Category: Events

Hundreds of Volunteers to Make Up 11th annual ‘I Heart New Haven Day’ June 6

Bridges of Hope is a group of diverse New Haven area churches from across denominational, social, and cultural lines that have agreed to come together as one to serve the New Haven community as members of the community.

This year we are organizing the 11th annual “I Heart New Haven Day” which will take place on June 6, 2026. The goal is to serve the city through over 27 different projects with over 250 volunteers participating from Christian Tabernacle Baptist Church, Church on the Rock, Vox Church, Trinity Baptist Church, Christ Presbyterian Church, All Nations Church, St John’s Episcopal Church, CT Korean
Presbyterian Church, Elm City Vineyard, International Church at Yale and several other churches.

This is the 11th anniversary of coming together to build partnerships, serve immediate needs and give back to the city our volunteers know and love. People know these volunteers as the “blue shirts,” but they are also residents, public servants and leaders in the city. The day will begin at 9am on the New Haven Green with words of encouragement from the pastors of the churches and then the volunteers will be sent off to their projects to serve from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Here is a glimpse of sites we will be serving across the city. A full and comprehensive list can be supplied upon request

Examples of sites this year include:
● Organizing donations at Columbus House
● Landscaping and painting for elderly community members
● Landscaping and painting at local public schools (Hill Central, Fair Haven, Clinton Avenue and more)
● Painting at Loaves & Fishes, Christian Community Action, Amistad Catholic Worker
● Creating Gratitude cards with kids in the neighborhood…and more!

America 250: Democracy at a Crossroads

International Festival of Arts and Ideas event

Come to the New Haven Museum, 114 Whitney Ave., on Sunday, June 7!

From 1-2 p.m., hear an eye-opening conversation about democracy, power, and resilience. Democracy Under Pressure: What History Tells Us. What does history actually tell us about the moment we’re living in? Join three of America’s most compelling historians: Elizabeth Hinton, Joanne Freeman, and Beverly Gage — for an eye-opening conversation about democracy, power, and resilience. Reserve a seat at https://www.artidea.org/event/2026/5859.

Then from 2:15-3:15 p.m., you can take part in the workshop Your Voice Belongs Here: How Everyday People Make Change, led by Connecticut lobbyist and former legislative staffer Aurora Melita. In a moment when many people feel concerned about the future of democracy, this interactive Civic 101 workshop offers a practical and empowering starting point. This session breaks down how the legislative process works at the state level — and where everyday voices meaningfully influence public decision-making.  Drawing from her work inside the Connecticut legislature and on state elections, Aurora translates complex systems into clear, conversational explanations that help people feel confident navigating and participating in civic life. Reserve a seat at https://www.artidea.org/event/2026/5860.

From 3:30-4:30 p.m., consider UnCivil Uprising: Can a General Strike Save Democracy. Jack Hitt and Chenjerai Kumanyika, the hosts of the Peabody Award-winning podcast Uncivil ask the question nobody in power wants you to consider:  Can a general strike save  American  democracy?  The most powerful weapon against fascism might be the one we’ve nearly forgotten. To reserve a seat, go to https://www.artidea.org/event/2026/5861. See more Arts and Ideas events at https://www.artidea.org/calendar.

The New Haven Museum is wheelchair-accessible.

Artists for World Peace: SEEING IS BELIEVING afternoon event on May 16, Middletown

JOIN Artists for World Peace (AFWP) as they Celebrate taking care of their 9,394th patient on Tribal Land since bringing our free eye clinics home from Tanzania.

Artists for World Peace lead optometrist, Dr. Soroush Azadi, will speak, along with lead optician Ray Dennis, who also helped open the first clinic in the AFWP Free Health Center in Tanzania 14 years ago.

Dr. Aarlan Aceto will discuss working with children on Rosebud Reservation and will discuss the genetic disorder we discovered is prominent in the eyes of tribal members on the Rosebud Reservation.

Brenda Geer will share the opening of two AFWP free clinics in our home state of Connecticut for the Eastern Pequot and Western Pequot Nations, as well as the Narragansett Tribal Nation in Rhode Island. Brenda has been a long-standing Council Member of the Eastern Pequot Nation, and is a historian of her people’s history.

The Padre Pio Foundation of America will co-host.

In Peace,
Wendy and our AFWP Family

May Day / International Workers’ Day, Friday May 1

Unidad Latina en Acción and the May Day Strong coalition are rallying for May Day on the New Haven Green on Friday, May 1 from noon till 7 p.m., with a march at 5 p.m.

DAY WITHOUT IMMIGRANTS – GENERAL STRIKE! Join us on Friday, May 1,  May Day – International Workers’ Day – on the New Haven Green, for a powerful day of action and community in New Haven!

CALL TO ACTION:

No Work! No School!
No Shopping!

Come be part of a day filled with music, speakers, festival activities, community tabling.

Stand in solidarity, raise your voice, and support immigrant communities!

Friday, May 1, noon till 7 p.m. March at 5 p.m.

Contact: call 475-323-9413, or email: newhavenmayday@gmail.com. Also see maydaystrong.org.

May Day Is Our Day! 

May Day Is Our Day!  Celebrate and Unite Around Demands to Meet Our Needs! Tax the Rich – No Ice – No Wars – Hands Off Our Vote

CT People’s World

Friday May 1 in Hartford at the Capitol 10 a.m. to noon.

