New Warming Center, 645 Grand Ave.

The City has now secured additional funding from the state to create a new warming center space at the existing 645 Grand Ave. shelter.

To find shelters and warming centers in Connecticut, call 211. In New Haven, there is also a list at bit.ly/4pcAbLV. More information is at newhavenct.gov/homeless.

We ask our readers to print out the list and have copies on hand to give to people in need of a warm, safe place.

Listen to Dr. King’s Beyond Vietnam Speech

by Henry Lowendorf, GNH Peace Council

The annual public reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s revolutionary Beyond Vietnam speech will take place Thursday, Jan. 15, at noon in New Haven City Hall, 165 Church St. It is being organized by the Greater New Haven Peace Council, City of New Haven Peace Commission, and Veterans for Peace.

This speech shook the establishment into denouncing King because, among other things, he connected the movements for peace, civil rights and economic justice.

If you are interested in receiving a pdf of the speech and/or reading a page of the speech on Jan. 15, please email grnhpeacecouncil@gmail.com.

Jan. 15, 10:30 a.m., Join the 56th Annual MLK Jr. Love March

Join 94.3 WYBC and Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church for the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Love March at  10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 in New Haven.

The MLK Love March in New Haven has been going strong for over 50 years and it celebrates the life and work of the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Love March will begin at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church located at 100 Lawrence Street and continue from Lawrence St. to Whitney Ave. to Edwards St. to State St. to Lawrence St.

We will march on this day rain or shine to commemorate the dreams and aspirations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Love March, which was started by Shiloh’s late Founder and Pastor, Rev. George W. Hampton Sr., has been a positive force in the community of New Haven for more than 50 years.

The Love March was created to preserve the notion of nonviolence. Come out and lend your voice of support to the community in making New Haven a better place to live. Scheduled to attend will be some of our political leaders from New Haven and the State of Connecticut.

For further information, please call 203-776-8262, by email at mlklove100@gmail.com, or visit www.smbcnh.org.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and Celebration

by Yale Peabody Museum

Monday, January 19

Noon – 4:00 p.m. Festival / Family Day

4 – 7 p.m. Community Poetry and Poetry Slam

MLK Celebration | Yale Peabody Museum

170 Whitney Avenue, New Haven

Join over a dozen community organizations as they gather at the Yale Peabody Museum to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s work, offering knowledge about food, educational, racial, and environmental justice. Set against the wonder of the museum, students from the New Haven Public Schools will share music and dance. Immerse yourself in what the New Haven community offers at the Yale Peabody Museum!

The Peabody will host the Z Experience Poetry Slam in our Central Gallery from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Hosted by Croilot Adames Semexant, this long-running spoken word event attracts a large and supportive crowd every year, and will wrap up the day’s events of our Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and Celebration. Admission to the slam is free and suggested for adults.

This event is preceded by a Community Poetry Open Mic session, hosted by Frederick-Douglass Knowles II, in David Friend Hall at 4:00 p.m.

Community Poetry Open Mic
Hosted by Frederick-Douglass Knowles II
4 p.m.

Invitational Poetry Slam
Hosted by Croilot Adames Semexant
5 – 7 p.m.

Slam Teams:
Charm City Slam (Maryland)
Fruity Fudge (Rhode Island)
New Word Order (Massachusetts)
Slamherst (Massachusetts)
Verbal Slap (Connecticut)

Peabody.yale.edu/events/mlk-celebration

Peabody.yale.edu/events/z-experience-poetry-slam

Renowned Civil Rights Attorney Preston Tisdale Featured Speaker at 41st Annual MLK Day Breakfast Jan. 19

Ellyn Santiago, Dec. 4, 2025, Patch

Renowned civil rights Attorney Preston Tisdale will be the featured speaker at the 41st annual MLK Day Breakfast on Jan. 19, 2026 at Branford High School, 185 East Main Street, Branford.

Sponsored by the MLK Heritage Foundation and Branford Public Schools, the breakfast has become an annual tradition, bringing together hundreds of community members for an incredible morning of food, music, and inspiration.

As a long-time public defender and President of the Public Justice Foundation, Mr. Tisdale has dedicated his life to standing up to injustice. A partner at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, he has fought in the courts against bias, discrimination, and oppression, and has served on the boards of multiple civic organizations that aid the less fortunate, including the Fairfield County Community Foundation and the Bridgeport Public Education Fund. He is also a recipient of the NAACP Distinguished Service Award.

