The PAR Mission is to inform the greater New Haven community about the activities of many progressive groups, so that people may learn about them and become involved in discussions and actions on issues for the common good, such as peace, health, racial equity, justice, clean energy and the environment.
The Volume 2 Crew here at Neverending Books is proud to announce: We are now officially a 501(c)(3) nonprofit! It has taken a village to keep this place running smoothly and everyone’s combined skills and support have made this happen. Now we can raise tax-free donations and apply for grants. This shift will allow us to remain FREE FREE FREE for all. It will also make donations to us tax-deductible all the way back to Dec. 2021! We are so happy and we have you to thank. Thank you for sticking with us, coming out to gigs, and inviting your friends to the kookiest bookstore around. Check website for schedule of events: neverendingbooks.net. Info: [email protected]. 810 State Street.
What lessons can we learn from the youth movements of the past and present? What strategies, tactics, and actions can we use in New Haven or other towns? What role can young people play in the fight to ensure our schools and communities have the resources we deserve? How can young people in New Haven or other towns continue the legacy of youth activism to build a better world?
Requirements: Digital art work, drawings, paintings, collage, prints, photographs, etc. Essay, poem, rap or song – Not longer than 2 pages.
Entries must be received by 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 17, 2023 and include entry title, name, address, phone, e-mail, age, school, teacher’s name (where applicable). Email all entries to: [email protected]. Prizes: gift cards ($200 first place, $100 second place, $50 third place) and books.
The art and writing competition is sponsored annually by Connecticut People’s World Committee to remember the lives and dedication of Dalzenia Henry and Virginia Henry to the youth of New Haven and to make a better future.
For more information, email [email protected] or leave a message at 203-624-8664.
I got to watch the creation of this show in our home in Hamden among all the celestial, social and physical events leading up to the Solstice. Stories, colors and forms have kept me going, truly the fruit of the creative process. To share it with us you need to travel to The Buttonwood Tree, 605 Main St. in Middletown, CT.
Cooped up for who knows for how long… too long? This is an invitation to a down-home relaxed musical sharing. We gave this song circle format a run at Volume Two – Never Ending Books a few months back and had so much fun… join us. Saturday, Jan. 28, 7 p.m. A modest donation of $15 is suggested.
In addition to the receptions, Journey in Place can be viewed from Jan. 4-28. Check with The Buttonwood Tree for more info. Phone 860-347-4957, or web https://www.buttonwood.org.
Lindsay Skedgell, New Haven Independent, Nov 7, 2022
Photo: Lindsay Skedgell
Mill Street danced to life with jewel-painted faces, neon-colored skulls, and at least one hairless dog and its golden-spike-crowned owner, as over 100 people gathered for Fair Haven’s annual Día de Muertos parade.
That was the scene Saturday at a warehouse at 26 Mill River St. for a “Day of the Dead” event organized by Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA). That was just one of at least two such events to take place in Fair Haven on Saturday, with the Semilla Collective also hosting a Día de Muertos celebration at Bregamos Theater off of Peck Street and Blatchley Avenue.
The back parking lot of 26 Mill St. Saturday evening was full of people in traditional dresses, faces painted with jewels framing their eyes and cheeks, getting ready for the parade. Behind them, a float was being set up, the flatbed of the truck that carried it lined with painted skulls in neon pink, green, orange, and blue. Around the float, a hairless dog whose leash was colorfully woven walked enthusiastically with its owner, whose head was adorned with a golden spiked headband.
Inside the white warehouse space, an altar was laid out and collectively built at the entrance, a deer skull in the middle of the floor surrounded by lit candles, bread, tables bordered by apples, marigold flowers, and photographs of loved ones who had passed. Faces were being painted in bright paint and puppets lined the walls of the room.
Saturday’s parade and festival in Fair Haven marked the 12th annual event organized by ULA, held to celebrate Mexican and indigenous cultures in New Haven and to honor the deceased. The Day of the Dead is a holiday to remember those who have passed, often involving puppets, altars, offerings and gifts, and vibrant storytelling to pay respect to the deceased.
