, 2023 8:54 am | Comments (2)

Karen Ponzio Photos

Psychedelic Don Ho Down Orchestra

On any given night you can walk past Christopher Martin’s, the restaurant and bar at 860 State St., and hear the clinking of glass and animated conversations from inside, or from one of the many outdoor tables that line its sidewalks. On Tuesday evenings, however, you can hear live music, and on this Tuesday, it was the music of the Psychedelic Don Ho Down Orchestra, a band comprised of seven stalwart and seasoned musicians from the New Haven scene.

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East Rock Dems Back Ed Board Challenger

by | Jul 24, 2023 4:27 pm | Comments (9)

MIA CORTÉS CASTRO photo

Andrea Downer at Friday's joint ward committee meeting.

Andrea Downer took another step towards securing the local Democratic Party’s endorsement in her bid to unseat incumbent elected Board of Education rep Darnell Goldson, after winning the support of two Democratic ward committees in East Rock, and tying on the third.

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