Mr. Tisdale’s speech at the 2026 MLK Breakfast is entitled, Now Is the Time to Take a Stand, and will address the need to step forward and not turn away in the face of increasing uncertainty, he said.

“Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood,” said Tisdale, quoting Dr. King. “Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.”

With tickets just $20, and $5 for students, the MLK Day Breakfast promises to be an evocative morning.

The program also includes:

  • A full breakfast prepared by the BHS Culinary Arts program and Branford Rotary. Eggs, grits, bacon sausage, pancakes, coffee, tea, biscuits and more!
  • Songs by the award-winning Branford High School Music Makers, as well as music by XX, YY, ZZ.
  • Community – people come from Branford and beyond to talk, laugh and get to know each other. It’s a chance to gain new perspectives and meet strangers who become friends.

“There is nothing in Branford quite like the MLK Breakfast,” said Mary Fitz-Perry, President of the MLK Heritage Foundation, which co-hosts the event. “To see more than 250 people, from all ages and backgrounds, get together and genuinely talk to each other is a marvelous thing.”

For more information about the breakfast, please visit MLKHeritage.org.

[To read the article in its entirety, please go to bit.ly/3Y9azEA.]

Greater New Haven Green Fund Wants You to Apply for Funding

by Lynne Bonnett, GRNH Green Fund

It’s not too late to apply for a community grant that addresses environmental and sustainability issues in the  Greater New Haven area (New Haven, Woodbridge, Hamden and East Haven).  Applications are online, all the information that you need is available on: www.gnhgreenfund.org.  Any questions? Contact info@gnhgreenfund.org to schedule an appointment.

Grants are available for up to $10,000.  The fund has given out $750,000 since its inception in 2011.  You can view grant history on the Green Fund’s website.  Don’t miss out on this opportunity if you are interested – the offer closes Jan. 30, 2026 at 5 p.m.

Never had a grant before? The fund also offers small grants (up to $1000) for community projects – recommended for those that are new to the grant application process.  If you have an event planned that has wide public attendance and meets our goal of supporting environmental and sustainability initiatives, they offer sponsorships to help cover the costs of the event. All the application information is available at  www.gnhgreenfund.org.

Campaign to Free Dr. Abu Safiya, Director of Hospital in Gaza

The Middle East Crisis Committee, Promoting Enduring Peace, Campaign to Free Dr. Abu Safiya

In the fall of 2024, the Israeli military decided to empty Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital. It bombarded parts of the facility and ordered it to be evacuated. The hospital director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, and his medical staff refused to leave.  Dr. Abu Safiya said, “I will stay inside my hospital until the last moment.” The attacks continued. His 15-year-old son Ibrahim was killed on hospital grounds by an Israeli drone. The doctor himself was seriously wounded in another attack inside the hospital. and suffered six shrapnel wounds to his leg. Finally, when it looked like the whole hospital would be leveled, Dr. Abu Safiya agreed to leave.

On Dec. 27, 2024, Dr. Abu Safiya and his remaining hospital staff surrendered to Israeli forces. By then, Kamal Adwan Hospital had been made inoperable by the IDF who threatened worse destruction. Dr. Abu Safiya has been in a series of Israeli prisons ever since. His attorney says he’s lost a third of his body weight and has suffered assault and beatings. He has not been charged with any crime but is being held under a dubious Israeli “Unlawful Combatants” provision. No evidence has been offered that he’s a combatant of any kind. Amnesty International calls for Dr. Abu Safiya’s release.

The Campaign to Free Dr. Abu Safiya was recently started in Connecticut by the Middle East Crisis Committee, Promoting Enduring Peace, and other organizations, and has composed an open letter calling on the United States government, which supplies Israel with armaments, intelligence, and full diplomatic backing, to insist that Dr. Abu Safiya be freed along with other medical staff from the former Kamal Adwan Hospital.

To see the letter and to sign on to it, please send an email to mail@thestruggle.org. For more information about Dr. Abu Safiya, see bit.ly/4sbdPwT.

 

65-Year-Old Dies After Night on the Green

Thomas Breen, Dec. 19, 2025, New Haven Independent

A 65-year-old homeless man died after police said he spent the night on a bench on the Green last week as temperatures dipped below freezing.