“This is my husband who passed,” said Joelle Fishman, gesturing toward a tall puppet built in honor of her deceased husband, Art Perlo. He wore a black “People & Planet Before Profits” shirt, his hat, glasses, and mustache placed beautifully to mirror him. “I’m carrying on for the both of us,” Fishman stated. Perlo, who was a lifelong activist, passed away last year.
by Noel Sims, New Haven Independent, Oct. 13, 2022
“Our people live without borders,” John Lugo said in Spanish to a small crowd gathered on the corner of Church and Chapel to celebrate both migrants and indigenous people who call this land home.
Noel Sims Photo
That was the scene Wednesday afternoon during an Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration hosted by the local immigrant rights advocacy group Unidad Latina en Acción.
As Lugo spoke, smoke from sage burning at an altar set up in front of the Bennett Memorial Fountain wafted through the air. Among the group listening intently to his words were women in traditional Mexican and Guatemalan garb, young children, and a few curious passersby walking across the Green. Lugo, who helms ULA, welcomed family, friends and neighbors to join in a celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
The rally wasn’t the only celebration of native people and culture that was held on the Green Wednesday. On the Elm Street side, a second group led by longtime local activist and Indigenous Peoples’ Day event organizer Norm Clement gathered for a separate ceremony. (City government, meanwhile, now recognizes the second Monday of October not as Columbus Day or as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but instead as Italian Heritage Day.)
According to a flyer passed out by organizers, the ULA event had an additional purpose: to criticize a lack of action by Democrats and other elected officials to make pathways for migrants to stay in the United States.
Oct. 12 has long been recognized and celebrated in this country as the date that the Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus first arrived in the Americas. On Wednesday, Lugo recognized the date as an anniversary of something much different than a first encounter between two cultures. He described it instead as the beginning of violence and genocide of Indigenous people on this continent. He said today’s immigration policies are a continuation of that violence.
Two-year-old Tanner Carberry was parsing out the difference between a T-Rex, a Stegosaurus, and a Triceratops when Stetson Branch Manager Diane Brown made her way over to the table to get in on the action. A stack of books including Pride Colors, Planes Go, and Marvel’s illustrated Black Panther soaked in a patch of sunlight, waiting for Tanner’s attention. The dinosaurs had all of it.
“You read this?!” Brown said, running a ruby-tipped fingernail over the Triceratops’ yellow and gray head plate. Tanner nodded, a smile teasing at the edges of his mouth. Brown put out a fist and watched as he gave the gentlest bump in return.
Carberry and his grandmother, Dr. Belinda Carberry, were two of the first visitors to the new, two-story Stetson Branch Library Monday, as it opened its large front doors as an anchor of the Dixwell Avenue Q House. After years of anticipation, the space is officially open and ready for use. Brown said branch staff will hold an opening celebration June 4, as part of a larger festival outside the Q House.
“I’m a little tired but I’m happy,” Brown said during a momentary pause Monday, looking around an office that is still waiting for wall art. “I feel relieved. We finally got it opened to the public. It’s been a labor of love, but I would do this all again.”
Music. Testimonies. Spanish & English. All are welcome.
This pandemic has been especially devastating for women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrant workers, essential workers and caregivers. Wage theft, labor exploitation, and violence against women and LGBTQ+ people have escalated. Thirteen Connecticut billionaires have seized $13.7 billion in additional wealth, while one in three Latino and Black children continue to live in poverty in this state. Instead of making billionaires pay what they owe and investing in our health and well-being, governments across the United States are investing in war, restricting our sexual and reproductive freedoms, and closing our health clinics. This March 8, as women across the world go on strike, we will gather in New Haven to weave together our struggles. Join us!
Reúnete
con nosotras para escuchar las voces de las mujeres y personas LGBT, migrantes y estudiantes, que se están levantando para construir un movimiento feminista sin fronteras.
Arte.
Música. Testimonios. Español e inglés. Todes son bienvenides.
Esta pandemia ha sido especialmente devastadora para las mujeres, las personas LGBTQ+, les trabajadores migrantes, les trabajadores esenciales y les cuidadores. El robo salarial, la explotación laboral y la violencia hacia las mujeres y disidencias se han intensificado.
