New Holiday Tradition in the Hill

Cherise Hoskie and Aliah Washington scored the most points in what is likely to become a new tradition in the Hill: A talent show on New Year’s Eve afternoon, produced for kids and by kids, and sponsored by the Wilson Branch Library.

The event was designed for local devotees of the library, many living close enough to walk to Wilson. It took talent just to traverse a few blocks in driving snow on a stormy afternoon of the day of New Year’s Eve.

A 3 year-old who was to have recited nursery rhymes for his star turn wasn’t allowed out. The event also lost to the elements its 8 year-old clarinetist, who was to have played ​“Claire de la Lune” and ​“Hot Cross Buns.”

Nevertheless a stalwart half of the dozen scheduled contestants — mostly ​“tweens,” all girls — braved the weather to strut their stuff. They karoke-ed to music of their choosing and were judged, mainly in the spirit of fun, both by librarians and by teenage interns who helped organize the event.

Librarians Aisha Banks and Sunnie Sette (the latter shown here, on the left, with contestant Leyneshka Vazquez) worked with a teenage advisory group to produce the event.

“It’s going to become annual,” vowed Banks, the enthusiastic librarian at Wilson, even though the funding that has made it possible seems as if it’s going to end.

The grant, from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, funds a program called ​“Connecting Youth to Work.” It has employed two Hillhouse seniors, Lyzzenia Colon, on the left in photo, and Cynthia Torres, to work with the younger tweens. In the year and a half Lyzzenia has been at the library as a teenage advisor she’s developed an expertise at helping other teens prepare resume’s, cover letters, and think about career. ​“Just the things I learned,” she said, ​“when I came here when I was younger.”

One age group helping or mentoring another is a big part of what goes on at the libraries. Since the closing down of Hill Cooperative Youth Services, Latino Youth, and other service programs for teens in the Hill (click here for a previous story on this), the libraries, especially the new Wilson branch, are increasingly serving the function of community centers in the Hill.

The effort showed. Aliah (pictured on the left at the top), a 10 year-old student at the Clemente Leadership Academy, rocked the enthusiastic audience with her take on Jasmine Sullivan’s ​“Bust Your Windows.” The choice seemed to do with the fact that there just had been in her family a minor accident resulting in a broken car window.

Cherise, on the other hand, chose ​“If I Aint Got You” by Alicia Keys not only because she likes it, of course, but because it expresses a spirit of self-sufficiency, she said. Cherise sings in her church choir and goes to Hill Central. ​“I’m definitely going to Coop High and learn to be a singer,” she said.

Leyneshka Vazquez already goes to Coop, where she’s a music student. She lip-synched a song in Spanish, ​“Rata De Dos Patas,” by a Mexican siren songstress named Paquita de Barrio. (All the performers lip-synched.) Vazquez said the sense of the song and even the title were hard to translate. ​“Basically it’s addressed to someone who’s described as a rat with two legs. It’s a guy.”

Shall we say it’s about a bad relationship? Vazquez nodded, intimating that her choice might have had something to do with a recent lousy boyfriend. ​“But mainly,” she said, ​“I admire Paquita because she sings with heart, even about her failings.”

Other contestants included Vontreese Goldfarb, on the right, and Sadilka Lopez. Vontreese, who goes to Vincent Mauro, chose to sing ​“This is Me” by Demi Lovato because she’s new to her school. ​“People didn’t know who I was or that I could sing.”

She said she fixed that all up when she sang this same song at the recent Mauro holiday concert. Result: ​“They all dropped their drawers and said ​‘Wow.’” Vontreese and Sadilka agreed that Demi Lovato is a lot cooler and a better singer than Hannah Montana.

The grant from the Community Foundation has enabled the library to hire interns who, in turn, helped create the TAG, or Teenage Advisory Group. TAG produced the show for the younger kids. Librarian Sette said the grant runs through early February.

Renewed funding is uncertain, she said, given the current financial climate. Still TAG, like show business, must go on. Expect New Year’s eve afternoon of 2010 to be a hot ticket, snowstorm or not.