Friday May 1 in New Haven on the Green. Noon tabling, 4 p.m. speeches,

5 p.m. March!

Then come together on Saturday, May 2 at 6 p.m. hosted by CT People’s World at 267 Chapel St. (Teachers Union Hall) for a May Day Around the World rally.

WORKING CLASS UNITY  From the Streets to the Polls

UNIDAD DE LA CLASE TRABAJADORA 

De las Calles a las Urnas

Saturday May 2  CT People’s World May Day rally: WORKING CLASS UNITY – From the Streets to the Polls 6 p.m. at 267 Chapel St., New Haven. Refreshments.     May Day Around the World slide show. Greetings. Songs. Contributions accepted. Sign up here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/ctpw2026mayday/

US-Mexico Border and Race Symposium

by Michelle Zacks, Associate Director, Gilder Lehrman Center

Scheduled for Saturday, May 2, this is a one-day symposium at Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave., free and open to the public, called The US-Mexico Border and Race, Past and Present. It is organized by the Gilder Lehrman Center in close collaboration with GLC Associate Research Scholar, Dr. Melissa Torres (Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley). The symposium features a keynote address by Prof. Sonia Hernandez (Texas A&M), followed by two panel discussions and a break-out Q&A session for K-12 teachers. Continental breakfast and lunch will be served, as well as afternoon snacks and beverages.

The program was conceived as a follow-up to the Yale and Slavery project, and the various projects at Yale focusing on the university’s and New Haven’s key roles in the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. This program will follow that thread by focusing on the xenophobia and white supremacist ideas that have long been embedded in U.S. immigration policy broadly and in the construction and policing of the US-Mexico border in particular. Speakers will connect the histories of violent, racialized border control policies with the contemporary violence of ICE raids, warrantless detention, family separation, concentration camps, deportation, and foreign imprisonment. They also will address how communities within the borderlands continue to develop creative modes to survive and resist these exclusionary forces.

We hope you can join us for this important conversation. For more information, for the full schedule for the day, and to register, please go to bit.ly/4tZBkcu.

Author Talk — Radical Connecticut: People’s History In the Constitution State

by New Haven Free Public Library

On Thursday, May 14, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., author Andy Piascik will discuss his new book Radical Connecticut: People’s History In The Constitution State, in the community program room of the Ives Main Library, 133 Elm Street, New Haven.

Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better.

Bridgeport native Andy Piascik is a long-time activist and award-winning writer whose work has appeared in many publications and on many websites. He is the author of the novel In Motion. Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State is his fourth book. 

The Groundwater Approach: Building a Practical Understanding of Structural Racism, March 27 9 a.m.-noon

As part of its ongoing work to advance racial equity throughout the region, The Foundation is offering free community access to The Groundwater Approach, a racial equity workshop that builds an understanding of systemic racism and racial disparities through data and historical analysis.

The Groundwater metaphor is designed to help people internalize the reality that we live in a racially-structured society, and that is what causes racial inequity. The metaphor is based on three observations:

  • Racial inequity looks the same across systems,
  • Socio-economic difference does not explain the racial inequity; and,
  • Inequities are caused by systems, regardless of people’s culture or behavior.

The workshop is provided by the Racial Equity Institute, a national alliance of trainers, organizers and institutional leaders devoted to creating racially equitable organizations and systems.

Note: Workshop sessions are not recorded.

Wherever you are in your journey to understand the roots and persistence of racial inequality, the Confronting Racism planning group at CMI, who have all attended this workshop, can attest that you will find participation worthwhile.

There is no charge for participants. Please see Leon Bailey’s invitation and more information below

https://www.cfgnh.org/events/the-groundwater-approach-racial-equity-workshop

 

Film & Panel Discussion: ‘The Day Iceland Stood Still’, 5-7:30 p.m. March 11

The Psychology Department at SCSU invites you to a viewing of the documentary, The Day Iceland Stood Still, followed by a panel discussion about gender equity and women’s rights at 5 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at the Adanti Student Center – Theater.

Panelists include the writer/director of the film, the chair of the Women’s & Gender Studies Department at SCSU, and a local woman who attended the strike in 1975. Moderated by Adjunct Professor Laura Noe, who teaches the Psychology of Women.

The Day Iceland Stood Still tells the story of the Oct. 24, 1975, strike when 90% of the women in Iceland did not go to work to demonstrate the impact they have on the economy. For 50 years, they have led the world in gender equity, and their government leaders are all women, as are 48% of their parliament.

After we watch the documentary, we will have a panel discussion. Three panelists will join us: Pam Hogan, writer and director of The Day Iceland Stood Still; Dr. Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, Taiwanese feminist scholar and chair of Women’s & Gender Studies at SCSU; and Hanna Luden, who attended the strike with her mom in 1975.

Protecting Children from ICE 7-9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20

Protecting Children from ICE
Hosted by Yale Undergraduates for Unicef
Yale Undergraduates for UNICEF invite you to Protecting Children From ICE, a fundraising conference focused on how ongoing ICE raids are impacting children and what we can do to support and protect them. Join students, advocates, and community partners for an evening of learning, dialogue, and action.
Friday, February 20th
7 – 9 PM
William L. Harkness Hall, Room 119
100 Wall St, New Haven
Come learn, connect, and contribute to making a difference.
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