Trece multimillonarios de Connecticut se han apoderado de 13.700 millones de dólares de riqueza adicional, mientras que uno de cada tres niños latinos y negros sigue viviendo en la pobreza en este estado. En lugar de hacer que los multimillonarios paguen loque deben e invertir en nuestra salud y bienestar, los gobiernos de todo Estados Unidos están invirtiendo en la guerra, restringiendo nuestras libertades sexuales y reproductivas y cerrando nuestras clínicas de salud. Este 8 de marzo, mientras las mujeres de todo el mundo se ponen en huelga, nos reuniremos en New Haven para entrelazar nuestras luchas. ¡Únete a nosotras!
The PAR Newsletter has always had as its mission the bringing together of activists by sharing reports of the events and ongoing work of groups to build a progressive community.
Sometimes we have received articles that are more like critiques of controversial issues that are important to particular groups but tended to emphasize differences within the progressive and broader community. As we tend to focus on community unity and building a broad progressive constituency, we have rejected such articles and asked groups to send reports that show what groups are doing.
We recognize that within activist circles and the broader population there are many complex issues that can sometimes divide us and that require ongoing dialogue.
In this spirit we would like to present a dialogue page in the PAR newsletter that will act as a place for groups to express differing views on controversial issues.
We would like this to be a page where groups focus specifically on their own positions on these issues, points of possible unity with others, and not as a place to criticize other groups or individuals with whom they disagree.
As an example, some activists see police violence as a reason to defund the police departments and to completely change the nature of “policing.” Others in our community feel the police are still necessary and look to other reforms. Discussions of such issues may help people find common ground and programmatic unity to further the causes dear to our hearts or at least to clarify differences.
Other examples, for instance, are the strong differing views on the threat of war in Ukraine or the differing views on political violence in Syria.
We hope organizations will take up this offer and contact us with issues they would like to see on the dialogue page. The PAR committee looks forward to providing a forum for all to sort out controversial issues and build a stronger progressive family.
48th Annual People’s World
African American History Celebration
TEACHING BLACK HISTORY – MAKING GOOD TROUBLE
The 48th People’s World African American History event will be held virtually on Sunday, February 27 at 4:00 pm, “Teaching Black History – Making Good Trouble” Once you register you will receive a link to the event in your e-mail.
Panel: State Sen Gary Winfield, New Haven Federation of Teachers union president Leslie Blatteau and a representative of Students for Educational Justice will share their experiences.
Keynote speaker Eric Brooks co-chairs the African American Equality Commission, Communist Party USA and lives in Indiana where he is a community activist.
Prizes will be awarded in the Grade 8 to 12 Arts and Writing Competition. Deadline is Feb 18. Details are at ctpeoplebeforeprofits.blogspot.com/
Performance will be provided by Afro-Beat.
Arrive early to see video of Youth March honoring Art Perlo Saturday February 26th 2pm from Troupe School to the New Haven Peoples Center. For information about the Youth March contact [email protected]
Please contribute what you can. This event is a fundraiser for People’s World and honors Art Perlo. Throughout the decades of struggle for civil rights, peace and economic justice, People’s World has reported and stood on the side of freedom fighters. Your contribution will enable this valuable voice to continue to educate and uplift the movement for equality.
To attend the event on Sun Feb 27 you must register in advance to receive your link to the Zoom event
Tenikka Hampton lowered her mask and lifted her face toward the sky, her breath wispy and white in the morning air. Portraits of President Barack Obama and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. peered from a sign that read “We Shall Overcome: The Dream Still Lives” in her hands. Around her, Humphrey Street was still waking up to the bone-cracking cold. She began to sing, collapsing hundreds of years onto a single city block.
“We are marching/On Dr. King’s birthday,” her voice rang out, and a chorus joined in around her. “We are marching/ Each and every day!”
Ten-degree temperatures couldn’t stop Hampton and members of the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church from keeping spirits high at the 52nd Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Love March Saturday morning, held on what would have been Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 93rd birthday. Braving the cold and the wind, close to five dozen marchers began at the church’s Lawrence Street home, wound through the streets of East Rock singing, and ended with a short speaking program and mask and test giveaway outside the church.