On that very same night, the Elicker administration opened a third temporary warming center after New Haven’s other two reached capacity. The city has subsequently created space for 35 more people to get out of the cold at an existing Grand Avenue shelter.

City police spokesperson Officer Christian Bruckhart told the Independent that a 65-year-old man named Abdulah Kanchero was picked up by an ambulance on the Green at around 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 12. He was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.

Bruckhart and the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) told the Independent on Friday that the cause and manner of Kanchero’s death are still under investigation.

Kanchero was originally from Ethiopia. His last known address was the 645 Grand Ave. homeless shelter.

Bruckhart said surveillance video showed that Kanchero originally sat down on a bench near Chapel Street and Temple Street on the Green at around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 11.

It was cold that night, Bruckhart said. Kanchero was by himself.

Warming Centers Reach Capacity; Grand Shelter Expanded

On the same night that Kanchero spent on a bench on the Green, the city’s two warming centers — at Varick church on Dixwell Avenue and the 180 Center on East Street — were filled to capacity.

[To read the article in its entirety, please go to bit.ly/48TS90E.]

Urban League of Southern CT True Haven Re-entry Services and Trauma-Informed Training Workshops continue Jan 6.

by Vanessa R. Simmons, Urban League of Southern CT

The Urban League of Southern Connecticut’s True Haven Reentry Program is a forward-looking research study and initiative dedicated to helping justice-involved individuals and their families achieve lasting housing stability and economic resilience. True Havens’ financial literacy education and counseling help clients rebuild with dignity and confidence as they transition home and strengthen their families.

This year, True Haven proudly served more than 81 justice-impacted households, helping individuals returning home from incarceration, or family members of individuals currently incarcerated, maintain or secure safe, stable housing, connect with employment resources, and navigate systems that too often create barriers to success with targeted financial assistance, housing navigation, and referrals to emotional support services, helping to reduce instability and stress in households affected by incarceration.

The heart of our work is housing stability. True Haven staff work one-on-one with clients to create individualized reentry assistance plans, negotiate with landlords, and connect participants to other wrap-around services. Our financial education offerings include interactive classes, one-on-one counseling, and practical tools for budgeting, credit rebuilding, and long-term economic stability. True Haven’s financial assistance is designed to bridge immediate crises and prevent eviction while empowering participants to build long-term financial strength.

Beyond direct service, True Haven actively contributes to community education and capacity building. Our Trauma-Informed Training Workshops brought together 54 community leaders, advocates, and residents to explore how trauma impacts individuals and neighborhoods. These workshops help participants recognize trauma-related signs and symptoms, practice compassionate communication, and build skills to support healing in families and communities. By increasing trauma awareness and response capacity throughout New Haven, True Haven strengthens the ecosystem of support for everyone touched by incarceration and community violence.

Our next Trauma-Informed Training will be on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, from 4:30-7 p.m. at the Dixwell Q-House, Room 114, 197 Dixwell Ave. This free community workshop helps participants understand the impact of trauma and learn practical strategies to build healing-centered relationships at home, in the workplace, and in the community.

To secure your spot in this workshop, please call 203-327-5810. Refreshments will be provided. Space is limited — come early and bring a friend! Together, we can create stronger, more supportive communities.

We are actively accepting new applications for services and warmly welcome referrals from community partners, probation and parole officers, halfway houses, advocates, and family members. To apply or refer someone today, contact the Urban League of Southern Connecticut. True Haven is here to help individuals and families move from crisis toward stability, one step and one success story at a time.

Urban League of Southern CT, 203-561-3227, www.ulsc.org

Call for Proposals for the 25th SCSU Women’s & Gender Studies Conference

by Women’s & Gender Studies Department, SCSU

(Re)making the World: A “How-To” Conference on Feminist, Crip, and Decolonial Worldmaking, April 17–18, 2026, at Southern Connecticut State University

In As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance (2017), Leanne Betasamosake Simpson writes:

Resurgence is not a metaphor. It is the flight out of settler colonialism, towards something we have been taught is impossible.

This conference takes Simpson’s call for radical resurgence seriously — positioning “how-to” as a feminist practice, politic, and theorizing.

The 2026 Southern Connecticut State University Women’s & Gender Studies Conference invites communities to gather for a feminist, crip, and decolonial practice of refusal, survival, and worldmaking.