“You are a drum major for justice,” said Pastor Kennedy D. Hampton Sr., whose father, the late Rev. George W. Hampton Sr., started the march in 1970. “We can’t get comfortable. We can’t become complacent. We can’t become satisfied. Because until there’s equal justice for all, we have no reason to be satisfied.”
…Mincing no words, State Sen. Gary Winfield said he was tired of hearing about the “Santa Claus version of Dr. King,” the mild-mannered beacon of harmony and racial reconciliation that Republicans tweet glowingly about once a year. He wants his children—and all children—to know the Dr. King who rallied for labor rights and against capitalism, who led the Poor People’s Campaign, who the then-nascent F.B.I. saw as one of the most dangerous men in the United States for his basic belief that Black people should have equal rights.
[You can read the article in its entirety at www.newhavenarts.org and click on Arts Paper]
The drum coasted over the New Haven Green, a steady heartbeat as voices began to swell above it. Huddled around a microphone, members of Red Territory led each other in a round, the song catching on something as it wove upwards. Four dozen pairs of eyes turned toward the sound and listened. The smell of sage hung low in the air.
Monday afternoon, Native artists, activists, and storytellers gathered at a now-annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration on the New Haven Green. Organized by Norm Clement and Ricky Looking Crow, the event sought to create a space for Indigenous people to gather, celebrate, and share the stories of where they come from and who they are.
Lucy Gellman photo
Clement is a member of the Penobscot Nation of Northern New England and a confederate member of the local Quinnipiac tribe. Looking Crow is a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Northern New England, primarily Maine.
“I got a few things on my mind today,” Clement said early in the ceremony. “It’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day here in New Haven. People are still fighting to be recognized in this state, around this country, we’re still fighting to get rid of the colonizer’s day.”
“I think today is all about unity, about praying together. It’s about awareness of the day,” said Looking Crow as he and Clement laid out sage, sweet-grass, turkey feathers for smudging, and a large bag of tobacco for prayers. He motioned to the grass beneath him, where yellowjackets buzzed through patches of overgrowth. “This is our church.”
This year’s celebration came almost 15 months after the city’s Board of Education, which recognizes Indigenous Peoples’ Day, voted to change the name of Christopher Columbus Family Academy on Blatchley Avenue. The City of New Haven does not yet recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day; alders voted on “Italian Heritage Day” instead last September.
For over two hours, attendees approached a communal mic with the same message: We’re still here. We always have been. And we’re going to keep resisting.
Every Friday in October, all movies start at 7:30 p.m. at Town Center Park, 2761 Dixwell Ave., Hamden, 06518.
The Hamden Recreation Department, in partnership with the Hamden Town Center Park Commission and Hamden Police Department, announces a special Drive-In Movie Series inside Town Center Park this October!
The Drive-In Movie Series will take place Friday nights, Oct. 8 thru Oct. 29 on the 40 ft. “Big Screen” and is geared towards families, teens and couples of all ages! Limited concession vendors will be on-site, though families are encouraged to bring a meal to share in their vehicles. At this time, no picnic-style seating is available at the venue – only vehicles will have access to movie sound.
Attendees are encouraged to arrive early to secure a parking spot. Please be sure to follow directions from volunteers as they assist with your parking. As Town Center Park is relatively flat, parking rows will be staggered to provide the best possible viewing angles. Attendees should enter through the Hamden Middle School and continue into Town Center Park via the access road.
The Drive-In Movie Series will run every Friday night with the following schedule:
Oct. 8 Jurassic Park (Original)
Oct. 15 Hocus Pocus
Oct. 22 Tyler Perry’s BOO!
Oct. 29 The Sixth Sense
All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. Grab a free “goody bag” from the Hamden police department on October 29.
A partnership between the City of New Haven’s Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism and the Arts Council of GNHV with funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. Eligible individuals and organizations will be able to request up to $2,500 for community-based arts and cultural initiatives taking place within the City of New Haven now through September 2022.
Go to www.newhavenarts.org/grants for information and online application forms. Applications are available in English and Spanish.
Want more information? Contact Megan Manton at the Arts Council of Greater New Haven: [email protected], (203) 772-2788.