In an era of rising authoritarianism, climate catastrophe, and technological dispossession, we ask

How do we refuse extractive systems of labor, knowledge, and identity?

How do we create alternative economies of care, access, justice, and decolonial business?

How do we unlearn oppressive epistemologies and forge liberatory practices?

How do we crip, queer, Indigenize, and decolonize institutions not built for us?

How do we resist algorithmic bias, surveillance capitalism, and technocratic ableism?

How do we (re)imagine feminist futures?

The 2026 conference offers a space to explore the pedagogies, practices, and possibilities embedded in the question of “how to?” across disciplines, communities, and movements. We seek proposals that move beyond critique to praxis — embracing failure as pedagogy, interdependence as resistance, and joy as a radical act.

Submission Guidelines: Individual papers, workshops, roundtables, performances, exhibitions, teach-ins, skill-shares, activist toolkits, and other creative or non-traditional formats are welcomed.

We encourage proposals from caregivers, community organizers, entrepreneurs, artist-activists, and others whose work centers lived experiences, collaborative strategies, and collective visions for justice and inclusion.

The deadline is January 5, 2026 (earlier submissions encouraged). Notifications will be sent by January 30.

Send proposals to wgs@southernct.edu with the subject “2026 SCSU WGS Conference Submission” and include the name of the proposer, email, phone number, affiliation (if any), and any accessibility needs. The proposal should be approximately 150-250 words and should include a 50-word bio for each presenter and a separate section with a description of the proposed format of the session.

Registration details will be available shortly. Please email or phone the Women’s & Gender Studies Department at wgs@southernct.edu or 203-392-6133.

IRIS 5K Run for Refugees Feb. 8

The 5K Run for Refugees will be held Sunday, Feb. 8, beginning at Wilbur Cross High School, 181 Mitchell Drive, New Haven. Packet pick-up is at 8:30 a.m. and the race starts at 10 a.m., followed by a post-race party and awards ceremony.

The race is limited to 3,000 participants. Register early! Info at www.jbsports.com/iris-run-for-refugees.

Show your support by running with us, fundraising, or giving a donation. Newcomers contribute so much to our communities, yet many face fear and uncertainty about their future. We’re celebrating cultural diversity and leaning into radical empathy for those who need it most. You can make all the difference through your support!

IRIS served more than 2,000 immigrants last year and welcomed over 280 newly arrived refugees! The mission of IRIS is to enable refugees and other displaced people to establish new lives, regain hope, and contribute to the vitality of Connecticut’s communities. Refugees are men, women and children who fled their countries of origin due to persecution on the basis of their race, nationality, religious belief, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Currently, IRIS’s refugee clients come from Syria, Afghanistan, Congo, Cuba, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Sudan and other countries. IRIS provides refugees with housing, food, clothing, and services such as education, English training, job preparation and placement, health care, and immigration legal aid.

Stand with refugees and immigrants during this critical time!

For more info please call 203-481-5933 or email jody@jbsports.com.

 

 

Community Solar Projects Continue to Grow in CT. The Aim Is to Bring Down Rising Energy Costs

Stephen Underwood, Dec. 22, Hartford Courant

As energy bills continue to provide sticker shock for many Connecticut residents, some are seeing solar credits being applied to their billing statements without even having any solar panels attached to their homes.

Connecticut’s Shared Clean Energy Facilities Program allows residents to reap the benefits of solar who are not eligible to install solar panels themselves, according to the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The idea is to add 260 megawatts of locally generated, renewable and low carbon energy to the electric grid over the next eight years through large scale solar projects. Both of the state’s largest energy suppliers, Eversource and United Illuminating, participate in the program.

The SCEF program, which was created in 2018, is now starting to expand across the state. The program is administered by DEEP and overseen by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority. The program utilizes a community solar model with subscribers receiving monthly bill credits for up to 20 years, reducing energy costs at no expense to participants. The program was started to help low-to-moderate income residents and businesses receive solar who may not be able to install panels for various reasons.

“Most eligible customers will automatically qualify for a subscription without needing to apply. We’ll let you know if you’re one of these customers and are selected to receive a SCEF subscription. A small number of subscriptions will be available for voluntary enrollment. Only customers that meet income requirements or who otherwise may not be able to install a clean energy generation at their home or business are eligible to apply,” an Eversource spokesperson said in a statement.

[See article in its entirety at bit.ly/4jesiEe]

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